St Bees RNLI was called to help with a distressed person on Drigg beach.
The lifeboat was called to help police, and coastguard rescue teams from Whitehaven, Maryport and Millom, at about 11.40am yesterday, Saturday, to help with the person who had been spotted at the water’s edge of the beach.
The crew launched and were well on the way when they received the good news that the casualty was safely back onshore. The crew then made their way back to the lifeboat station.
The propeller had been damaged during the launch and with the initial situation now resolved the crew decided to replace the damaged propeller at sea with the spare one kept on board.
This would make recovering the lifeboat a lot safer and is something all the crews are trained to do.
Just after the lifeboat launched a member of staff from the St Bees beach cafe asked the shore crew at the station to help after a man collapsed in his car.
Crew used first aid and the beach’s defibrillator on the man until paramedics arrived.
Lifeboat operations manager Dick Beddows said: “Events like this prove how important the training given to our volunteers is, whether it’s a problem at sea or someone needing help on land.”
Unfortunately, the crew heard later that the man had died, they said.
