Two boys were rescued from the Tower of Refuge by the Douglas RNLI lifeboat Sir William Hillary after taking an afternoon swim.

The two boys age 16 and 17 were carrying out a school project which said they were to do something different. They decided to swim out to the Tower of Refuge. It was a nice afternoon, the sun was shining, yet it was still cold and the sea was colder still as the boys found out as they battled against the tide to reach their goal approximately a quarter of a mile away from their start point, the steps opposite the Jubilee Clock.

Having reached the Tower of Refuge the boys decided not to swim back as planned but attracted the attention of a small boat, who informed the Coastguard and the Douglas lifeboat crew were paged.

The lifeboat launched at 4.10 pm under the command of Emergency Coxswain Greg Coates who on hearing where the casualty was gave instruction to the crew to inflate the small boat carried by the lifeboat for shallow waters.

On arriving off the Tower of Refuge the  boat was put into the sea with crew men Noel Farrell and Graeme Cushnie with a supple of blankets to keep the casualties warm.

On arriving back at the lifeboat the two casualties were ushered into the lifeboats main cabin to keep warm, but they were still in high spirits despite the cold.

The casualties stayed on the lifeboat until it was housed back in the boathouse; by which time the Douglas Coastguard had brought the boys clothes around to the lifeboat house where the boys quickly changed into their warm clothes, none the worse for their experience.

The whole incident had taken only 30 minutes.

Read the RNLI Sea Safety Guide.