The following year we were sent to Stavanger Harbour in Norway for our annual coastguard inspection. The coastguard officer came on board and chose my crew to demonstrate that we could leave the vessel safely by lifeboat in the event of fire. Myself and my 14 crewman duly gathered at the lifeboat station 100 feet above the sea, entered the boat in an orderly fashion, took our places, started the engine, set the compass heading, closed the hatches, turned on the water spray and began the descent. Unknown to us the lifeboat was stopped after descending 50 feet and launched itself. This experience was the closest I ever had to being in a crashing plane before impact when you believe you will surely die. The boat struck the sea and 11 of us had various spinal impact fractures, ranging from paraplegia to severe compression. Once the boat struck the sea it careered across the dock out of control and struck the dock wall, I managed to open the doors and secure the boat before climbing up the dockside.

I collapsed into a puddle, my pain was intense but my sense of relief at still being alive was even greater, all the dock workers who had witnessed the accident rushed to our aid including one young man who, because I was very wet from the puddle thought I had drowned and would give me artificial respiration by pummelling my back, I had to politely tell him to ”f off”. A fleet of ambulances arrived and rushed us to intensive care in Stavanger hospital, the nurses were all blonde and beautiful and very keen to practise their English, We felt that we needed to get better very very slowly, Alas the company were having none of that and as soon as we were fit to travel, a first aid plane was chartered fully fitted with stretchers and we were flown back to Aberdeen post haste, arriving 10 mins before the airport closed at 10 pm in order to avoid unwanted press intrusion. As a footnote the nurses in Aberdeen were not nearly so pleased to see us as the girls in Norway.