|
Pleas for fishermen to wear life jackets were renewed yesterday following
the deaths of five French trawlermen whose vessel sank in heavy seas off
the Cornish coast on Thursday.
The bodies of two men from the stricken Bugaled Breizh were plucked from
the sea by the crew of a rescue helicopter minutes after the vessel sank
in winds gusting at gale force nine.
Neither man had been wearing a life jacket, and they had already perished
in the cold waters.
Terry Kebble, whose son Daniel died four years ago after his fishing
boat sank off Polperro, said that all boat users should be made to wear
life jackets "like a driver wears a seatbelt".
"If you've got one on you stand some sort of chance," he said.
"I think there could be a lot of lives saved through people wearing
life jackets."
There was shock and dismay yesterday in the busy West Cornwall fishing
port of Newlyn, where the 60-foot Breton trawler had been a frequent visitor.
It had been sheltering there before setting off for home on Tuesday evening.
Harbourmaster Andrew Munson broke the news of the tragedy to the vessel's
devastated owner, who usually skippered the vessel.
He said the mood in the port was "pretty sombre". "It's
very sad," he added. "The vessel was well known in Newlyn, and
it's just a horrible thing to have happened."
Mr Munson said it was possible that the trawler had been swamped by water,
or that her nets had snagged on the seabed.
"If the watertight door was not shut and a big wave did fall aboard,
the only way it can go is forward - and there's no escape, it stays aboard
the vessel and causes it to capsize," he said.
"Perhaps when she went over they grabbed the lifejackets but just
didn't have time to put them on.
"The water temperature at the scene was about 11 degrees, and that's
pretty cold.
"One thing I do know is that a lot of fishermen locally are wearing
lifejackets.
"A lot of the single-handed men and even crew members on bigger
vessels are wearing them."
A rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose, near Helston, conducted another
sweep of the area 15 miles off the Lizard yesterday morning, but failed
to find any trace of the three bodies still missing.
Lieutenant Commander Dave Cunningham, the commanding officer of 771 Squadron,
who was an observer on the Sea King rescue helicopter which recovered
the two bodies, said the were just too late to save the men's lives.
He said: "Neither of them were wearing any lifejackets or other
life-preserving equipment, although obviously the boat had it."
Helicopter pilot Captain Peter McLelland added: "The most disappointing
thing is that you find them and they are both floating face down in the
water and neither have got lifejackets on.
"It was only 20 minutes since the boat sank and they could have
survived quite easily in the water if they had had their lifejackets on
- there's no doubt about that at all."
Elizabeth Stevenson, a partner with the Newlyn fishing firm W C Stevenson
and Sons, said fishermen were now much more safety-conscious.
She said some of the firm's skippers insisted that lifejackets were always
worn on deck.
"My husband is a fisherman, and boat owner and he and his crew put
on lifejackets as a matter of course," she said.
"They are cumbersome for a short while, but if you put up with them
for a week they are a safety apparatus that won't get in the way and could
save your life."
article copyright © WESTERN MORNING NEWS
 |
