Fishing boat escorted into Kirkwall with pumps onboard

The Peterhead registered fishing boat, which was at the centre of an emergency when it started taking in water to the east of Orkney this morning, is now tied up at Kirkwall Pier.

Kirkwall Lifeboat, with seven volunteer crew, was launched just before 11am to go to the aid of the vessel, which reported to Shetland Coastguard that it was taking water onboard, some 18 miles east of Sanday.

The lifeboat Margaret Foster, which  left Kirkwall Harbour within 8 minutes of the crew being paged, arrived at the fishing vessel Tranquility, which had six crew onboard, around an hour later.

The cause of the water ingress is not known at present. However the crew was initially alerted when alarms sounded onboard the boat.

A search and rescue helicopter from Sumburgh also headed to the stricken vessel and put a pump onboard just before the lifeboat arrived.

When Kirkwall Lifeboat arrived on scene, two RNLI crew and another pump were put onboard the Tranquility.

The lifeboat then escorted the boat into Kirkwall where it was also met by members of the Kirkwall Coastguard Rescue Team.

Initially, while tied up at Kirkwall, attempts were made to keep the water levels down onboard the vessel using the pumps already onboard, before the Kirkwall Fire and Rescue Service were also called out to provide further assistance with more pumps.