The crew of HMS Tyne helped save a diver’s life off the south coast of the UK, say the Royal Navy.
The Offshore Patrol Vessel responded to a mayday call for the missing diver while on routine maritime security patrols in home waters.
“The alert from Her Majesty’s Coastguard saw Tyne assist RNLI lifeboats from Exmouth and Lyme Regis, as well as two Coastguard helicopters, a dive boat and four local fishing vessels. Tyne arrived in the area in Lyme Bay – around four miles off the coast of Seatown, Dorset – within 45 minutes of the alarm being raised.
The warship took up station in the last known position of the diver and sailors were called on to carry out a visual search. After 20 minutes, Sub Lieutenant Andrew Boyle, a young officer under training on Tyne, spotted the diver. Tyne then radioed the location through to the Exmouth lifeboat, who were in the best location to recover him.”
The diver was found well and taken to safety by the lifeboat.
Lieutenant Nick Ward, the Executive Officer of HMS Tyne, said in a news release:
“This incident is a great example of how versatile the vessels of the Offshore Patrol Squadron are.The ship’s company quickly adapted to a changing situation and worked to support the Coastguard, the RNLI and local mariners in carrying out the search. We are always concerned for the safety of our fellow mariners at sea, thankfully SLt Boyle spotted the diver and we were able to play a key part in recovering him quickly.”
Has this ship any weapons on it…..
2 x GPMG’s port & starboard of the bridge & a 20mm Oerlikon forward of the bridge… If you zoom in on the photo you can just make it out… The overall size, mounts and weapons system are notably smaller than the 30mm that are installed on the Batch 2… Easy to miss.
Found them……very scary…..
They are just OPVs not designed to go toe to toe with high end combatants. Very useful for keeping an eye of the UK’s vast maritime area, fishing areas and sea borders.
Yeh, these ships are bigger than WW2 destroyers so the gun looks quite silly really. If they were only going to patrol home waters then we would probably build smaller ships, but the RN has global patrol duties so these big hulls are sized to transit blue water routes to the Falklands and Caribbean, for example.
They are also well equipped on the C3 front for OPV’s.
Every day’s a school day, I thought they all had a 30 mil on the pointy end, Wiki says a 20 mil.
Also 2 Miniguns
So exactly why did Tyne see the diver when the others couldn’t? Higher up?
I’m surprised the diver wasn’t equipped with something to highlight his/her position?
Recreational divers tend to buy black dry suits. No idea why, I guess it makes them look the business. My wife went the opposite way and got one in bright orange. The diver should have had a delayed surface marker buoy, which is basically an orange 4ft long sausage you fill up with air from the tank before you ascend. He may have had one, but in a big swell they are not easy to see. My wife and I once got caught in a drift which took us away from our dive boat. The only thing that saved us… Read more »
I tried to buy a bright orange drysuit and was told they were for services only, so mine is bright red.
But what surprises me is that divers generally end up pay thousands of pounds for all their kit, but don’t buy a strobe light to go on the shoulder of their BCD, or even a PLB. PLBs cost about £215 and the battery lasts for about 5 years. Pennies when it comes to the cost of diving, the cost of searching for hours before rescuing you and the value of your life to yourself and family.
The question on most diving websites and FB pages is what the hell were these 2 idiots doing recreational diving when it is effectively banned.