Three sailors on their way back from a night ‘on the tiles’ had to be rescued by lifeboat crews after getting lost whilst trying to return back to their ship in the dead of night.
The three had left their vessel, a cargo ship, that was anchored off the Somerset coast in order to get a taste of the nightlife in Barry, South Wales on Wednesday evening.
After enjoying a night away from the ship, the trio attempted to return back to their vessel using one of the ships tenders that had been left ‘in-situ’ after the ‘outbound’ journey.
They had set off at around 03:45 hours but were reported as missing three hours later.
Search and rescue teams found the three at around 08:30 hours on Flat Holm island which is around 3.5nm off the Welsh coast.
According to the RNLI, the three hapless sailors were crew members on the Dutch-registered coaster ‘Alana Evita’.

South Wales Police confirmed that it had been working with HM Coastguard and the RNLI and added that the three men, one Russian, one Dutch and one Filipino, were “now being assisted by police officers”.
Got a story, video or one-off blog that you would like to share with us?
You can contact our team of former emergency services & armed forces personnel either through our Facebook page, via Twitter ( @ES_News_ ) or you can contact us via email: contact@emergency-services.news or call us on: 0115 888 0592
If you run or manage a ‘job’ social media account and you would like us to share one of your stories then send us a tweet or a message!
If you would like to write an article that you would like us to share (it can be about anything to do with the emergency services / NHS) whether you serve in the emergency services / NHS or whether you are a member of the public who has had a good experience with the emergency services, then feel free to contact our team; anonymously if you prefer.
We are proud to act as a voice for the emergency services, armed forces & health service, with over 500,000 people visiting our website each month.
Support our news, stories and blogs —>

Join our WhatsApp community!
ESN is now on WhatsApp, and we want you to join our communities.
To join, you need to have WhatsApp on your device. All you need to do is click the link and press 'Join community'.
No one will be able to see who is signed up, and no one can send messages except the ESN team.
Joining our WhatsApp channel is a great way to help support our work and best of all, it is free!
If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.