Keeping it in the family

2003 marked an historic year for the volunteers at Plymouth lifeboat station as they celebrated the 200th anniversary of the launch of their very first lifeboat.

200 years later they have their fifteenth lifeboat – the £2M Severn class lifeboat Sybil Mullen Glover.

2003 also saw Second Coxswain Sean Marshall receive the RNLI’s Bronze Medal for a rescue on 21 May 2002 when the yacht Headstrong was adrift without power in a gale close to the Great Mew Stone.
 

The lifeboat arrived on scene to find the yacht only 800m from the shore and the four people on board suffering from seasickness and fatigue.

In gale force winds, a rough sea, 7m swell and poor visibility Coxswain Dave Milford used all his experience and skill to get lifeboat within leaping range so that Second Coxswain Sean Marshall could successfully jump onto the yacht.
 
The casualty was getting too close to the shore and so a towline had to be secured immediately. A line was thrown over to Sean, who was able to secure it on the foredeck of the yacht.

By now the casualty was just 400m from the shore and breaking seas were entering the cockpit area in the worsening conditions.

Slowly the lifeboat towed the yacht out of immediate danger. The tow was tough going for all the crew and Sean had to hand steer the yacht in very difficult conditions but eventually, after two hours, they reached the calm and safety of the River Tamar.

The three men and a woman were uninjured but exhausted.

For his bravery in jumping from the lifeboat onto the yacht Sean was awarded the RNLI’s Bronze Medal. Coxswain Dave Milford was awarded the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum.
 

The award of the Bronze Medal came 25 years after Sean’s father, former Coxswain Patrick Marshall, also received a Bronze Medal, along with former Mechanic Cyril Alcock, for saving three people from a fishing vessel in 1978 – certainly a case of keeping it in the family!