Royal Navy minehunter comes to the rescue of stranding fishing boat in the Solent

HMS Middleton responded to a Mayday call from the stricken boat, which had become tangled with a line and was drifting in the Solent.

The navy minehunter heard the emergency call at 4pm on Saturday as it was passing St Catherine’s Point, south of the Isle of Wight. The boat got into trouble when its propeller became wrapped up in a line and, despite untangling some of it, the prop would not turn.

Middleton was near the fishing vessel so co-ordinated with Solent Coastguard to see how they could help.

After spotting the boat, which was drifting close to shore and in too shallow waters for Middleton to get alongside, the minehunter launched her seaboat with divers and marine engineers on board. With the vessel at anchor, Middleton’s crew took a look at the problem.

Lieutenant George Walker, navigating officer, said: ‘Upon coming alongside the vessel, our divers cleared the rest of the line that was caught around the propeller and the marine engineers attempted to fix it.

‘Unfortunately they didn’t have the parts required to fix it. After ensuring the vessel was in no immediate danger, the seaboat returned and collected some food and water from Middleton before returning it back.’