The Stornoway lifeboat was alerted when the Coastguard was told that two boats had been involved in an accident a few miles south east of Bayble Island - the two fishing vessels had collided in the dark.
But as the lifeboat, which launched at 6.50pm on 12 January, left for the scene it heard that one of the boats, the Sapphire, had sunk and the crewman was taken on board the other vessel, the Silver Chord. The Silver Chord was taking on water after damage to the stem post and forward plank, and it requested a salvage pump from the Stornoway lifeboat, the Tom Sanderson.
The lifeboat handed over a pump and one lifeboat crewman to the Silver Chord and then recovered a liferaft and other floating debris from the scene, 12 nautical miles from the lifeboat station.
There were four men on board the Silver Chord, a 16m long boat from Stornoway, and the fishing boat was escorted back to Stornoway by the lifeboat. The Coastguard had a rescue helicopter on scene and there was an eight-man crew on board the lifeboat.
The Silver Chord safely tied up at Stornoway harbour, and the lifeboat was back on station at 8.25pm and ready for service again at 9.15pm.
