Tony Course on Transport

I think it was because there were two RAF guys as passengers and they’d obviously read the evacuation sign on the windows and all the rest of it, and they pushed out windows, fortunately on the right hand side.

A rush of water, I thought, you know, it will settle right down and I’m afraid instinct took over, I opened the bow door and two or three passengers followed me. The rest apart from one as far as I know, went out with the RAF guys.

As I went out I banged my head and I was helped onto the upturned craft, if I recall correctly and then I helped two or three or four passengers and the rest were there, and I got them all in the middle and wondered what to do.

I was then concerned about No 4 Buoy, because the wind effect had gone, we were in the grip of the outflow out of Portsmouth and I thought we were going to hit No 4.

Meanwhile, there was a banging from down below, you know, a submarine type of thing, and so I banged back ‘cos there was obviously somebody hadn’t made it out.

We were getting closer to No 4 Buoy, and I thought, ‘Well I’d better try and secure to that Buoy’ so I went down to try and get the anchor free and we had to use the line to maybe attach to No 4 Buoy.

Absolutely ‘verboten’ under Trinity House rules. Then, I noticed a guy floating on his back, swimming away.

Then, Nick Rose, who I happened to know, was driving the Trinity House Pilot Launch, and he came alongside and took some passengers off and then a chopper came … oh and I remember seeing the Coastguard red flare so I knew that, you know, the Southsea Terminal staff obviously saw what happened, plus a red flare, presumably from an Authority, so I was happy that the plight was known about.

Then the helicopter came and took I don’t know how many off, a few, Wessex helicopter, and I’m told there was a second helicopter came over. I don’t remember that but I do remember asking the RAF Winchman if I could have a lifejacket because I yelled out, “Put on your lifejackets” three times but nobody had enough time to do that or even find them probably, and I certainly didn’t.

So, then there was the poor person trapped underneath and I asked them to get Divers because I wasn’t trained as a Diver and I certainly wasn’t brave enough to, you know, duck dive and take a chance because I probably wouldn’t be here now, so that was in hand and then an Admiralty Tug, I think it was an Admiralty Tug was passing by and I wanted to get the craft into Portsmouth Harbour because that was relatively calm.

You know, otherwise there was nothing else sensible to do, and they threw me a … oh no, there was a Butcher’s work boat and I think they threw a line as well but the line parted.

Then this Tug was there. I got a line, quite a thick sort of three- or four-inch hawser on the end of a heaving line and I made that fast to one of the forward feet of the Hovercraft ‘cos it had I think six feet which it landed on, on a hard surface. And the Tug put on power and of course I hadn’t worked that out, we just took a dive and I was nearly washed off the craft and I think that probably put an end to a poor person underneath.

Well, I had to cast off the hawser because you know we weren’t going to get anywhere. It would just have gone right down.

Then an inflatable came out with Navy Divers and they went over and then they shook … one guy went, a Scuba Diver, and then he came up and shook his head, so there was not much else I could do and I remember them asking me, “What do you want to do?” and I was very, very cold by then and I said, “I’ll go ashore.”

I regret that decision because as soon as a Master goes ashore he loses control of the situation and there was no way I’d have allowed them to beach. Subsequently they beached the craft at Southsea.