Great Yarmouth and Gorleston RNLI volunteer crew called out twice in one day

The station's Trent class lifeboat Samarbeta was then launched at 3.58pm to reports of an injured crewman on a Dutch fishing Vessel.

The first shout of the day saw the Atlantic 75 inshore lifeboat (ILB) tasked to reports of a person in the water close to Lowestoft, due to the shallow waters the inshore lifeboat was launched to assist.

The ILB proceeded to the location given by UK Coastguard and once on scene, the person was being assessed by Suffolk Police and local coastguard teams.

The ILB was then stood down and returned to station with a short break before the next launch request.

The Trent was launched around an hour and a half later to reports of an injured crewman on board a Dutch fishing vessel. Original reports came in that they were 13 nautical miles away, but this later changed to 10 miles due east of Corton.

The Trent proceeded to meet the fishing vessel which was heading inbound for Lowestoft, to get the fisherman to hospital. Once on scene the all-weather lifeboat (ALB) had 3m swells to compete with to try and get alongside the fishing vessel to get the lifeboat crewman on board.

The crewman once on board, assessed the injury, which was a serious wound to the fisherman’s index finger, where it had got trapped in a net.

Due to the nature of the injury the best course of action was to get the fisherman to hospital.

Whilst the charity's crewman was on board assessing the injury, the ALB held off the fishing vessel and then had to negotiate the weather and fishing equipment to proceed to come alongside to pick up both the crewman and the fisherman who had limited mobility due to his injury.

The ALB then proceeded back to the station where they were met by the local Gorleston Coastguard Team and then was taken to the James Paget Hospital.

The RNLI wishes the fisherman a speedy recovery.

RNLI Media contacts

For more information please contact RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer, Kim Platford on: 07907 360588.

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

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