Gravesend RNLI Responds to Vessel Taking on Water at Erith
With 38 minutes left of the 12 hour night shift, London Coastguard tasked the RNLI volunteers on Sunday 10 August at 6:52am to reports of a vessel alongside the Thames Water monitoring station at Jenning Tree Point, reported to be taking on water.
Night shift RNLI Duty Commander David Greenfield said, ‘Due to the information we had at the time, we were unsure of the severity of the situation, so the volunteer crew prepared for what could be an extended operation in rising temperatures.’
Gravesend’s Atlantic 85 B-827 lifeboat launched and made best safe speed to the scene. On arrival at 7:23am, the vessel was found low in the stern. Following a welfare check with the casualties they appeared calm, however assessing the water ingress, the RNLI crew immediately deployed a salvage pump.
Dave added, ‘The salvage pump was used to its maximum time of one hour, but given the vessel’s condition, it was decided that it could not make its own way safely, so therefore the assistance of the PLA harbour launch was requested.’
The harbour launch vessel Kew crew took the vessel in tow to Denton Wharf for an emergency lift-out whilst the lifeboat remained on scene as a safety cover boat, whilst approximately a further two tonnes of water was pumped from the casualty vessel.
The RNLI’s day crew had assembled at the station and prepared lifeboat B-932 for sea, enabling a rare mid-incident crew to change at 10:13am. The night crew returned to station, arriving at approximately 10:35am, while the day crew remained on scene to continue the operation with now Duty Commander Sid Blake.
Sid said, ‘It’s unusual for us to have a relief boat at Gravesend, however it’s times like this that prove its worth, considering the night crew had already been operational for over 15 hours’.
The Gravesend RNLI lifeboat & Harbour Launch Kew arrived safely at Denton along with the casualty vessel at 12:41pm, where the damaged was then vessel out of the lifted the water ready for repair and its crew were safely ashore.
The Lifeboat was stood down from service at 12:50pm, before refuelling and back at station ready for service at 1pm.Notes to Editor
Gravesend is one of the RNLI’s newest lifeboat stations and one of four lifeboat stations operating on the River Thames – the first stations to specifically cover a river rather than estuarial waters or the sea.
Our lifeboat is Olive Laura Deare II, an Atlantic 85 B class inshore lifeboat, which is one of the fastest types in the fleet.
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