Navy heroes

Nine members of the 771 Search and Rescue Squadron, most of which live in the Helston area, have been put forward to be nominated for awards recognising their "outstanding bravery and skill" after saving all 26 stranded crewmen of the container ship MSC Napoli in a rescue that has made national headlines. The crews of the Lizard Lifeboat and the Falmouth Lifeboat were also launched during that morning, as support for the helicopter crews.

Yesterday, four of the crewmen from the 193 and 194 helicopters at Culdrose, which carried out the rescue 40 miles off the coast of The Lizard, described how they battled 45ft waves and 50-knot winds during last Thursday's recovery.

Lieutenant Commander "Oz" Rhodes was on the 193 helicopter, which was first to arrive on the scene, 40 minutes after the initial call.

He said: "The weather was not brilliant. Visibility was about 4km when we initially went and the sea was around 25ft to 35ft, with swell at about 45ft. The guys had already left the tanker itself and were in a lifeboat. We tried to raise the radios, but there was no connection at all."

An initial attempt to get one of the crew of the 193 helicopter onto the lifeboat failed when they were unable to connect a winching wire to the boat, so it was decided to wait for the crew of the 194 helicopter, which was already on its way with a specially trained Search and Rescue diver, Petty Officer Aircrewman Jay O'Donnell.

On arriving, Petty Officer O'Donnell was lowered into the 35ft waves, around 10ft away from the lifeboat, from where he swam to the boat and managed to grab hold of the side. He was then released from the wire before pulling himself into the boat.

Lieutenant "Chuck" Norris, of the 194 helicopter, took up the story: "Jay decided that, because of the conditions, they needed taking off by the helicopters. There were no physical injuries but they were all dehydrated, in shock and there was a lot of seasickness."

For this reason it was decided to abandon one suggestion of letting the lifeboat drift into safer waters, before removing the stranded crewmen.

One by one the crewmen were winched into the helicopters - 13 in each helicopter, with the 194 helicopter returning to the Culdrose base first. This left the 193 helicopter to remove the remaining 13 crew members, although this was also fraught with difficulties.

Three of the four winching lines used to haul the crew off the boat snapped, leaving them with four people - including Petty Officer O'Donnell - still to remove from the boat, with just one line left. To make matters worse, this became tangled after the boat turned 360 degrees in the rough seas and strong winds, but after some skilful flying by the pilot of the 193 helicopter, the cable was untangled and the four remaining people were brought to safety.

The crew, mainly made up of Bulgarians, along with two Scots - despite being a London-registered tanker - were flown back to RNAS Culdrose where they were checked over by a medical team before being given blankets and hot drinks. They were taken into the care of the Seamen's Mission in Falmouth.

All nine members of the 771 Squadron team that performed the rescue are now being put forward as potential nominations for outstanding bravery and skill awards, which will ultimately be decided by the Naval Secretary.

Commanding Officer Chris Godwin, of the 771 Squadron, has put forward Lieutenant Commander "Oz" Rhodes, Lieutenant "Liv" Milles, Lieutenant Mike Scott and Petty Officer Aircrewman Dave Rigg, of the 193 helicopter, and Lieutenant "Chuck" Norris, Lieutenant Kevin Drodge, Captain "Daisy" May (Royal Marines), Petty Officer Aircrewman Jay O'Donnell and Leading Aircrewman Justin Radford, of the 194 helicopter, to be nominated for awards.

Commanding Officer Godwin said: "The conditions were exceptionally demanding. The only thing that would have made it more difficult is if the rescue had been at night. I'm confident that the work that they did will be recognised in some form or another."

He stressed that the rescue operation had been a team effort, with engineers responsible for getting the aircraft out the hangers in "awful" conditions at the Helston base, as well as those co-ordinating the operation to make it happen "like clockwork."

He said: "But of course I'm proud of all the guys for what they do. It was a textbook rescue really, in the most demanding conditions."

The crewmen themselves have also been quick to point out that they were just doing their job.

Lieutenant Commander Rhodes said: "This is one of the many rescues we have done over the extended period of bad weather. We're very pleased to be recognised, but I don't feel particularly brave to have done it. The training takes over and we deal with emotions afterwards."

Lieutenant Norris added: "It's nice to be recognised, but it's just one of many."

On Monday the crew were back in the air carrying out three rescues - one of which was saving a surfer who had got into difficulties off Perranporth.

In the meantime, the MSC Napoli has continued to make national headlines, after it was towed to Branscombe on the Devon coast, where it has begun leaking oil into the sea, sparking a major conservation alert. At the same time, looters have flocked to the beach in their hundreds, after a number of containers spilled open, leaving everything from barrels of perfume and alcohol to brand new BMW motorbikes lying on the beach. Despite warnings from police that there were no salvage rights for the lost cargo, hundreds of people have taken advantage of the perceived free-for-all and made off with items.