On the morning of 6 July 1989, Crew 8 of 42 (TB) Sqn were flying on XV 248 in support of the RN on one of their submarine command course exercises. We intercepted a Mayday on channel 16 from a lobster boat called “Fay” saying she was sinking somewhere between the Isle of Man and Liverpool. We left the RN to their own devices and tried to contact the Fay to no avail. The coastguard did not get an exact position so we started a search. After about four hours or so, and much fun going around Douglas beaches at 200 ft, our radar op reported a weak contact. As we investigated we spotted survivors in the water 2 nm off Douglas clutching empty plastic bottles. We dropped an ASR kit and waited for the Sea King, who had also joined the search, to arrive on scene. We spotted two survivors swimming to the dinghy and carried on circling them until the Sea King had winched all the survivors up safely. We headed to Valley for a refuel before carrying on back to St Mawgan. Apparently, the people on the boat had rowed from Douglas to Liverpool in a bath tub and were being taken back to the IOM on the Fay when it sunk! It was the bottles used as floatation for the bath tub that saved their lives, and the fact that the sea temperature was warmer than usual for July. In all, we rescued nine people.
I have pics that we took from 248 if you send me your email to my PM (Can't figure out how to paste them onto this).