A selection of lifeboat services from around the country Wells East Division Three saved .from stranded vessel Aservice to a fishing vessel in gale force winds, darkness, shallow water and heavy breaking seas has earned Wells lifeboat station a letter of commendation from the Institution's Chairman.

On 17 November 1996 the fishing vessel Remus lost power close to Wells harbour in a gale force onshore wind and, at 2000, sent up red flares.

She was being driven into heavy breakers on the west bar and, as the station's Mersey Doris M. Mann ofAmpthillmade her way out of the harbour Coxswain Graham Walker could see the heavy breakers to the west where she lay.

Easing back to negotiate the mass of confused seas the lifeboat crossed the bar, clearing the shallow water to gain enough room to turn to the west.

Graham Walker realised that the only way in to Remus was across the western end of the bar, coming back to her on an easterly heading.

Caution Reaching a safe place to re-cross the bar the coxswain turned south through the heavy breaking seas and then ran back inside it. Great caution was needed in the very shallow water, beam-on to the seas which were breaking right over the lifeboat.

Remus was aground in the shallows with waves breaking over her and, as her radio was out of action Coxswain Walker asked that the station's waterproof launching tractor go to the scene so that they could at least communicate with the three men aboard if the casualty was driven further ashore.

The Mersey came head to sea a few cables away from Remus but it was very difficult to hold her in position. When the news came that a helicopter could not arrive for another 45 minutes Graham said: 'At this point we realised it was up to us'.

Control The lifeboat moved out to sea a little and, with seas still breaking over her foredeck, anchored ready to veer back down towards the fishing boat. With the anchor holding it was easier to keep the lifeboat under control - if 'easier' is the right word when anchored off a lee shore in breaking seas and a full gale with only 18in of water showing on the echo sounder.

Attempts to float aline down to Remus had failed, so the tractor went in as close as possible to shout to the crew of the casualty to keep clear while a line was fired from the lifeboat. The rocket line was perfectly judged, landing upwind of the casualty so that the lifeboatmen on shore could ease it down wind until the survivors hauled it aboard.

Lifeboat crew members ashore then waded to the casualty, took off one survivor and helped secure the tow line. The lifeboat was now faced with the problem of retrieving the anchor. It could not be buoyed and slipped as the Mersey would not be be able to avoid the warp as she moved off, so it had to be recovered.

With waves breaking over the foredeck the crew carefully retrieved the anchor cable as the tow was slackened and Coxswain Walker took the weight of the tow - holding the casualty in position for about 15 minutes while the flooding tide refloated her.

Coxswain Walker wasn't certain of the depth over the higher West Sands which lay across the most direct route to the harbour, so he had to creep along inside the bar, beam-on to the breakers, to find a suitable point to cross it.

'I remembered watching the flood many times from the boathouse,' said Graham later, 'and there always appeared to be a low point in the west bar, if only I could find it.' Beam-ends And find it he did, spotting the tell-tale grey area in the dark and moving cautiously through it, with less than 1 Sin showing on the echo sounder.

Heading seaward brought no respite from the breakers, so lifeboat and tow turned across the seas towards the channel entrance buoy, heading up into the biggest of the breakers.

Almost inevitably a larger than usual sea reared up, throwing the lifeboat completely on her beam ends. Moments later the same happened to the casualty - her mast head light touching the water and the lifeboat crew fearing she would not recover.

Choosing their moment the lifeboat began the run in to the harbour, with the Second Coxswain shouting when to ease off ( and when to open up to minimise the strain on the tow in the large seas.

Even then the dramas weren't over, for the weight on the line pulled out the casualty's sampson post.

Fortunately the line was also secured to the stem head, so the tow could continue and Remus was eventually put safely alongside in the harbour at 2215.

Oban Scotland Division New birth for Oban lifeboat! Oban's new Trent had been on service for less than three weeks when her services were first officially recognised - by the naming of a baby! The Trent, Mora Edith Macdonald, received her 'award' as a result of a service on 5 August 1997, when the station received a call at 0455 from the Coastguard asking the lifeboat to transfer an expectant mother from the Isle of Mull to Oban.

The lifeboat embarked a midwife and incubator and went to sea at 0536, in calm conditions, to make an 0615 rendezvous with an ambulance at Craigmure. On the way she received another message: wait at Craigmure for further instructions.

The patient's labour was well advanced and the doctor was at first undecided on the best course of action, but by 0800 the patient was safely aboard the lifeboat and bound for Oban.

Mora Edith Macdonald went alongside her berth a little under half-an-hour later, ready to transfer the lady to a waiting ambulance.

