News / Fisherman dies in Lerwick harbour
POLICE have named the fisherman who died in Lerwick harbour on Saturday night as Iain James Herd, from Keith, in Aberdeenshire.
The 44 year old died after falling from a Scottish fishing boat as it sheltered from stormy seas. Following an investigation police said there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances and a report would be sent to the procurator fiscal.
Mr Herd was a crewman on board the Danish whitefish boat Tiede, which was towed into Lerwick after fouling her propeller on Thursday while working 45 miles east of Unst.
At 10.25pm on Saturday night the skipper of the Fraserburgh fishing boat Lynden, which was sheltering at Albert Wharf, called Shetland coastguard to report a man in the water.
Kevin Rognaldsen, the skipper of the Bressay ferry Leirna, heard the call and left the island’s ferry terminal to attend the scene, close to the Lerwick ferry terminal five minutes across the harbour.
Once there two deckhands, Charlie Umphray and Ragnar Riise, launched the Leirna’s rescue boat and hauled the fisherman on board. He was being held in place by the crew of the Lynden who had a rope with a grappling hook attached to Mr Herd, who was in the water at the stern of the boat.
The rescue boat took him to Victoria pier where a paramedic boarded to see if he could help, however the seas were so rough they had to go around the pier into the small boat harbour so they could land Mr Herd at the “Bressay slip”.
From there he was taken by ambulance to Gilbert Bain Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
There were around nine fishing boats sheltering from gale force southerly winds in Lerwick on Saturday night. The Tiede was tied up at Holmsgarth in relatively calm waters compared to Albert Wharf where the sea was rougher, according to a harbour spokesman.
The Lynden, one of the smallest fishing boats in the harbour, was berthed alongside another Fraserburgh fishing boat, Sunrise.
Speaking this morning, Mr Umphray said: “I was working on the ferry when we got the call. The skipper heard there was a man in the water so we left for Lerwick early and launched the peerie boat.
“The crew had him on a rope but by the time we got to him it looked like he’d had it. I don’t know how long he’d been in the water.”
Mr Umphray said the crew of the Leirna have exercises launching the small boat and rescuing dummies from the sea on a regular basis, but he had not expected to have to do it for real.
“I was at the fishing myself for 22 years and really felt for the guy and the crew and his family. I don’t think we could have been any quicker than we were.”
Mr Herd’s boat Tiede had arrived in Lerwick harbour in the early hours of Friday morning after a mammoth 22 hour tow by Lerwick lifeboat through gale force winds and heavy seas after breaking down at sea off Unst.
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