The Salvage of the Hausa

It was in late November we had been fishing of the Bullnose Area Se Corner of Iceland..

When the weather deteriorated very bad forecast of sever gales 9,10 or 11 with sever snow and iceing,

so we decided to take shelter in Sedhasfjord of which you enter through various high mountains

at Dalatangy on the entrance into the fjord, we arrived in safely in the port, finding we had company in the Lord Lovat,

( Skipper Tony Atkinson ) and one of his best mates Also sheltering in the Lord Alexander who was Eddie Start,

Myself Skipper in the Newby Wyke, again age but i do thing it was Eddie Barketh (from Fleetwood) who was mate with me,

if not it then could have been Tommy Foot.again cant remember all the rest of the crew..

the story begins at around 0130hrs early morning one of the night watch comes down and calls me out,

telling me he had heard a distress call being broadcasted by the Hausa, that she was running aground as she had no engine,

so every one was called to action stations, my response was to get on the bridge and call port authority to be given,

permission to go out and give assistance if we could, by this time all the crew are prepared mate on bridge bosun on bridge,

waiting orders, we did not really know what was happening on the two other vessel, it was all done so quickly,

and i must stress, with so much great seaman ship,

We threw the ropes of and called the port to let them know we were on our way, we had also at this time tried,

to raise the Hausa by Radio VHF but either they could not get a signal or we were blocked out,

whilst steaming out we had organised how we were going to try passing over the tow wire,

So we ran the port side warp through the for,ard Sheave down through the after sheave,

leading threw the towing block and spare wire onto the after Poop deck area,

we eventually got contact with the Hausa who said he had about half an hour before they would be on the rocks,

The Skipper Paddy Donohue asked me what we thought we discussed the approach and we all knew that it,

was only a once pass job so the lads had the schemully line attached to the warp and were all prepared ,

Big Ray Smith was on the Whaleback of the Hausa (bless him) along with some of his other lads,

you had to be there to realise just serious and dangerous this action was, but lives had to be saved,

so i maneuvered the vessel into position and closed up as much as we could allow to hopefully,

make it that one successful pass, and it was done, as soon as the lads on The Hausa had secured the Tow line,

we had put the vessel in a position to immediately commence towing, and with great relief we got the strain,

and commenced to tow the Old Lass into Port, with great Jubilation from the crew onboard the Hausa and a great reception,

from the crews on the other two vessels, we also had the port Authority come down and congratulate us,

all by telling us at the time at the entrance it was a NW FORCE 10 and heavy snow,

but the crew were just fantastic and we all had a great celebratory drink onboard the Hausa,,

About 6 months later all the crew and myself Got a Pittance of Salvage money from Helleyers

not that we were really bothered about that we all felt great that we had saved our friends

as we know it is only what fisherman would do for each other regardless of the dangers....

The Hausa