8 minute read
HOLDING ON
A mayday changes Dover lifeboat’s course, calling the crew to a rescue that will test their skills to the limit …
As a new crew member, Dover RNLI volunteer Panda keeps a journal of every shout. ‘I don’t want to forget anything that I’m seeing or learning,’ she explains. The entry for 13 August 2023 – her fifth shout – is one she’ll never forget.
The pagers had sounded in the early hours. By 3.40am, Dover’s Severn class lifeboat City of London II was steaming out into the English Channel – one of the world's busiest shipping lanes – with Volunteer Coxswain Lee in command. The crew were on their way to save 68 men, women and children, who were stranded in an overcrowded small boat lurching through the swell.
By 4.50am, everyone was safe onboard the lifeboat, heading for port. Dawn was starting to break when a mayday call crackled over the radio. More people needed help, urgently.
‘All we knew was a boat had gone down, there were people in the water and we had their position,’ says Lee. Not long after, the skipper of a nearby ship made contact. They’d reached the scene and relayed that people in the water were clinging to a deflated RIB (rigid inflatable boat). Some were holding onto a liferaft deployed by the ship. Others were starting to drift away on the tide.
‘As coxswain I had to take a moment,’ says Lee. ‘How are we going to reach every one and protect my crew? It feels like minutes, but in reality it’s a few seconds to slow everything down and make a plan.’
‘As coxswain I had to take a moment. How are we going to reach every one and protect my crew?’
First, he got the crew to reassure the 68 people from the first rescue and calmly move them from the deck down into the survivor cabin. Lee explains: ‘It gives the lifeboat better stability when you’re using it as a platform to recover people, and everyone has more room to manoeuvre on deck.’
Next, he got the crew to prepare all the rescue kit onboard. ‘I knew from the mass rescue exercises we’ve done, it’s counterintuitive: you don’t want to bring the lifeboat in too close at first. You can get stuck, unable to move without endangering people or snagging on debris,’ he says.
‘The priority is to stay back and throw rescue kit instead. When you’ve got groups of casualties scattered over 400 yards with people drifting away, you don’t want to lose sight of them. The kit gives them something to hold, but it also creates a visual scatter pattern so you can track where they’re drifting.’
Arriving on scene, the first thing that hit the crew was the noise. ‘You hear everyone shouting and screaming, terrified they’re going to drown,’ says Lee. ‘That sensory overload risks overwhelming the team. So it’s my job to make sure everyone knows what they can do to help. Meet the noise with an answer.’
Crew Member Carl recalls the chaos that met them: ‘There were people and debris everywhere.’ The coxswain’s plan helped them make sense of it all. The crew threw inflatable horseshoes – small packages that inflate into floats when they hit the water – liferings and lifebuoys. The crew worked in an arc, making sure each person had something to hold onto, then moving on.
‘We have a big inflatable ring that’s adapted from the ones used by airlines. It can take about 30 people,’ says Carl. ‘I threw it to the largest group who’d been gripping what was left of the collapsing RIB. It was reassuring to see something fill that gap, to see people swimming towards it.’
The kit had bought them time. Lee could assess the scene and prioritise the people drifting furthest away. ‘There were three we saved on the outskirts of the scene – without a doubt, they’d have been lost if we’d prioritised differently,’ he says.
From the upper steering position, Lee now carefully manoeuvred the lifeboat closer to the groups so the crew could haul people onboard. Some were using the A-frame to winch casualties up. Others were heaving people over the lifeboat’s high rails.
Carl clipped on his safety line and climbed down the scramble net hanging from the side of the lifeboat, to help exhausted people out of the water.
‘Because their arms and legs were so cold, they’d just stopped working. People were getting close to the lifeboat and starting to slip under the water, some barely conscious. So I had to get to water level to keep them afloat and push them up to the other crew,’ he says. ‘I was shattered. But the adrenaline overrides everything.’
