A cruise ship which departed from Southampton over the weekend has declared an emergency, necessitating a medical evacuation.
Lifeboat crews in Cornwall performed a medivac on Monday morning for a sick passenger aboard the 141,000-ton cruise ship Regal Princess. The ship, carrying over 3,000 passengers, diverted to Falmouth from its Round Britain cruise which commenced from Southampton on Sunday at 4 PM.
Emergency Details
Falmouth pilot Captain Alex Head boarded the cruise ship off the Manacles from the pilot boat LK Mitchell, under the command of Coxswain Sandy Proctor. He piloted the vessel to just off Pendennis Point, where the Falmouth lifeboat, commanded by Coxswain Luke Wills, went alongside to evacuate the sick passenger.
Falmouth Coastguard had contacted the Falmouth lifeboat launching authority shortly after 8 AM, requesting the service of the all-weather lifeboat to assist in the medical evacuation. The Regal Princess, which was en route from Southampton to Cobh, County Cork in the Republic of Ireland, declared the emergency during its passage.
Medivac Operation
An RNLI spokesperson stated: “The crew assembled in the boathouse, waiting for the ship to enter safe waters of Falmouth Bay, along with two ambulance paramedics tasked to assist in casualty care. The lifeboat ‘Richard Cox Scott’ slipped its mooring and reached the ‘Regal Princess’ at 10:45 AM. The paramedics, along with two lifeboat crew members, boarded the cruise ship to assist with the assessment and transfer of the casualty to the lifeboat. Once back on board with the casualty, the lifeboat returned to the lifeboat house, where the casualty and paramedics were transferred to a waiting ambulance for hospital transport.”
Regal Princess Background
The Regal Princess is one of seven Royal Class ships in the Princess Cruises fleet. It is scheduled to call at Falmouth again on August 18 during its British Isles, Ireland, Scotland, and France cruise.
This incident marks the second time in 24 hours that ships from the Princess fleet have called at Falmouth. The Caribbean Princess, a modified Grand Class cruise ship, made a cruise call on Sunday after arriving from Portland at the start of a cruise from Southampton to Iceland. The ship was greeted by glorious weather as it anchored offshore in Falmouth Bay.
