Taken from “The History of the Dover lifeboats” by Jeff Morris and available from the Ladies Guild's shop.

Whilst on her way from Hamburg to Port Said , on the afternoon of October 9 th . 1981, the Master of the 38,000 ton Danish registered container-vessel “Dragor Maersk” put out a radio call, reporting that one of his crew had sustained a fractured hip and required to be taken to hospital. A force 9 severe south-westerly gale was blowing, with extremely heavy seas, conditions being too severe for a helicopter to be used to take the man off the vessel. The Coastguard therefore telephoned Capt. Peter White, Honorary Secretary of the Dover Lifeboat Station, explaining the situation and giving the vessel's expected time of arrival off Dover , as 1-00am. Capt. White telephoned Coxswain Hawkins to discuss the situation and it was agreed that the man should be taken off by the lifeboat, but that the lifeboat's crew and the Station Honorary Medical Adviser, Dr. Peter Welch, should meet first to discuss exactly how best to get the man off such a large vessel.

They all assembled at the Lifeboat Station at 11-00pm and a trial-run was made with the patient strapped into a ‘Neil Robertson' stretcher, which was lashed into a rigid cot stretcher. After several attempts, they worked out the best way to handle the stretchers, the main problem being to find the correct point of balance.

At 12-15am, the “Rotary Service” slipped her moorings, taking extra crew-men with her, making a full complement of 10 on board and they headed out to sea, under the command of Coxswain Hawkins. Very heavy seas were encountered as the lifeboat made for the rendezvous point, which was 1.5 miles south-west of the South Goodwin Lightship, the lifeboat coming up with the container vessel at 2-00am. The large ship lay heading south-easterly, so as to provide a lee for the lifeboat. With great skill, Coxswain Hawkins took the heaving, pitching lifeboat up to the foot of a power assisted Pilot ladder, on the vessel's port side. Second Coxswain Roy Couzens stepped onto the ladder, climbing up the first 6 feet, the Power-hoist then lifting him the remaining 30 feet to deck level. Dr Welch and lifeboat-man Garth James, a qualified first-aider, followed, Coxswain Hawkins having great difficulty in holding the lifeboat in position, in the violent seas. Dr Welch and Garth James were taken below to the injured man, while Second Coxswain Couzens supervised the lifting aboard of their first-aid bags, stretchers, VHF Radio Handsets, etc using a derrick.

Dr Welch found that the injured man had a fractured pelvis and he was placed in a life-jacket and a hard-hat, before being strapped into the ‘Neil Robertson' stretcher, which was then lashed into the cot-stretcher. Considerable difficulty was experienced in moving the patient through the vessel's companion-ways, up to the aft-deck, but, by 2-40am, all was ready. As Dr Welch wanted to be on the deck of the lifeboat to receive the patient aboard, he was lowered down on the Pilot Hoist, then waited on the fixed section of the ladder a the bottom until Coxswain Hawkins was able to manoeuvre the lifeboat's fore-deck under the hoist. The lifeboat-men shouted ‘Jump' – and the Doctor jumped. One of the lifeboat-men grabbed hold of the straps on his life-jacket and he was hauled aboard the lifeboat. Coxswain Hawkins then radioed to the Master of the “Dragor Maersk”, asking him to steam slowly ahead, as the vessel's drift against the ebb-tide, was causing waves 6 feet high, even on the lee-side.

This the Master did and, at the second attempt, Coxswain Hawkins took the lifeboat alongside, starboard-bow-on and held her firmly in position by very skilful use of the engines and rudder. As the extremely tricky operation of transferring the patient to the lifeboat began the whole area was lit by the vessel's own deck-lights and the lifeboat's powerful searchlight. Five of the lifeboat-men stood out on the open foredeck of the lifeboat, as Second Coxswain Couzens and Garth James lowered the stretcher by a hand-line, which had been rigged through a derrick head-lead, the derrick holding the stretcher out some 5 feet from the side of the ship. Some of the ship's own crew tended two heaving-lines, to steady the stretcher as it was lowered slowly some 45 feet from the ship's after-deck, down to the waiting lifeboat-men. AS soon as the stretcher reached the lifeboat, the men held it and all the lines were immediately cut, before the rise and fall of the two boats could cause any problems. Second Coxswain Couzens and Garth James were taken off the container-vessel at 3-15am and Coxswain Hawkins set course for Dover . During the passage home, he had to make repeated use of the engine-throttles, to try and reduce the violent motion of the lifeboat as much as possible, as she pounded through mountainous seas, one of the lifeboat-men injuring his ankle as he was thrown heavily against the anchor-stowage. But they reached Dover safely and the injured seaman was landed at 3-45am and taken straight to hospital.

The Master of the “Dragor Maersk” sent a telegram of thanks to the crew of the Dover lifeboat for their help, the RNLI awarding its ‘Thanks on Vellum' to Coxswain/Assistant Mechanic Anthony Hawkins, with a special Doctor's Vellum being awarded to Dr Peter Welch, for his excellent service.