Clacton RNLI volunteer crews investigate mysterious ‘MAYDAY’ call

At 11.10am while the volunteer crew were carrying out training scenarios, an incomplete distress call of ‘MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY’ was heard over the radios, as well as by UK Coastguard, who monitor Channel 16 for distress calls. There was no further transmission and no response to the Coastguard’s replies to the call.

As all calls of this nature are taken seriously by the coastguard they were able to use the distress calls signal strength to narrow down the search area and called out to other vessels in the area to ascertain what they heard, and hopefully narrow down the search area even further.

With the limited information to hand the coastguard requested Clacton’s Atlantic class lifeboat David Porter MPS to search the area from Clacton Pier to the Naze tower (seven miles along the coastline to the N.East) up to approximately 0.5 miles off the shoreline. Once completed, the volunteer crew searched the Buxey Sands (four miles south of Tower holiday camp, Jaywick), again nothing was found.

During this time the D Class lifeboat Hicks’ Help was searching the shoreline area towards the mouth of the River Blackwater (seven miles along the coastline to the S.West). On reaching the River Blackwater the lifeboat crossed over to the St Peters’ Flats side before returning towards their start position on a parallel track, stopping to investigate any vessel that was at anchor on route. Nothing was found to be amiss.

Once the coastguard was confident the area had been comprehensively searched both lifeboats were stood down to return to station at 1.05pm, where they were washed down and prepared for the next service.

Helm Eddie Vaughan-Chatfield said; ‘We take all distress calls seriously, no matter how vague or incomplete they are, so we would ask that anyone making one in error please send a cancel message to let everyone know you are ok.’ Mr Vaughan-Chatfield went on to say; ‘We urge anyone planning on setting out to sea to learn the correct MAYDAY procedure, as this will help insure you pass across all relevant information quickly and concisely, saving vital time in distress situation.’

Notes to Editor

The current D Class lifeboat at Clacton on Sea is the Hicks’ Help from the relief fleet while Clacton’s own Damarkand IV is away for a refit.

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