AT 1pm on Saturday, October 28, 1989, Yarmouth RNLI received a call which was to result in one of the most daring rescues in its illustrious history.

The crew were tasked to attend a listing 500-tonne ship carrying cars and 200 tonnes of steel rods while facing a battle against a force 12 storm, 40 foot high waves and winds gusting up to 100 miles an hour.

It was a rescue which was to result in a bronze medal for Coxswain Dave Kennett, a letter of commendation for Joe Lester and the late Brian Miskin and certificate of medal service for the other crew members John Harwood, David Lemonius, Dr Nigel Reid, Alan Howard, Stuart Pimm and Bob Cooke.

On Sunday, six of the crew met up for a 30th anniversary lunch at the Royal Solent Yacht Club to reminisce about the great storm of 1989.

They spent 18 hours in treacherous seas, but rescued two men off the stricken Maltese coaster ‘Al Kwather I’, bound for the Mediterranean.

Six other crew members were taken from the ship by the coastguard helicopter.

Dave Kennett, who had been awarded a silver medal in 1975 for rescuing five police officers in a yacht in a force 10 gale, takes up the story.

He said: “When we got to the ship, we advised the captain to abandon it in the daylight and let us take off his crew, but he refused.

“So we stayed with the vessel as the storm blew up around us.

“At one point, our lifeboat came out of the water and we pounded the sea as we landed, splitting our central fuel tank, breaking off our windscreen wipers and snapping a gear lever.

“It wasn’t until around 1.30am on Sunday, in the pitch black, that the captain decided to abandon ship after its engines failed.

“We could see the crew panicking and, rather than wait for the coastguard, I made the decision to go in and rescue them.”

At that point the ship was rolling through 90 degrees so evacuation had to be carried out over her stern.

Emergency coxswain Joe and assistant motor mechanic Brian plucked two of the crew from the scrambling net hanging from the stern.

According to newspaper reports at the time, Joe and Brian were praised for ‘displaying great strength and total disregard for their own safety’ in hauling the second survivor, who had fallen at one stage below the level of the lifeboat deck, on board.

He was plucked on board with ‘superhuman effort’, otherwise he would have been crushed between the ship and the lifeboat.

Joe, whose son Howard, is the current coxswain, said: “We didn’t think too much about it at the time. One of them was upside down and we had to grab him by the leg otherwise he would have been crushed.

“What I remember most was the Lada cars crashing around on the deck as they were thrown from side to side.”

Stuart, whose two sons Richard and Alex are also crew members, said: “I remember the helicopter coming down over us, but then having to go past the ship before being able to winch up the rest of the crew.”

Despite the damage to the Margaret Russell Fraser Lifeboat, Bob said it was back on service the day after they returned.

He said: “We took a hell of a pounding but we sorted out all the problems before the inspector came to check us over. Although we had a split centre fuel tank, that was only a reserve tank and the other two were fine.”

Dave summed up: “I had a good boat with a crew who knew what to do. It was pretty rough on the night and at times we faced walls of water coming at us. I was, and still am, very proud of them.”

As an aside, he added: “A film maker, Mallory Maltby, had asked to come on board at some stage when we got an interesting ‘shout’. So he came down and we told him what we were about to do.

“Suddenly, he wasn’t too keen, but we persuaded him and he stayed with us, making an award-winning film entitled ‘A Good Job Well Done’.” Quite.

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