Both Swanage lifeboats at sea for more than four hours
On Saturday morning, when many people around the world were preparing to watch the royal wedding, both Swanage lifeboats were launched to help a multi-agency search for a missing person.
The Swanage lifeboats were tasked to search from Peveril Point to Dancing Ledge. In poor conditions, due to a heavy sea fog, a slow, detailed search was carried out of the shoreline. When the search was completed, with nothing found, the lifeboats were requested to carry out a further search from the north side of Old Harry to Swanage.
Inshore lifeboat helmsman Matt Steeden said “the dense fog made searching conditions more challenging, but the clear, calm waters enabled us to carry out a very close shoreline search and to put crew ashore to search areas not visible from the water.”
As the lifeboats rounded Old Harry a request was made for assistance to evacuate a casualty from Chapmans Pool. The all-weather lifeboat left the scene to attend the new tasking whilst the inshore lifeboat completed the search of the cliffs and Swanage Bay before returning to station, reporting nothing found.
The casualty had been taken ill on the beach at Chapmans Pool and HM Coastguard were planning an evacuation with HM St Alban Coastguard and HM Coastguard Helicopter, Rescue 175, also requested to assist. The all-weather lifeboat placed two crew on shore to help HM St Albans Coastguards assess the casualty who were joined by the Rescue 175 winchman after the aircraft landed on the ridge top.
Due to the poor visibility it was decided that it would be safest to remove the casualty by sea and the Swanage inshore lifeboat was re-launched to attend the incident to permit transfer of the casualty from the shore to the all-weather lifeboat. The inshore lifeboat then returned to the Swanage Lifeboat Station station after four hours at sea, whilst the all-weather lifeboat took the casualty by sea to an ambulance at the ferry steps, Sandbanks. With the casualty now in the hands of the ambulance service, the Swanage all-weather lifeboat was able to return to station after nearly five hours at sea.
The volunteer lifeboat crew were pleased to learn later in the day that the missing person had been found safe and well.
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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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