Teignmouth’s lifeboat came to the rescue of two fisherman on Monday (October 21) after their boat started taking on water.

The fishermen made a Mayday distress call just before 6:45am after water began to rise in the engine room of their boat, three miles east of Teignmouth.

Due to the urgency of the distress call, several other vessels in the area also made their way to the fishing boat to help.

The Two Annes lifeboat launched from Teignmouth Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) station with four volunteer crew onboard and swiftly made its way to the casualty vessel. The crew found two people safely on board but discovered that the boat’s engine room was taking in water, so the crew quickly established a salvage pump.

The Teignmouth RNLI crew were soon joined by volunteers from RNLI Exmouth, who had launched their Shannon class lifeboat.

After pumping out the engine room and lowering the water level, the crews put in a tow line between the casualty vessel and a nearby assisting vessel and the stricken vessel was recovered back to the safety of Brixham Harbour. Teignmouth RNLI then stood down, whilst Exmouth RNLI escorted both back to Brixham to ensure the vessels arrived with no further concerns.

Volunteer shore crew were on hand to help recover The Two Annes lifeboat where she was cleaned and refuelled ready for service again by 8.30am.

The Two Annes lifeboat is an Atlantic Class 85 inshore vessel and Teignmouth lifeboat vounteers carry our around 50 rescues a year.