No u-turn on Coastguard tugs

I read on the BBC Cornwall site today that the Anglian Princess has forsaken Cornish shores and has been returned to the owners in Scotland. I believed that the government would question this decision but alas no. We no longer have a rescue tug to aid vessels in distress off our coast.
It certainly is poor timing with an oil tanker running aground off New Zealand in the news, illustrating clearly the potential of maritime disasters. Also it shows the pressing need for assets to be in place to deal with incidents swiftly.
I do hope that Lance Kennedy et al on Cornwall Council will not cancel the maritime fire fighting capacity of Cornwall Fire and Rescue and will work with other agencies to maintain this commitment. I do hope that the council will do so and not follow the governments lead in shirking responsibility for maritime safety.
As much as the Cornish are known in romantic books for wrecking and wishing ill on seafarers in fact the opposite is true. Whether lighthouses built around our coast, or the brave work of lifeboatmen, Cornwall's connection with the sea historically has been one of helping those in trouble at sea whatever the cost and whatever the sacrifice. The question is how to keep this proud tradition alive whilst Westminster does the opposite?

Karin Schepers, demonstrates the need for emergency tugs in Cornwall

Barely 24 hours ago (early hours 3/8/11) a German owned vessel called the Karin Schepers ran aground near Cape Cornwall. Fortunately no one was injured and the 9,000 ton container ship was undamaged, miraculously the ship avoided the jagged rocks of the West Penwith coast and ran aground on a sandy beach. Certainly it would have been a different story had the ship struck the rocks, now at the very best we would be clearing up pollution and at the very worst who knows?

This incident goes to show that even in the best of conditions the shipping lanes around Cornwall are a very dangerous place. This should serve as a wake up call for the government to start taking maritime safety seriously, we can easily imagine why Mike Penning (minister responsible for shipping) has no idea about maritime matters, I would probably be the same if I lived in Hemel Hempstead (where he is MP). Similarly too with the Transport Minister Philip Hammond in his inland Surrey constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge. They have no idea about why maritime safety is so important and is why they are planning on slashing Coastguard stations and withdrawing funding for the Emergency Tug Vessels (ETVs). I just hope that both of them have read about this case and realised that Emergency Tugs are essential when we have such large ships in Cornish waters. (It was not needed but the Anglian Princess was tasked to assist with re-floating the German container ship, certainly if the tide had not been so favourable this would have been necessary. Also if she had struck rocks the Anglian Princess would have been essential to salvage the vessel and/ or start cleaning up the pollution.)

The Anglian Princess, note the new darker colour scheme

As I have written before the Anglian Princess is essential to assist ships and boats in distress at sea. This is a service that might seem like figures on paper to Penning and Hammond, but if they lived by the sea and were responsible to constituents in coastal communities they would think these things through more carefully.

For more information, there's an article about the beaching of the Karin Schepers on the excellent Cornwall Community News site:  with some great pics of the incident too.
My earlier blog Scrapping Coastguard tugs is the Government Oblivious to Maritime Safety?

the Coastguard announcement, good news and bad

We'll have the good news first, Falmouth Coastguard will not be closed or downgraded to a daytime only role as the government had wanted. So congratulations to everyone who has lobbied and argued for Falmouth to maintain it's important position. It even looks as though the government may increase the importance of Falmouth and more than likely employ more staff to cover other closures, which brings me to the bad news....

Although there is much fanfare and sympathetic news reporting that the government has listened and done a u- turn, this is simply not true. Despite the consultation period not being over!?! they have announced, Coastguard stations to remain open will be Falmouth, Milford Haven, Holyhead, Belfast, Stornoway, Shetland, Aberdeen, Humber and London. To close are Swansea, Liverpool, Clyde, Forth, Yarmouth, Thames and Brixham. This is still a massive blow to maritime communities throughout these islands and Brixham currently provides cover for South East Cornwall, so this will effect Kernow.

In a rare, unprecedented and exceptional move for this blog, I invite you to read the Conservative MP for South East Cornwall Sheryll Murray's blog on today's coastguard cuts, she makes some very astute points: Local MP calls Coastguard closures a ‘disaster’ and calls on Government to fulfil its promise to listen

If you have already signed the petition well done, if you haven't do it now: Save the UK Coastguard Centers

Coastguard Emergency Towing Vessels no risk assessment so far!

Many of my regular readers (if there are any) will see that I have great concern about cuts to the Coastguard service both here in Cornwall and generally. (my earlier post on the subject) It is also of great concern that the government plans to scrap the Emergency Towing Vessels around the UK coast, the Cornish based vessel being the Anglian Princess, pictured above. Which I blogged about at the end of last year, (the post explains more about the vessel and it's role). The Celitc League has been campaining on this issue and it emerges from a letter sent to them from the MCA that there has as yet no risk assesment of the impact of the loss of these vital tugs. Read the Celtic League's press release here: ETV RISK ASSESSMENT.

