THE 10-man crew of a Scottish trawler said yesterday they owed their lives to the crew of the Larne lifeboat who managed to tow their vessel away from certain disaster in atrocious sea conditions off the Co Antrim coast early yesterday.
The 265-ton Silvery Sea, fishing out of Oban, began drifting towards the Maidens rocks in gale force winds when its engines failed after 3 a.m. When Larne lifeboat reached the scene, six miles offshore, the fishing boat was only a quarter of a mile off the rocks.
The trawler's second engineer, Mr Simon Colyer, said the skill of the lifeboat crew was vital in managing to get a line on board the vessel. They had tried several times to throw a line and eventually the fishermen secured it.
Another crewman said: "I don't know how they managed to tow a boat as big as ours. I didn't think they would be able to do it and we owe them our lives."
The lifeboat coxswain, Mr Frank Healy, said conditions at sea were very rough. The fishing boat would have been smashed on the rocks in another 20 minutes if it had not been taken in tow.
