Vessel taking on water makes emergency call where RNLI crew and public respond

The volunteer crew of Burnham on Crouch RNLI were alerted by the pagers ringing at 5.19pm. Crew made their way to the station ready to launch the charity’s Atlantic 85 lifeboat Tony and Robert Britt.

Burnham on Crouch lifeboat was tasked by the coastguard to attend a 33ft motor vessel with two people on board. It was reported that the boat was taking on water and the boat’s own bilge pump was not able to cope with the volume of water that it was taking on.

A boat with two fishermen on board heard the pan-pan, responded to the emergency by searching the area, found the stricken vessel, and began bailing the water with buckets.

The rescue vessel noticed that the Crouch pilot vessel was approaching, followed by a much-larger timber ship, and they were sitting in its path. The rescue vessel who responded to the pan-pan tied up to the vessel in order to tow them out of the path of the larger timber ship.

Tony and Robert Britt arrived at the scene 10 minutes after launching with crew; Ian Scott, Tony Lacey, Edward Aspinall and Mike Stokes onboard.

The crew quickly assessed the situation, putting Tony on board the casualty vessel with the charities salvage pump. A salvage pump can be used to pump water from a vessel.

The salvage pump was barely keeping on top of the water coming in and the vessel’s were still running. Tony, volunteer crew member, was inspecting the situation and noted that the water in the boat’s stern was warm and decided to shut the engines off as he believed the water was somehow entering the boat via the engines.

Tony said: “We put our salvage pump aboard and started pumping it, but it was very full of water, about 1m deep, in the rear compartment, and flooding over the floorboards.

“We started to bail with a bucket, and immediately noticed that the water was warm, indicating that the water was coming from the engine cooling system rather than a hole in the vessel.”

Once the engines had been switched off the water coming in slowed to a stop. The salvage pump was working much more effectively, removing the sitting water. Tony said: “We soon started to make headway with lowering the water and it was almost empty by the time we reached the moorings.”

Once the casualty vessel was safely in a mooring the volunteer crew returned the Atlantic 85 to the floating boat shed at 7.42pm and shore crew began to refuel the Tony and Robert Britt ready for service.

The volunteer crew of the RNLI Lifeboat station extend their thanks to the fishing vessel which was first on scene in response to the pan pan on the radio.

Notes to editors

Effective use of the VHF was crucial in this situation with boats in the local area coming to the aide of the casualty vessel.

The RNLI has only three stations around the UK which use floating boat houses, one of which is located at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex. The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea.

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The RNLI is the charity that 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 146,700 lives.

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