Crewman dies after falling overboard
A 46-year-old Polish crewman has died from his injuries after falling from a landing craft that was laying cables for Scottish and Southern Energy in the Sound of Jura. He had been anchoring the Forth Guardsman at about 8.30pm on Sunday March 13th when he fell and became trapped between the vessel’s side and the anchor cable.
He was retrieved by the Forth Guardsman‘s own rescue boat and transferred to the Islay RNLI Lifeboat, then airlifted by a Royal Navy Rescue Helicopter from HMS Gannet in Prestwick to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock. Clyde Coastguards thought the man’s injuries were ‘not too serious’ but news came on the following Tuesday that he had died. His next of kin are being informed. The Forth Guardsman is now berthed at Port Askaig on Islay. FOUR fishing vessels and a lifeboat have saved another fishing vessel after it started to sink off the north coast of the Isle of Rum yesterday morning.
The four crew on board the fishing vessel ‘Caralisa’ issued a mayday call, two miles northwest of the Isle of Rum, after they discovered water in the hold and engine room. Due to poor radio communications in the area, the Caralisa’s mayday was relayed to Stornoway Coastguard by the fishing vessel ‘Rebecca Janeen’ which was one mile away.
The Rebecca Janeen and another fishing vessel, ‘Ocean Hunter’, rushed to the scene and the Mallaig RNLI lifeboat was launched. Two other fishing vessels, ‘Viking Borg’ and ‘Amethyst’ overheard the distress call and also headed to the Caralisa to render assistance.
The Ocean Hunter was the first to reach the Caralisa, followed by the Rebecca Janeen. In all, four pumps were put onto the Caralisa to try to stop the ingress of water. These pumps managed to stop the water level from getting any higher but it took the arrival of extra pumps from Mallaig Lifeboat for the water level to start receding.
Stornoway Coastguard Watch Manager, Martin Collins said: "The Caralisa is now under tow by the Mallaig Lifeboat and is being taken to Mallaig Harbour where preparations are being made to put the vessel on a slipway.
“All the fishing vessels who took part this morning are to be congratulated on an excellent job. Without the combined efforts of all four fishing vessels and the lifeboat there’s a good chance that the Caralisa would have sunk.
“We now have the best outcome to an incident, all the crew are safe and well and the boat has been saved.”
Fishermen haul ‘spooky’ message in a bottle
by John Kinsman Marine Editor
Earlier this month – on March 3rd, to be exact – the fishing boat Dawn Maid, which works out of Oban, brought in a heavy glass bottle together with its dredged scallops. Crewman Andy Reid spotted it first, and when he and the skipper, Robert Scott, opened it they found two messages inside. Bizarrely, the handwritten notes were dated March 3rd, the same date and month, but 76 years ago.
Alan MacLean of Isle of Mull Scallops which operates the Dawn Maid, said, ‘It was a bit spooky, the messages having the same day and month, though the bottle was put into the sea all that time ago, in 1935.’ Deryn Hewitt of the same company called it ‘a pretty hefty bottle stamped Brothwell & Mills Ltd, Worthington.’ He added, ‘I would not like to be hit by it anyway. I think it was made for lemonade".
The messages in the bottle contained nothing but the names and addresses of the writers. One was Mr K Dunn SS Loch Dunvegan, Lancefield Quay, Glasgow. The other said Willie J MacKinnon, SS Diamond, c/o 45 West Nile Street, Glasgow. They were not working on the same ship, so were they both ashore at the time, and perhaps tossed the bottle into the water as a laugh? We will never know. And neither did the writers. However, Alan MacLean thinks he might have found a relative of one of the note-writers living in Tobermory. Wait and see
