Awards for courage for RNLI volunteers who saved three lives
Seven volunteer crew at Hayling Island RNLI Lifeboat Station have been presented with awards for the courage, boat-handling skills and teamwork shown when saving the lives of three men in a stricken yacht
The awards were made on Hayling Island this morning by RNLI Chief Executive Mark Dowie who paid tribute to the crew for their actions on 28 June 2020. It marks the highest award made to the station in thirty years.
Both Hayling Island Lifeboats were launched in worsening conditions with two metre confused seas and winds of up to Force 7, to help the yacht, which was pitching violently, yawing and rolling uncontrollably. In barely one and a half metres of water the keels of the yacht were crashing against the bottom and the vessel was in danger of capsizing and breaking up.
Mark Dowie, Chief Executive of the RNLI said: ‘It’s an enormous privilege to be here today. I was a station volunteer before I started this job three years ago and these celebrations, where we are celebrating actual real bravery and skill are incredibly special for the history of a lifeboat station and its community’.
For the rescue the RNLI awarded Andrew Ferguson and Daniel Macpherson with the “thanks of the institution inscribed on vellum” for their courage determination, decision making skills and boat handling skills. Lloyd Pepperell was also awarded the “thanks of the institution inscribed on vellum” for his extreme selflessness and courage as well as stamina when boarding and acting independently on the casualty vessel.
For their courage and teamwork during the service, vellum service certificates were awarded to Jack Anson, Eleanor Briggs, Thomas Lincoln and Sharon Swan.
Since the rescue Eleanor Briggs and her partner have emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, and flew back especially for the presentation. Eleanor is now an active volunteer with the Canadian equivalent of the RNLI in Vancouver.
The last time Hayling Island Lifeboat Station was recognised for an award of this magnitude was two silver medals awarded for the rescue of 17 people on board the yacht Donald Searle on 25 October 1992. Since then Hayling Island RNLI Station have launched 2330 times, an average of more than 80 times a year.
Over the whole of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland there have only been ten vellums awarded over the last 10 years.