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Coming back to the UK from her royal trip to France, the Princess Royal headed to the 2021 Skill and Gallantry Awards ceremony organised by Shipwrecked Mariners. The monarch is a patron of the charity which provides financial aid and support to retired seafarers, fishermen and their families in need.
During the ceremony, Anne presented several people with different awards including an “individual commendation for his high-quality seamanship” to Kinlochbervie-based fisherman Peter Paterson.
Mr Paterson was invited to the ceremony as a hero who saved seven lives in August 2020.
Back then, he was alerted by a local fisherman that his father’s boat had sent mayday calls and had started sinking.
Unfortunately, the seven-people crew on board were unable to inflate the life raft before the vessel sunk.
As the boat was sinking rapidly, they all ended up in the freezing seawater, with many of them unable to swim.
Others were forced to cling onto their lifejackets to remain afloat as they had not had the time to put them on correctly.
Peter Paterson reacted very quickly by rushing to his own boat with a friend.
The pair managed to rescue two 70-year-olds who were suffering from the effects of cold-water immersion.
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Other heroes were awarded prizes during the 170th ceremony such as Captain Richard Hoey who received The Lady Swaythling Trophy for the safe recovery of the crew of a sinking sailing vessel in the North Atlantic in September 2019.
The Emile Robin Award, for an “outstanding rescue”, was presented to Lewis Mulhearn, who managed to save his crew after an underwater explosion raised the vessel Galwad Y Mor up from the sea surface in December 2020.
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