A crewman with 40 years of experience at sea has described how his boat was “run down” by a cargo ship off the north-east coast.
The two-man crew onboard fuelling vessel Erin Wood raised the alarm after they collided with the Cyprus-registered cargo vessel Daroja.
The 78ft tanker began taking on water after the incident, which happened two miles off the coast of Peterhead at about 5pm on Saturday.
By the time RNLI Peterhead arrived, they discovered the boat was in serious difficulty – with the crew desperately trying to pump out the water before they capsized.
The volunteers worked with the crew for several hours to stabilise the vessel, before it was taken under tow by Peterhead trawler Ocean Endeavour back to the town.
The Daroja, which was loaded with shipping containers, was also sent to the port. An investigation is now underway.
Last night a spokesman for the Erin Wood, which had been bound for Scrabster, described the “scary” ordeal.
He claimed: “We got run down by the cargo ship. It came from behind us and turned us over on our side. I’ve been at sea for 40 years and nothing like this has happened to me before.
“We’re still taking in water so we’ve got pumps in today. It split our backside but we don’t have a value on the damage caused – that’s up to the assessors.”
The captain of the Daroja declined to comment.
A spokesman for RNLI Peterhead said when the volunteer crew arrived at the scene, the Erin Wood was in serious difficulty.
He said: “On arrival at the scene, it was found that the Erin Wood had almost capsized and had taken a large ingress of water through the wheelhouse, disabled all power and engines, which resulted in a severe list – resulting in the two crew of the tanker launching the boat liferaft in case they had to abandon ship.
“A number of volunteer lifeboat crew were transferred to the tanker with a salvage pump from the lifeboat to assist the two crew of the boat to pump out the engine room and the cabin of the tanker in order to prevent capsize.”
A spokesman for Aberdeen Coastguard added: “The Erin Wood was taken under tow by a fishing vessel into Peterhead and the cargo vessel has also gone to Peterhead.
“The Maritime and Coastguard Agency will be attending both vessels and an investigation is underway.”
