A lifeboat crew have saved the crew of a fishing boat that was seconds away from crashing onto rocks.
Footage shows the moment of the daring rescue.
The fishing vessel was being towed into Peterhead harbour by another vessel, however the tow broke numerous times in the stormy weather conditions.
The alarm was raised at around 4.30pm on Friday and RNLI Peterhead’s Tamar-class lifeboat The Misses Robertson of Kintail launched and was on scene within minutes.
READ MORE: Fishing crisis: Scotland’s fishermen hit the Brexit rocks – but whose fault is it?
When the lifeboat arrived the fishing vessel was dangerously close to crashing into the rocks at Peterhead South Breakwater and conditions were described as “extremely challenging” due to an easterly gale and significant swell combined with a backwash.
However, the crew established a tow at the first attempt and brought the fishing vessel and its crew back to safety.
Peter Davidson, who was on his first shout as coxswain, said: “This was a really tremendous effort by the crew showing great teamwork and seamanship by all involved in really difficult conditions.
READ MORE: Fishing chaos: True story is complex – but there is a way forward
“If we had arrived seconds later the boat would have hit the rocks and it may have been a different outcome.
“As soon as I saw how close she was to the rocks I immediately requested the helicopter – due to the perilous situation I realised we only had one attempt to get this right.
“The crew and the skipper of the boat could not thank the lifeboat enough and said they’d be forever grateful which makes all the effort worthwhile.
“There have been weather and flood warnings in place across Aberdeenshire today – the conditions were very dangerous but everyone worked together to ensure the safest outcome.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel