The Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (GAFIRS) were paged by Solent Coastguard to launch to the assistance of the fishing vessel Commador at 10:30pm last night Approximately 1mile off Ryde pier Isle of Wight.

The fishing vessel had be pulling in its net when a large heavy object appeared and ended up on the deck. On further investigation the skipper discovered what appeared to be an un exploded bomb on his vessel and radioed Solent Coastguard to advise of his predicament.

The Independent Inshore Lifeboat Gosport Rescue One was tasked to get the skipper off his vessel, arriving on scene within 10 minutes, assisting him to safely anchor near the mining grounds off Ryde , Isle of Wight . The Queens Harbour Master and Southampton VTS were kept informed due to passing commercial vessels.

Gosport Rescue One then returned to station to drop off the skipper and pick up the Bomb disposal team who had been tasked to deal with the device, whilst Gosport Rescue 3 kept a 500m exclusion zone. for all passing vessels. On returning to the Commador the bomb disposal team advised that the bomb appeared to be a live unit, probably from WW1. The Bomb which measured 80cm by 30 cm was attached to a marker buoy and returned to the sea bed, for disposal during the day. a 500m exclusion zone will remain in place until it has been disposed of.

The Commador returned to Portsmouth harbour. Having completed their tasking both Gosport Rescue Craft returned to station at 01:15 this morning

Although this was an unusual tasking for one of the busiest Lifeboat Stations in the country(this being incident107 of the year so far) and is currently in its 40th year of service , it shows that the charity, which is run and crewed by 100% volunteers who are on call 24 hours per day 365 days a year are always willing to assist anyone in distress in the Solent.

Anyone wishing to support GAFIRS please go to our website www.gafirs.org.uk Chris Rudd Senior Coxswain.

Source: gosportinfo.blogspot.com