Four men and their families rallied round their local community in Hereford to raise money for the RNLI after their lives were saved by the volunteer lifeboat crew at Tenby less than a year ago.
The rescued men and their families showed their appreciation by raising over £15,000 for Tenby lifeboat station by hosting the Sinking Seaman’s Ball. Last weekend they reunited with their rescuers to present the crew with the generous donation.
On the 6th August 2010 four sailors from the Hereford farming community found themselves concerned for their lives when a harmless fishing trip took a turn for the worst. The vessel they had chartered from Swansea for a fishing trip started sinking 8 miles east of Tenby at 11:04pm. The skipper of the newly built 11 meter vessel transmitted an urgent mayday as his fishing party donned lifejackets and climbed on the bow of the submerging vessel. Tenby RNLI all-weather lifeboat quickly launched and raced to the scene. With just minutes to spare the volunteer lifeboat crew recovered the men from the bow of the boat and brought them back to Tenby.
The Sinking Seaman’s Ball was held at the Three Counties Hotel in Hereford on the 26th May. Friends and family from the farming community raised the generous donation during the seaman’s auction. Among the many impressive prizes up for sale was a week’s stay at a chalet in France, a balloon flight for 8 people, and a day’s bass fishing on the sinking vessel’s sister boat the Lady Jue3. The day’s fishing on the Lady Jue 3 was one of the most popular offers of the evening as people were biding into the thousands for a trip on the vessel.
Phil Rees, Tenby Lifeboat Operations Manager said:
‘It was a pleasure to welcome the ‘Sinking Seamen’ back to Tenby RNLI Station under happier circumstances for the presentation of the cheque for £15,282.50. The Crew at Tenby would like to thank the organisers for all their tremendous hard work, energy and effort which went into this event to make it so successful and to also thank all their valuable supporters that donated to this remarkable effort. ‘
