Iain Maciver writes …

A trawler had dropped a party of hunters off on an uninhabited island for the annual harvest of young gannets when it was at the centre of a drama last night as  it began to sink.

Stornoway lifeboat and the coastguard helicopter were called out on Friday evening as the Heather Isle M with five of a crew began to take water near Bayble Island after the trip to the island of Sulasgeir where the hunting party for the seabirds – known as gugas – will be based for more than a week.

After a pump was lowered on board, the flow of water was stemmed enough to get the trawler safely into Stornoway.

The alarm was raised before 5pm when the trawler, owned by brothers Calum and Murdo Murray of Ness, began to take water.

Three of the crewmen were winched off as a precaution before it was confirmed that the trawler was no longer sinking.

Crewman Murdo Fraser,a former policeman, said: “I really want to pay tribute to the professionalism of the everyone who responded – the coastguards, the lifeboat crew and the helicopter crew. It was an anxious time till we saw them.”

Lifeboat cox Murdie Campbell said they had been prepared with a second pump if it had been necessary but the trawler did not need it.

After reaching Stornoway, Calum Murray said: “I had just taken over the watch. The water was coming in and the electric pumps could not cope because the belts were slipping as the water rose. I called the coastguard and the helicopter and lifeboat were there very quickly. They put a pump down to us and the levels went down. The boat seems fine.”

He and the crew said that party of hunters on Sulasgeir, 40 miles north of Lewis, may be unaware of what had happened and would have begun the harvest of the strong-smelling seabirds as normal.

The hunters are due back at Ness in the north of the island, where the bird is seen as a delicacy, at the end of next week.

I went to the harbour to speak to one of the owners, Calum Murray, but firstly I  spoke to lifeboat cox Murdie Campbell. Press the arrow below to hear the interviews.