The collision was happened on the morning of the 3rd October 2007 off Falmouth which involved a small fishing vessel. According to the record a small blue wooden fishing boat had departed the Helford River early on that morning for fishing grounds south of Falmouth.
The vessel had a crew of three. At about 0630 hrs there was a collision between the two vessels. According to investigations neither vessel was aware of each other at any stage during the incident. This was despite the skipper of the blue wooden fishing vessel reporting that he had looked north towards Falmouth for any outbound traffic shortly before the collision.
The impact of collision was so deep that the wooden fishing vessel suffered severe damage and the three crews had to extricate themselves from wreckage of the wheelhouse. The liferaft was launched but failed to inflate. It is said that the damage was severe as they could not locate their VHF radio or access their lifejackets. Eventually a mobile phone was used to raise the alarm.
After alarm the Falmouth Pilot Boat came to their aid and took off the crew of three. An attempt was made to tow the wooden fishing vessel, but it sank shortly afterwards. The owner/skipper of the Blithe Spirit, Tomlinson, stated he was sitting down when suddenly he was thrown forward and suffered head injuries on the forward cabin. John Tomlinson pleaded guilty to one charge brought under section 58 of the merchant Shipping Act 1995.
