When a fishing crew drifted close to a rocky coastline, powerless against vicious wind and waves, all their hopes lay with a helicopter crew and lifeboat volunteers

‘With the weather like it was, when the pager went off I thought “this will be an interesting one!”’ recalls Michael England, Mechanic and Deputy Second Coxswain at Padstow Lifeboat Station. It was Saturday 1 February and, in the latest of a series of storms to pound the south west coast, winds gusted to 60mph and 9m waves were building out at sea.

‘All along the north Cornwall coast conditions were treacherous with gale force winds, high tides and heavy rain,’ recalls Martin Bidmead, Watch Manager at Falmouth Coastguard. Richard Pitman, Second Coxswain in charge of the lifeboat that day, agrees: ‘It was pretty horrible, definitely the worst we’ve been out in in a long time.’

In the midst of the unforgiving weather and sea, a French trawler, Le Sillon, lost all power and steering. She and her crew were drifting 5 miles off Trevose Head, heading perilously close to the rocky coastline. A more immediate danger was the series of large waves that hit the trawler, smashing its windows and injuring the skipper.

Richard and his crew launched their all-weather lifeboat Spirit of Padstow just after 4pm. In more benign weather, reaching the scene would have taken just 15 minutes. But, battling the winds and swell, it took almost an hour. And, in the fading light and worsening conditions, the hard work was just beginning.

Despite the heaving, rolling seas the volunteer crew managed to pass a tow rope to the trawler and set about towing it north west to clear the land. ‘The plan was to keep going on this course until conditions improved,’ says Michael. ‘But the swell was just too big and before long the tow rope parted.’

With the trawler at the mercy of the elements, it was once again driven towards the rocks. Richard knew the situation was serious: ‘We needed to get the crew off, but it was too dangerous for us to bring the lifeboat close enough to try and reach them.’

A Sea King search and rescue helicopter from the naval base at RNAS Culdrose was also on hand, but the pilot could see it was too risky to lower a winchman actually on to the pitching trawler. So there was no alternative for the six men but to don survival suits, jump into the waves, and hope to be winched up from the sea.

As the joint rescue unfolded out in the Atlantic, it was being carefully coordinated over the airwaves by a complex relay of messages. ‘The trawler crew were calling on a mobile phone to the French coastguard, who were conversing with Falmouth Coastguard, who were then talking to us and the helicopter!’ says Richard. ‘Our role was to stand off in case the winchman wasn’t able to pick them up. I held the lifeboat very close in and we were watching all the time.’

Video footage from the lifeboat (see top right and the link at the end of this article) shows the frightening scene facing casualties and rescuers alike. Illuminated by the spotlights of the helicopter, the trawler lurches sickeningly as her six crew jump one by one into the cold, churning waves.

The small figure pictured moving above them on the winch is Petty Officer Aircrewman Russ ‘Patch’ Adams: ‘I was swinging around a lot and on some of the lifts I was dragged along the wave tops and underwater. It did seem we were working at the limits.’

With five men winched to safety, the final person to jump was the trawler’s skipper. But, as he swam round the bow, he got caught up in the swell. The helicopter Pilot, Commander Dickie Calhaem, lost his point of reference: ‘[The skipper] disappeared off into the blackness,’ he recalls. The winchman also couldn’t be sure where the casualty was either. Time was running out.

Ready and watching at the trawler’s stern, the lifeboat crew responded immediately. They had kept their eye on the skipper and quickly drew up close enough to reach him. Pulling him aboard was a tough task in the unforgiving waves – but they did it. The volunteers checked him over and bandaged his foot, which had been cut by the wave-shattered glass earlier that day. All six fishermen had now been saved. The crew of the Spirit of Padstow could begin the slow journey home – but the challenges of the evening were not yet over.

‘It was too rough to go into Padstow and at one point we weren’t sure whether we could recover the lifeboat up the station slipway,’ explains Richard. After more than 6 hours at sea, the exhausted crew were forced to stand-off and wait for a lull in the weather before finally reaching the station.

Richard is full of admiration for the combined efforts of his crew: ‘All seven of the volunteer lifeboat crew did a brilliant job; they are all very experienced and knew what they were doing. It was a difficult rescue for all involved. At the end of the day everyone survived – and that’s the main thing.’