It wasn't to be, however. The travelling midwife had decided that labour was too advanced to put the patient ashore -and so at 0901 the Oban crew had the first birth aboard their lifeboats! The crew were delighted to have been of help, summed up by the honorary secretary in the final paragraph of his return of service to headquarters: 'A memorable first for Oban lifeboat crew - the excitement of the birth of Hazel Beth Mora Banner will long be remembered.

It was pleasing for us all that the name Mora was included.' Douglas North Division All in a lather at Douglas… It may have been a fairly straightforward service but there were some interesting sidelines. In the words of Captain Cowell, the station's honorary secretary at Douglas in the Isle of Man: 'At 1055 on Sunday 1 June the lifeboat, having been refuelled, was covered in soap ready to be washed down when I overheard a conversation between Harbour Control, an unidentified yacht and Liverpool MRSC which indicated that there was a serious incident potential. Immediately all washing operations were suspended and the boat restored to sea going condition.

'At 1100 Liverpool MRSC telephoned requesting immediate launch to assist a yacht which, having just left Douglas harbour, lost power before clearing the headland and was being swept by wind and tide on to the rocks underneath the lighthouse.

'At 1103 Sir William Hillary left the slipway looking for all the world like a giant shaving brush as, leaving the slip hook, she gathered speed and a froth of soapy foam blew back from her upperworks. As the hull entered the water the sea surface frothed with soapy residue at the base of the slip and she left behind a trail of buckets and brushes to be collected later from the slipway.

'Rounding the breakwater the 24ft yacht Martlet with four people on board, was immediately visible, now 30m from the rocks and closing fast. The crew seemed to be mesmerised by the breaking water on the rocks and the jerky motion in the short steep seas and declined to leave the safety of the cockpit to connect a tow line. At 1107 the Third Coxswain was landed aboard and quickly secured the line - the tow proceeding at 1109.

'At 1116 lifeboat and casualty under tow entered the harbour and Martlet was released and made fast to the yacht pontoon at 1118.

'On the previous service the lifeboat, towing the casualty Freelance into the inner harbour, had passed Martlet outward bound...' Newquay South Division Three savedjrprn cliffsjn joint rescue effort Lifeboats, a helicopter and a cliff rescue team were called in to save three people who were trapped on steep, slippery cliffs near Newquay in Cornwall on 26 March 1997.

Falmouth Coastguard raised the alarm at 1553, responding to a report that people had been seen waving for help from a cliff face just over a mile to the east of the lifeboat station.

Newquay's D class took only 11 minutes to launch and reach the scene, where they found three surfers who had been washed along the shore, climbed the cliffs and become trapped on a ledge 40ft above the water.

Despite fog and an 8ft swell -which was breaking heavily into the tiny cove -the inflatable was able to find a way in and, while one crew member held the boat steady, the other two waded ashore to help.

One was able to climb up to the trapped men and radio for more help. Unfortunately the nearest helicopter was fog-bound in St Mawgan, but a Coastguard cliff rescue team had already started to make its way to the top of the cliff. One Cliff man was able to descend 180ft, manoeuvre 40ft across an outcrop, move a boulder to re-direct the rope and then drop another 20ft to the casualties and the lifeboatman.

All four were in grave danger of slipping and were secured to the line. At this point another rescue helicopter became available, having finished another task, and flew over to help. Meanwhile another Cliffman went down to the casualties, and one was lowered safely down to the lifeboat crew member waiting below in the heavy breaking seas. He was transferred to the safety of the D class just as the helicopter arrived - having flown in extremely low using direction finding equipment as it had difficulty in finding the exact spot in the fog.

Flying in minimal visibility and about 100ft below the clifftop the helicopter was able to lift the remaining casualties to safety but, with fuel low and the difficult position of the lifeboat in the cove, could not lift the first man back on to the cliff.

By now the Cliffman and the two crew members in the cove were up to their necks in the heavy surf, holding the lifeboat steady.

The D class attempted to head out to sea, being thrown across the cove by a breaker on the first attempt, but finally managing to break out and transfer the casualty to the station's Atlantic which had been waiting offshore.

The Coastguard cliff team were later awarded the Rescue Shield in recognition of their efforts in what Newquay Coastguard's Auxiliary-in-Charge described as: 'the most difficult rescue I have experienced in 17 years'.

A spokesman for Falmouth Coastguard told the Western Morning News: 'the helicopter pilot pulled off a very skilled piece of flying. The lifeboat crews were risking their lives this afternoon to save those three people. Conditions were terrible'.

