Barrow Lifeboat Station’s volunteer crew launched their all-weather lifeboat this afternoon to go to the aid of an injured crewman aboard a wind farm support vessel.
The request to launch came from the HM Coastguard base in Holyhead at 4:50pm.
The Coastguard had received the request for assistance from the wind farm guard vessel ‘Fairline Surveyor’, which was south of the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm. The vessel’s Master reported that one of the crewmen on board had sustained a serious hand injury that required urgent treatment.
The crew was paged and the all-weather lifeboat, ‘Grace Dixon’, was launched at 5:05pm under the command of Coxswain, Shaun Charnley, assisted by a crew of six.
The lifeboat proceeded at full speed to rendezvous with the ‘Fairline Surveyor’ approximately 6 miles south west of Walney Island.
Barrow RNLI spokesman, Chris Clouter said: “The injured crewman was transferred to the lifeboat where his condition was assessed by the lifeboat’s medical team during the passage back to Barrow.
“The decision was made to take the casualty to the Deep Water Berth pontoon at Barrow Port where the Furness Coastguard team was waiting to transport him to Furness General Hospital.
“The lifeboat was then stood down and returned to the boathouse at 7:15pm where it was cleaned and made ready for the next launch.
“The wind at the time of the incident was northerly, Force 2-3, and the high tide was at 5:53pm with a predicted height of 7.1 metres.”