Martin Woodward on Saving Lives at Sea

I can think of quite a few. I remember one in particular. It was a German Coaster with three crew on board and they obviously set the auto-pilot to come down Channel. They were going to the West. They didn’t set it quite right and … completely unknown thing to do, or a stupid thing to do, three crew on board, and they set the auto-pilot and left the bridge unattended.

Went down below to have a bit of refreshment, in inverted commas, a few beers or whatever, and they didn’t keep a lookout and the next thing the thing ran ashore at full speed at St Lawrence on the Isle of Wight and was stuck on the rocks. We went and towed it off, we managed to tow that thing off. It was about 1,000 tonne Coaster and we towed it off backwards and got that up into Sandown Bay.