Swanage volunteers were rudely awoken at 5.25am one Sunday. Within just 10 minutes both station lifeboats were alongside a sinking vessel

On 9 October 2010, Swanage lifeboat and shore crews had to wake up quickly – in body and mind – in answer to a mayday. It came from just 250m east of the lifeboat station but was none-theless in earnest. A 10m yacht with two people onboard had run aground on Peveril Ledge and was taking on water.

A matter of minutes

Helmsman Gavin Steeden (pictured left) recalls: ‘It was really, really dark – no stars and no Moon.’ The experienced crew members all knew what they had to do. By 5.35am, the Mersey class lifeboat’s search light was illuminating the yacht as the inshore lifeboat manoeuvred into the shallows to get the man and woman off.

Against a wave height of 1m and force 4 north easterly winds, the inshore lifeboat tried to approach the yacht from the south, using the casualty vessel as a shield. But the water was too shallow, so they had to brave exposure to the conditions further east.

They quickly dropped anchor and veered down (reversed in) towards the buffeted yacht. Gavin comments: ‘It was tricky but we’d practised this. I was aware that the boat was going up and down a bit, it was pitch black and I was in bed 10 minutes ago!’

Power cut

Out of the blue, things got tougher for the Helm as the D class lifeboat lost 80% of its engine power. Even when the engine briefly cut out, Gavin kept cool and successfully manoeuvred the lifeboat alongside the yacht.

The damaged yacht had been pushed further up the rocks and was still upright. The deck was now 1m above the lifeboat and the volunteers were conscious of the threat of a large steel anchor hovering over them.

With the noise of waves crashing on the rocks, it took the shouts of Crew Member John Deas to get through to the people on the yacht. At 5.53am, in the darkness, the pair jumped onto the lifeboat, as Gavin explains: ‘They were keen to get off, and pretty sprightly.’

Instead of fighting with limited power to get the casualties to the relative comfort of the all-weather lifeboat, the crew headed directly for their slipway with the heavy sea behind them. A couple of huge waves crashed over them, quite shocking the rescuees, but they were back on dry land.

The engine now regained full power so the lifeboatmen returned to the yacht in case she could be saved. In the early light of day Gavin could distinguish that ‘the rocks had punched a great big hole in the side of the yacht; it was going to break up and sink'. The crew watched as the yacht was thrown around in the waves and rocks. Clearly it was a lost cause. Gavin comments: ‘We’re not going to risk the crew for the sake of a yacht that is holed already.’ The Helm later joked that he’d been grateful it had been dark when they’d got the two people off: ‘It was almost more scary as it was getting light!’

Meanwhile, in the lifeboat station, the yachtsman was experiencing back pain so the crew called an ambulance. Paramedics examined him and fortunately found no serious injury.

Yacht lost

Once both lifeboats were back at the station, the crews were reluctant to disperse. Mechanic Dave Turnbull reflects: ‘It was sobering to see the boat from our slipway, watching it breaking into pieces.’

The pair who had escaped with their lives watched their craft disintegrate and their property be strewn across the water. With the tide ebbing, some members of the public were scavenging on the rocks but the crew retrieved a few personal belongings for the pair.

Mid-morning the lifeboatmen and women finally left the station and went for a well-earned breakfast at a local café. They never discovered what had gone wrong with the inshore lifeboat engine, which had been fine in training and in checks before and after the service. But people who put their lives at risk need 100% confidence in their vessel so a new engine arrived from Headquarters later the same morning.

History repeats itself

This rescue had a particular resonance with the Swanage crew. On Peveril Ledge in 1875, a brigantine Wild Wave was wrecked and Coastguard Chief Officer John Lose led nine men to rescue four men and a boy. Present-day Mechanic Dave Turnbull comments: ‘It was virtually the same place. We’re effectively doing the same job as they were 135 years ago and it was that rescue that led to the establishment of Swanage Lifeboat Station.’