Three rescued in previous incident on harbour island
Adam’s Island is one of two small islands, Adam and Eve, located right at the mouth of the harbour. They are well known to locals. The advice to seafarers is to “avoid Adam and hug Eve”, and ply a route along a deep narrow channel which lies alongside Eve.
However, Jeanette Roberto, a 42 ft fibreglass hull fishing boat out of Union Hall, lost power and struck the rocky shores of Adam’s Island as she returned to harbour in a heavy swell on December 11 last.
Three crewmen were forced to abandoned ship in a life raft.
A distress call was put out and a Coastguard helicopter was scrambled to assist. But another Union Hall-based vessel, the Sally Pamela, was less than 10 minutes away and was the first to reach the men.
They were plucked from the water and taken to Union Hall where they were reported to well.
Meanwhile, the Tit Bonhomme itself was at the centre of a dramatic rescue incident in 2007 off the English coast when a crewman’s life was saved by the Royal Navy.
It was not clear last night whether the crewman involved in that incident was on board the vessel yesterday.
The HMS Mersey was conducting routine fishery protection operations in May 2007 when it received an urgent call for assistance from the Tit Bonhomme after one of her crew suffered a serious head injury.
The HMS Mersey dispatched two of her trained first aid team to help the skipper treat the casualty. The casualty was stabilised and the medical team called in an airlift.
A Royal Navy Search and Rescue Sea King helicopter from RNAS Culdrose was scrambled and its crew winched the casualty on board and rushed him ashore for medical treatment.