Eastbourne Eastbourne East Division Crew member overboard and all-weather lifeboat needed to help D class off beach Lone surfer saved in_near gale Eastbourne's D class inflatable saved the life of a surfer on 21 June 1997 in conditions which swamped the lifeboat when launching, threw a crew member overboard and needed the all-weather lifeboat to provide a hauling-off line after beaching on an exposed shore to get the man to a waiting ambulance.

Coastguard John Buckland was turning his Land-Rover around at the end of his watch when he looked out to sea from force of habit and, quite by chance, saw the surfer in difficulties. Using his mobile phone he asked for immediate assistance at 1352 -and the inshore lifeboat was launched at 1358.

With a Force 7 to 8 wind and a 'dumping' surf the launch was difficult, and even using the hauling-off line the D class was filled completely twice.

Once clear of the surf the inflatable headed north-east towards the casualty, who was only about a mile away, as fast as possible in the following sea. About half-way a sea hit the lifeboat as crew member Mark Chesel was using the radio to talk to the coastguard mobile. The boat lurched to port, throwing him overboard. He was recovered unharmed, but winded, and the lifeboat continued towards the surfer.

A few minutes later the lifeboat arrived at the casualty and took him quickly aboard. He was wearing only a pair of shorts and was so cold that he could not feel his legs at all.

His condition was deteriorating rapidly and, as the coastguard mobile had a supply of blankets and had been joined by another lifeboat crew member who was a first-aider, the surfer was landed close to them at the nearest available point. He was taken ashore and kept warm until an ambulance arrived.

With the casualty safe the crew returned to the lifeboat - where it was clear that they would need some help to reposition her clear of some groynes and that she could not be re-launched without some sort of hauling-off line. The all-weather lifeboat was launched while four other crew members went by road to move the inflatable clear of the obstructions.

The station's Mersey, Royal Thames, arrived at 1431 and was carefully manoeuvred as close to the lee shore as was safe. With a shore helper in the water to take the heaving line a tow was successfully attached and the D class given a helping hand through the breakers before both boats returned to station.

The surfer was taken to hospital but released after treatment having had a very close call.

(Top, this page) The surfer is snatched to safety, very cold and frightened...

(above) ... and hauled aboard the lifeboat (above right) He is landed at the closest point next to the coastguard mobile and lifeboat first-aider...

(far right, top)... before being taken to hospital by ambulance.

(far right, bottom) Eastbourne's Mersey, Royal Thames, manoeuvres in as close as she dares to pass a heaving line...

... and (near right) pulls the D class through the surf while the helmsman starts the engine.

Odds and ends...

Not all lifeboat services make the headlines, or even the pages of The Lifeboat Many are almost routine - although these too have a habit of becoming less so when least expected - and some have their humorous side.

Browsing through the newsletter of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Thames Estuary Research Group we discovered that there had been a rash of odd behaviour on the east coast...

• Southend, 11 January 1997. Person wearing little clothing reported behaving strangely on Canvey Island Beach. Launched to investigate with police launch and coastguard mobile. Nothing found.

• Southend, 26 January 1997. Crew mustered and proceeded to boathouse following a mobile phone call from four horseriders lost in thick fog on the mudflats off East Beach, Shoeburyness.

Managed to find their own way ashore before Southend and Sheerness lifeboats launched.

• Southend, 5 February 1997. Launched to assist police and Coastguard who were following a man walking seawards on the mudflats off Southend and were concerned for his safety.

Persuaded to return by the shore party before the lifeboats could get in, the tide being low.

• Clacton, 5 March 1997. Crew members responded to a call from Clacton Pier watchman who reported that a woman was attempting to jump off the pier. They were able to talk the woman down while their colleagues launched the Atlantic in case she jumped. The woman was taken to hospital and later discharged herself, saying she was going to walk into the sea.

The police could not reach her, so the Atlantic was called again and pulled her from the water. All of this happened on a crew training evening.

• Clacton, 22 March 1997. Shortly before 0300 the police reported to the Coastguard that a man was wading out to sea on the beach just below Clacton Hospital and the lifeboat was called. The crew were advised that the man might be injured and went prepared to give first aid. They found the man close inshore in thighdeep water and crew members went overboard to assist him. There was some reluctance on the part of the casualty to accept assistance so it was decided to be patient and wait for an ambulance to arrive. By the time it had arrived the casualty had agreed to go ashore and he was handed over to the police and ambulance staff.

• Few people hearing of the emergency landing of an aircraft at Manchester Airport would realise that the incident had called out two lifeboats...

The aircraft had originally been intending to come down at Speke airport, so both New Brighton and West Kirby lifeboats had been launched in case it came down in the sea.

• Newbiggin lifeboat was called out to a 24ft fishing boat whose engine had failed. She was towed safely back to port. Her name? Happy Returnl.