[T]he volunteer crew from the RNLI’s Barrow station launched their inshore lifeboat this afternoon, Saturday 31st March 2018, to assist a ferry which had broken down.
The call for assistance came from HM Coastguard at Holyhead shortly after 3pm.
The information received was that a ferry operating between Roa Island and Piel Island had broken down in the Walney Channel.
The crew were paged and the inshore lifeboat, ‘Vision of Tamworth’ was launched with Jonny Long at the helm assisted by two crew.
The lifeboat was quickly on the scene and it proceeded to make several trips back to the lifeboat station to transfer the 12 passengers who were on board the ferry back to safety.
The passengers were cold following their experience but were otherwise fine. The lifeboat then took the stricken ferry under tow and returned it to its mooring in Walney Channel.
The ‘Vision of Tamworth’ then returned to the lifeboat station at 4-15 pm where it was made ready for the next launch.
The wind at the time of the incident was north-easterly, Force 3, and the high tide had passed earlier in the afternoon at 12:16pm.
The RNLI recently issued statistics for 2017 which showed that the Barrow Lifeboats launched on 23 occasions last year and assisted 35 people. The RNLI also issued a timely reminder to everyone visiting the coast this Easter to respect the water.
