On a squally November night, time was rapidly running out for a fisherman in the water in Fraserburgh Harbour

It was quick thinking, forward planning and great teamwork by the local lifeboat crew that saved his life. Added to this was the courage of two young crew members, who braved the water to bring him back to safety.

Duty Coxswain Victor Sutherland was at home on the evening of Monday 8 November 2010 when he received a call at 9pm to be told that a fisherman had fallen overboard in the harbour. Owing to a communications failure, the man was thought to have been in the water for at least 10 minutes before this call was made.

The fisherman wore only jeans and a T-shirt and no lifejacket. At that time of year, with a water temperature of 7°C, he would have been unable to maintain consciousness for much longer than half an hour. Even after a short time in cold water, muscle functions are quickly impaired making it very difficult for casualties to do anything to help themselves.

Earlier that day, the Trent class lifeboat Willie and May Gall had been moved into the town’s inner harbour to protect her from damage due to near gale force 7 winds. On receiving the call out, some crew headed for the station while others raced straight to the harbour and started up the boat’s engines.

Realising that time was of the essence Victor instructed Jason Flett (22) and Charles Cumming (18) to don drysuits in case they had to enter the water. They then ran a quarter of a mile to the lifeboat’s temporary mooring and still managed to make it to the casualty within 10 minutes of the call out.

The man’s cries as he fell had alerted fishermen on neighbouring vessels who came to his aid, passing ropes and trying to drag him onboard. After failing to get him over the high sides of a boat, they had dragged him towards steps on the harbour wall.

However, since it was low tide this would have meant an 8m climb for the casualty and in Victor’s words: ‘It would have been nearly impossible to achieve that.’ Had the man remained in the water he would either have succumbed to hypothermia or been crushed by the fishing vessels against the side of the harbour wall. ‘He was very, very lucky that he managed to hang on that long,’ said the Coxswain.

A web of mooring lines from the quayside to the fishing boats would have delayed the lifeboat's progress but Crew Members Albert Sutherland and Colin McLeman, who had rushed straight to the harbour, had the quickthinking to clear these out of the way.

Unfortunately, the rescue team still couldn’t get close enough, so the crew in drysuits were instructed to jump in with safety lines and bring him back. Both these young men had been on the crew for less than a year.

While the man was recovered, the A-frame and first aid equipment were readied onboard. In cases of immersion hypothermia, A-frames are important as they allow casualties to be lifted out of the water horizontally. If someone has been in cold water for some time and is then lifted vertically, it can put great pressure on the heart and circulatory system, sometimes resulting in sudden death.

Once safely aboard, the casualty was wrapped in blankets and given oxygen. He was drifting in and out of consciousness and had swallowed large amounts of water so he was taken by ambulance to hospital in Aberdeen.

Fraserburgh is the largest shellfish port in Europe as well as hosting one of the largest whitefish fleets. Many of the town’s boats head to fishing grounds far out to sea so the lifeboat can be called as far as 75 miles offshore.

The dangerous conditions of the North Sea mean that the town has seen many casualties including the loss of 13 lifeboatmen in the station’s 152 years of operation. Last year a local campaign raised £40,000 to erect a memorial to these men.

Jason, who works as an exhaust and tyre engineer, had become a crew member at the start of last year. He described the situation as having been nerveracking because it was dark and difficult to see.

Charles, a marine engineer, had only joined the crew in June. Asked how he felt when ordered into the water, he says: ‘I just went into autopilot. We had to do what we had to do.’ He explains: 'I had joined the RNLI in memory of my great grandfather Andrew Ritchie who was one of six Fraserburgh lifeboatmen to lose their lives in 1953.'

Speaking of his crew, Victor says: ‘I can’t commend the guys enough. It was a difficult situation with a lot of stress, people calling from the quayside and the time being so short.’ In the words of RNLI Operations Director Michael Vlasto in a Letter of Appreciation: ‘There is no doubt that this man owes his life to the actions of all those involved at Fraserburgh Lifeboat Station.’