The weather was not good but neither was it really bad. There was a strong force 5-6 wind blowing, a moderate sea but being a very dark night visibility was poor. Within ten minutes of the lifeboat pagers alerting the crew, they were on their way to the casualty.

The mayday was sent by another fishing boat in close proximity to the stricken vessel. They had seen her lights disappear and alerted the coastguard right away. They then proceeded to rescue the two crew of the sinking fishing boat from the water. At just after 10:30 the inshore lifeboat arrived on the scene, followed shortly after by the all-weather boat. One of the two casualties, who by now had been pulled from the sea by the second fishing boat, was transferred to the all-weather lifeboat, via the inshore, in order to provide casualty care. He appeared to be suffering badly from having spent several minutes in the cold water, so he was airlifted into a rescue helicopter, which had been alerted by the coastguard, and had arrived on scene at just before 11 o’clock. He was immediately taken to Treliske Hospital by the helicopter but was unfortunately found to be dead on arrival.

Once the second casualty had been transferred to the all-weather lifeboat he was taken to Mevagissey harbour as quickly as possible, to be attended to by paramedics who had been alerted and were waiting on the jetty. Luckily, apart from being very cold and wet he was OK. While this was taking place the inshore lifeboat returned to the scene of the sinking to search for wreckage but nothing was found.

At approximately 1:15 am both lifeboats left the scene and returned to station arriving at about 1:45 where they washed down their boats and equipment, refuelled and reported ready for action again.

Notes to editors
• The volunteer lifeboat crews for this rescue were: all-weather lifeboat: Mark Pollard (coxswain); John Blakeston; Dave Proud; Alan Rowe; Allister Heane; Neil Capper and Sandy Proctor:
• The inshore lifeboat was crewed by: Dave Nicoll (helmsman), Tom Bird and Jonathan Hackwell.

Falmouth RNLI helmsman of the inshore lifeboat Dave Nicoll said: ‘ We have no idea what caused the fishing boat to sink but applaud the gallant efforts of the crew of the other fishing vessel, sending the mayday signal and rescuing both men from the sea, but unfortunately one of them has since died’.