Early on Sunday morning, 21 December, the UK Coastguard began receiving reports of a lifeboat stranded on the rocky shoreline near Sidmouth on the English Channel. A Coastguard team from Beer was sent to investigate and found a large, heavily damaged emergency lifeboat on the beach.
The craft carried clear markings, including an IMOP number and the vessel name BF Carp. After contacting the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, responders confirmed that the lifeboat had fallen from the container ship and that efforts had been underway to track it and predict where it might come ashore.
The 19-person lifeboat was reported missing from the container vessel BF Carp (around 12,000 tonnes) on Wednesday, 17 December, while the ship was off the French coast. The vessel had departed Antwerp earlier that day bound for Spain. The Beer team was instructed to search the boat and remove and secure any equipment, including flares. A quick visual inspection showed significant damage along one side of the fiberglass hull. No one was on board at the time it entered the water.
The plan was initially to leave the lifeboat in place until a private contractor hired by the shipping company could recover it. However, there were concerns it could suffer further damage, break apart, or be refloated and carried back out to sea on the evening tide. The crew of the Sidmouth Independence lifeboat arrived with a tractor and towed the craft farther up the beach to a safe position above the high-tide line.
Devon and Cornwall Police, the Receiver of Wreck, and the Environment Agency were also notified. The UK Coastguard said it remains unclear how and why the emergency lifeboat became detached and ended up drifting away from the container ship.
