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‘They say life flashes before your eyes when the end is near, it certainly did’: Shetland fisherman opens up about returning to sea after it almost took his life

Ronnie Young and his father lost their boat and almost their lives 21 years ago.
Ronnie Young and his father lost their boat and almost their lives 21 years ago.

Ronnie Young’s father told him he “wasn’t going to make it” – and to escape without him, when their fishing vessel sank in 2001.

It was a “fresh” morning in Shetland when Ronnie Young and his father Davy’s scallop boat Kedana III capsized just off the remote island of Fair Isle.

They’d been returning to the fishing village of Scalloway from Shetland’s mainland,  where they’d purchased the vessel, but never made it that far.

Woken up by capsizing vessel

Daylight was just breaking on on the horizon, and Ronnie, now 56, was in bed when he heard his father “roaring” for help.

It had just passed 7am, and they were around 40 miles from home.

“I could see by the shape the boat was in, that something was wrong,” he recalled.

“There was no way she was going to come back from going over, so I opened the wheelhouse door and jumped into the sea.”

Davy Young.

Ronnie remembers floating in the water as his father made for the wheelhouse to get to the life raft.

And he watched as his dad was hit in the head with the mast – the force knocking his teeth out.

“He just looked at me and said: ‘I’m not going to make it, you’re just going to have to go alone’.”

Davy couldn’t swim, and Ronnie knew he had work quickly.

He said: “He disappeared a few times up and down, the last time he came up there was a distance of maybe 20-30 feet between us.

“He just looked at me and said ‘I’m not going to make it, you’re just going to have to go alone’.

“I thought, that was it, and saw him disappearing down through the water.

“Then, by Christ, he came up again – I paddled for him and got a hold of him.

‘Betty just had a cataract operation… a week or two before and she wouldn’t have seen us’

The pair were able to haul themselves onto the life raft, and Davy urged his son to paddle for the Fair Isle.

But, absolutely “knackered”, all they could do was bob along the surface and hope someone would spot them to sound the alarm.

By pure coincidence, that’s exactly what happened.

John and Betty Best, who live on the Fair Isle, were at home when they happened to see the vessel capsize.

Ronnie said: “They’d seen us coming because it had been such a fine night the night before, they hadn’t put their blinds down.

“Betty had just been for a cataract operation, had it been a week or two before she wouldn’t have seen us coming.”

Article about Ronnie Young and Davy Young. Shetland

At the time, the couple told The Press & Journal the boat had gone “straight down, like the Titanic.”

‘I couldn’t think about anything but Diane and the bairns’

But back in the life raft, Ronnie and his father were completely unaware of what was unfolding on dry land.

“They say your life flashes before you when the end is near and it certainly flashed that morning,” he said.

“I honestly thought that was it.

“I couldn’t think about anything but [my wife] Diane and the bairns.”

Ronnie with his 21 year old daughter Karis who was just a few months old when the Kedana sank
Ronnie with his 21-year-old daughter Karis who was just a few months old when the Kedana sank.

Ronnie and Davy were soon scooped up by a rescue helicopter, and taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia.

“They covered us in those tinfoil suits, but I warmed up after a while and was let out and told not to sleep for 12 hours,” he said.

“They kept my father in – but then they phoned late afternoon to say he didn’t want to stay there, he wanted to get home, so we went up and fetched him at tea time.”

‘I got my father back, that meant more than money’

Despite this traumatic event, Ronnie returned to sea.

While he admits it was was a “thought” to do so, he didn’t want to prolong that first step longer than necessary.

He said: “I didn’t know what to do, we’d lost our boat.

“We had a holiday booked in The Broads two weeks after, so we ended up there on a boat.”

Norfolk Broads.

Soon after, he was back to working at sea.

“I was home the whole summer before I went, it happened in May and I didn’t go off until around August.

“You just have to go. It was a thought, but the longer you put it off the harder it will be.

“The Kedana had come from Buckie, you couldn’t meet a finer person than who the old fellow bought it from.

“I remember telling him ‘We’re home but we don’t have the boat with us, she sank halfway’.

“It wasn’t his fault – it was just one of those things that happened.”

Ronnie added: “I said to him there and then I didn’t care if we got any insurance or not.

“I got my father back. That meant more to me than any money.”

Read more:

Two rescued from water after canoe capsizes on Loch Ness

Two crew members rescued as fishing boat sinks off Aberdeen Harbour

‘They saved my life’: Kayaker who capsized near Buckie thanks emergency teams and passerby who jumped into the sea to save him

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