Two saved as thick fog blankets the coast

The crew of Humber Lifeboat was launched after the man who was out bait digging called 999 on his mobile phone.

Coxswain Dave Steenvoorden, who waded out to the casualty with crew member Ben Mitchell, said: “He tried to wade and it got to his welly-tops and he thought he was going seawards, then he started to panic.

“He couldn’t hear anything, he couldn’t figure out where he was and he had no idea of direction.

“We were telling him to come towards us and were flashing our torches, but he said he couldn’t because it was getting deeper.

“He was gobsmacked when he saw we were on foot.

“He said if we hadn’t come, he’d have died as he would have gone the wrong way.”

Earlier, the crew was called out to help another man, who was working on a vessel around 30 miles offshore, whose thumb had been torn off when he was preparing a rescue craft to be lifted out of the sea.

Mr Steenvoorden said: “He put a hook into the lifting strop and his thumb was in the way.”

The man’s thumb was packed alongside frozen vegetables for the hour-long journey back to Grimsby.

Despite the dense fog, the crew was conscious the casualty needed to be in hospital as soon as possible to give him the best chance of having his thumb successfully reattached.

They were able to travel at a good pace, as the mirror-calm sea meant the radar signals were extremely clear.

Mr Steenvoorden said: “The conditions were fantastic for radar; we were picking up the pot-ends.

“But the only things we actually saw was the jetty when we left, the boat when we were alongside and the steps at Grimsby - and that was in a 60-mile round trip.”

The casualty was handed over to the coastguards on arrival.