Lengthy search but no survivors It is an unfortunate fact that some lifeboat services do not result in the rescue of survivors, a result which inevitably has an effect on the lifeboat crews but which does not affect their dedication to the task in hand. One such launch was at Mallaig, when close to midnight on 15 March 1992 the coastguard notified the Mallaig lifeboat station that the commercial fishing vessel Spray was sinking one mile northeast of Sleat Point and requested that the crew should be paged for immediate launch.

On reaching the last reported position of the vessel, no sign of her could be found, and a fleet of 25 craft left Mallaig harbour to help in the search. The station's 52ft Arun class lifeboat The Davina and Charles Matthews Hunter acted in the role of 'on-scene commander' to ensure that a wide search area was completely covered and remained at sea for some 12 hours while the search continued.

Two helicopters were also brought into the search and rescue efforts, and it was one of these which managed to spot the wreck of Spray lying in 30ft of water. Two bodies, a father and his son, were later recovered, one from the shore by the Arun's Y class inflatable and the other from the wreck by a diver using the same inflatable.

The RNLI's chief of operations, Commodore George Cooper, later wrote to the station and crew expressing his 'sincere thanks for their efforts on this sad occasion'..