Dover Lifeboat crew at sea for 12 hours in first call of 2014

Dover's RNLI lifeboat was launched on service for the first time this year on Saturday morning after a Liberian-registered cargo ship, heading towards Genoa in Italy, passed between a tug and a smaller vessel it was towing, causing serious damage.

The Dungeness lifeboat was initially sent to the scene, but was replaced by the Dover's RNLI Severn class lifeboat, the City Of London II and the Galatea, a Trinity House vessel.

Dover Lifeboat left the port shortly before midday with a volunteer crew of seven and rendezvoused with the casualty vessels just before 1400. The cargo ship continued down the coast and anchored off the Sussex port of Newhaven.

Due to the crew of the tug suffering from tiredness, the tow of the damaged vessel was taken up by the Galatea with Dover Lifeboat providing an escort and the long, slow passage back to Dover was started.

The vessels eventually arrived back in Dover shortly before 2300 on Saturday evening with the lifeboat and its crew having been at sea for almost 12 hours.

Lifeboat Operations Manager at Dover, Roy Couzens said: "This was a long arduous service for our volunteer crew which thankfully resulted in no-one being injured."

Photo by RNLI Dover.