Across the mud LATE ON THE NIGHT OF TUESDAY JULY 1, 1986, the owners of Fitzworth Farm, on the south side of Poole Harbour could hear cries for help coming from across the water to the west. They immediately rang the police and coastguard who in turn alerted Poole lifeboat station and Swanage mobile rescue unit. The weather was fine with little wind but it was a very dark and moonless night.The tide had been ebbing for an hour and a half.

By 2331 both of Poole's lifeboats, the 33ft Brede class Inner Wheel, and a relief 16ft D class inflatable on temporary duty, had slipped their moorings.

Inner Wheel headed east and south of Brownsea Island up the Wych Channel until it became too shallow to go any further. She then anchored and stayed where she was until the service was completed.

The inflatable lifeboat, manned by Helmsman David Coles and Crew Members Steven Vince and Raymond Collin, headed westward, approaching the Arne Peninsula from the north east.

Swanage mobile rescue unit Land Rover had in the meantime driven to where the farm owners had raised the alarm and were able to confirm the general area from which weak cries could still be heard.

Helmsman Coles drove the lifeboat on through the Upper Wych Channel, west of Round Island, into ever shallower water. His only illumination took the form of two hand-held searchlights and after some 15 minutes he shut down the outboard engine to try to hear the direction of the cries. It was 2345 when the crew agreed that they were coming from a small point of marshland nearly a mile due west of Fitzworth Point.

David Coles then drove the lifeboat on to the mud, about 70 yards from the shore. Crew Member Steven Vince climbed out of the boat and into the mud, taking with him a portable radio and one of the searchlights. He found himself up to his knees and as he struggled towards the reed-lined shore he sank sometimes to his waist.

It was a minute before midnight when Vince reported that he had found two teenagers, a girl and a boy. The boy was in a very weak and hypothermic state and could not make it back without help. Crew Member Raymond Collin had by now also made his way through the mud to the shore and he and Steven Vince began trying to carry the boy while the girl followed them. The effort was too great, however, with each of them continually falling into the mud.

Helmsman Coles made a call for helicopter assistance but the nearest machine was an hour and a half away in South Wales, too long to wait in view of the boy's failing health. All the time Coles was working to keep the lifeboat afloat on the falling tide but at 0015 he drove the boat high and dry so as to reduce the distance between him and the shore.

Then the idea occurred to him of taking out the rubber mattress from the bottom of the lifeboat and using it as a mud sledge. He secured it to the anchor warp and began to drag it towards his crew and the survivors who were some 40 yards away. At one point during this very difficult task he became immersed in the mud to above his waist and was only able to extricate himself by lying face down and gradually pulling his legs to the surface.

When he reached the shore the boy was put aboard the mattress and brought to the lifeboat by Vince and Coles. Collin stayed behind to comfort the girl. Aboard the lifeboat the boy was barely conscious and shivering violently and the crew forced him to talk to them to keep him alert. The helmsman was loath to leave the girl butknew he had to get the boy ashore without delay. He requested an ambulance to meet the lifeboat at the Royal Marine jetty a mile and a half away; this was the nearest guaranteed night access.

The lifeboat had first to be manhandled for about 100 yards back into the water before passage could begin to the jetty.

By 0040 the boy was safely aboard the ambulance and eight minutes later the inflatable lifeboat, having first called at the anchored Inner Wheel for blankets, returned to pick up the girl who herself was now very cold. Again, by using the mattress, she was put aboard the lifeboat and after dragging the lifeboat once more across the mud to the water, the three crew members climbed aboard and set off for the Royal Marine jetty.

When the girl had been landed to a second ambulance the lifeboat returned to station where for the next hour the crew were cleaning the mud off themselves, their drysuits and the lifeboat equipment. It was 0330 before they could finally report the lifeboat ready again for service.

Following this service the thanks of the Institution on vellum were accorded to Helmsman David Coles and Crew Members Steven Vince and Raymond Collin..