‘I’m holding onto him thinking: “If I let him go, he’s not going to survive”’
Panda, Martyn and Paul were also heaving people aboard. Panda recalls: ‘I’ll never forget one man. He’s grey with cold, his eyes desperate. I’m holding onto him thinking: “If I let him go, he’s not going to survive. I have this amazing responsibility to save this man.” Paul helps me get him onboard. Everyone we’re saving is collapsing in relief and gratitude. We just have to get them clear, move on to the next.’
On the volunteers went, pulling people aboard, quickly moving them to the wheelhouse to make room for more people on deck. Michael was on the bow, helping to keep casualties calm. Two people were saved just in time by French navy swimmers on a RIB.
After a final search of the area by the crews of the lifeboat and the nearby ship, both boats’ skippers headed for port. The crew had done everything they could. They'd saved 19 people from the water. With several casualties in a serious condition, they made best speed for Dover.
‘They were so cold,’ remembers Panda. ‘One man’s feet were resting on my knees, and I could feel the cold through all my layers of kit.’ Carl, an apprentice with the ambulance service, worked with fellow volunteers Dave and Panda to keep casualties in the wheelhouse awake, try to warm them up and maintain the airways of those who were losing consciousness.
Meanwhile, the coxswain had a new challenge to contend with. ‘We’re steaming across the shipping lanes when the engine alarm goes off,’ says Lee. Mechanic Paul picked his way through the crowded wheelhouse and survivor space to find the cause. The port engine had lost all coolant.
On just the starboard engine City of London II carried on at around 10–12 knots, less than half its top speed. The lifeboat was navigating the south-west-bound shipping lane – the nautical equivalent of trying to cross a motorway at a snail’s pace.
‘So I’ve got this almighty container ship bearing down on us,’ Lee says. To avoid a collision, he had to turn the lifeboat 90 degrees, so it was now parallel with the container ship’s path. The ship passed the lifeboat on its starboard side and Lee could steer round its stern.
‘I’ve got this almighty container ship bearing down on us’
‘It hits home how vulnerable people in small boats are,’ Lee reflects. ‘I understand the risks and the rules of the road. Imagine trying to navigate that situation in a small boat, unprepared. It’s terrifying.’
Once back at Dover, all the casualties were passed safely to waiting emergency services.
‘It was a bit unreal when we came back,’ says Panda. ‘Then as we got changed I remembered what was under my crew kit. I’d been to see Barbie with the girls the night before, and was still wearing Barbie-pink pyjamas when I answered the pager. Suddenly we’re all laughing,’ she smiles. ‘It was a heavy rescue. But it’s those “everyday” moments that help to ground you afterwards, to process and cope, to bond as a crew.’
Coxswain Lee and all six crew members are receiving the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum for this rescue. The Dover crew emphasise that there are other lifeboat crews saving lives in the Channel too. RNLI volunteers have answered the call from anyone in danger at sea for the past 200 years.
‘It’s the human details I remember,’ concludes Panda. ‘Families telling me about their pets back home. A mum emptying the water from her child’s welly boots. We’re meeting humans at their most desperate moment and taking them out of that place. It’s a privilege.’
Training for life
Exercises with crews saving lives in the Channel are helping to develop new techniques and equipment for rescuing multiple people in the water. Working with lifeguards as ‘casualties’, teams can test ideas in a controlled environment, and understand the different factors at play.
As this story shows, the findings are saving lives. They’re also being shared with lifesavers around the UK and Ireland – and the world – with broad applications for scenarios like ferry or aviation disasters.
‘What we’ve learned and developed together made such a difference on this rescue,’ reflects Coxswain Lee. ‘It gave me the confidence to process the scene and think, OK, I’ve seen this before. I know what did and didn’t work. I know what to do.’
Words: Philly Byrde
Photos: Matman Photography/Dover Media Group/Dover RNLI, RNLI/(Nigel Millard, Nathan Williams), Shutterstock, Ollie Thrall, Pete Watson/Dover RNLI