It just seems that like the cuts to the Coastguard stations the government has decided to cuts services and then is tailoring assessments and consultations to fit these forgone conclusions. It can't be stressed enough that in emergency services like the Coastguard, the needs and demands of the lifesaving service should be paramount not an afterthought. As the Cornish Lib Dem blogger Alex Folkes, rightly pointed out, cuts to emergency tugs could lead to another Penlee disaster his blog here, those familiar with those tragic events will know that the stricken MV Union Star refused a commerical tug to rescue her for fear of the high cost and thus leading to the infamous tragedy. The government needs to reassess how they approach these cuts and needs to realise that cuts to the Coastguard and the ETV's should be given more significance than numbers in columns.

Scrapping Coastguard Tugs, is the Government oblivious to maritime safety?

The Anglian Princess taken from http://www.mcga.gov.uk/

Amidst the large amount of cuts announced during the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat spending review yesterday,there was one great cut that will effect the high seas aound Cornwall, unnoticed by many, save the eagle eyed reporters at BBC Cornwall. (and the MP for Shetland.) Despite the claim in the article that it is a Falmouth tug, the Anglian Princess has become something of a landmark in Mount's Bay it's usual station.

The vessel is classed as an Emergency Tow Vessel, designed for the towing of stricken vessels in the Western Approaches and Channel but it also has a firefighting capability, (in conjunction with Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.) The Anglian Princess is one of four HM Coastguard ETVs that stand ready to assist vessels in distress. The Cornish based vessel has an important job, the seas around Cornwall are very busy with shipping coming to and from the UK and Ireland as well the continental ports of the Channel. The reason that the ETV system was introduced was threefold, to prevent loss of life at sea that could be avoided, to prevent loss of shipping and cargoes and to try to avoid environmental disasters, e.g. Torrey Canyon.

The service record of the Anglian Princess is long and eventful, the most notable being the assistance given to the Napoli -and along with the French ETV Abeille Bourbon- the eventual beaching of that vessel in Devon, follow this link for more of the story and some great pictures like this:

There follows a long list of vessels that the Anglian Princess has aided:

Sabre of Newquay 14/3/2004 fishing vessel overdue in Newlyn, assisted in search, link.
Sea Fox 11/1/2004 fire in engine room, off Land's End, towed into Falmouth, link.
Galina 3/11/2005 vessel drifting off Dodman Point, towed into Falmouth, link.
Goliath 8/3/2006 tow parted from barge, towed to Mount's Bay, link.
Spar Garnet 7/12/2006 disabled in heavy seas off Berry Head, towed to Torbay, link.
MV Petra 13/12/2006 navigation problem off Land's End, towed to Falmouth, link.
RFA Largs Bay 6/5/2007 vessel lost ability to steer off Eddystone Rock, escorted to Plymouth, link.
Antigoni 23/11/2009 gas tanker suffering machinery failure off Lizard Point, tasked to assist, link.
Oscar Wilde 4/2/2010 fire aboard passenger ferry, sent to assist, link.
Swanland 20/8/2010 engine failure off Lizard Point, towed to Famouth, link.

(It must also be noted that in nearly all of these cases the brave men of the RNLI's lifeboats have also played their parts.In addition to the equally brave Search and Rescue 771 Squadron from RNAS Culdrose)

I am sure this is not an exhaustive list of missions by the Anglian Princess but it gives a great idea over the number of incidents that happen around our coast and the number of tragedys that have been potentially avoided, in terms of lives, cargoes and pollution. It is dreadful to ponder what could possibly happen without this vital service. I am completely at a loss how this government plans to protect shipping, ferries and fishermen at sea. I have no doubt that the cost of the Anglian Princess and her sister ships throughout the UK is high, but so are the risks...

Postscript:

There seems to be somewhat more of a stir in Scotland than Cornwall about this with Charles Kennedy MP and John Farquhar Munro MSP both Liberal Democrat, calling on the government to rethink the scrapping of the Coastguard tugs. Also has some details of the Anglian Princesses twin the Anglian Prince's missions.

Further BBC Cornwall have updated their story with a statement from the MCA:

"The government believes state provision of emergency towing vessels does not represent a correct use of taxpayers' money, and that ship salvage should be a commercial matter between a ship's operator and the salvor."

Although it appears as a fair point, it does not seem to take into account the fact that once a vessel is adrift at sea that time is of the essence. The time between a vessel being in trouble and smashing against the shore could potentially be very short. Therefore it seems in the interests of saving money the government is gambling that either: a tanker filled with oil or a passenger ship would not immediate assistance. And if so that a private company could fill this need very quickly.

It also lists the potential savings apparently 32.5 million over four years, (if all four of the rescue tugs are scrapped). Whether an environmental disaster -from an oil tanker for example- anywhere around the UK would cost more than this is anyones guess. Not to mention the untangible costs of the potential loss of life. I greatly fear that if there was a disaster off Cornwall or Scotland or South East England the government would regret this saving. The second BBC story.