I'm on the Titanic and she's sinking! How sailor was saved by phone call to friend 4,000 miles away in Aberystwyth



A panicking sailor whose ship was sinking in the Caribbean phoned the only number he could remember – his best friend back in Britain.

Thankfully the friend, Alex Evans, is a lifeboatman. He calmly used his mobile phone to co-ordinate a dramatic rescue operation for Mark Corbett and two other crewmen aboard a motor yacht with the unfortunate name of Titanic near the island of St Kitts.

And he did it all without leaving the DIY store where he was shopping with his mother.



Help! Aberystwyth RNLI volunteer Alex Evans (left) was called by Mark Corbett when the vessel he was on, the Titanic, began to sink



‘I said to Mark if this was a hoax and I launched an international rescue, I would give him the bill,’ said Mr Evans, 27.

‘But he said, “No, it is serious”. I could tell there was panic in his voice which is why I knew he wasn’t winding me up.’



Mr Evans is a volunteer crew member with the RNLI in Aberystwyth and his usual rescue missions involve stricken holidaymakers off the Welsh coast.



He was queuing to pay at a Focus store when his friend rang from 4,000 miles away to say: ‘Help, we’re sinking.’



Quick thinking: A receipt in a DIY shop was the only piece of paper available for Alex to jot down the details of Mark's boat

Mr Corbett was part of a skeleton crew taking the yacht from Grenada to Puerto Rico for a refit.



He told Mr Evans: ‘I’m on a ship in the Caribbean, we’re taking on water and we’re sinking.



‘We’ve lost all power so we can’t use the long-range radio. We’re too far from shore to use the VHF radio so I’m using the satellite phone – and yours is the only number I could remember off the top of my head. The ship is the Motor Yacht Titanic.’



'I'm on a ship in the Caribbean, we're taking on water and we're sinking. 'We've lost all power so can't use the long range radio .... The ship is the Motor Yacht Titanic'



Mr Evans jotted down the ship’s latitude and longitude on a till receipt then called Milford Haven Coastguard and asked to be passed to the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Falmouth, Cornwall, which deals with all international incidents.

He told them the Titanic’s position – and stressed the boat was taking on water.

A major rescue operation was then launched for the 1,700-ton yacht owned by a company called White Star Ltd, the same name as the cruise line which owned the ill-fated original Titanic.

Three hours later spotter planes found it barely above water, and it was towed by U.S. coastguards to safety in St Kitts.



‘It’s lucky Mark knew my mobile number off by heart – he calls me enough,’ added Mr Evans.

‘It’s also lucky he got through to me – the mobile signal isn’t too good around here.



‘He called me because it was the only number that he could remember in his panic. I think it was either me or his mum.

‘I think his mum might not have had as much luck if she had rung up the coastguard and said, “My son is in a sinking ship in the Caribbean called the Titanic”.’

A U.S. Coastguard spokesman in Miami said: ‘Once at the scene, a rescue and assistance team was deployed aboard the Titanic to pump water from the vessel.