A 22-metre French trawler which was taking on water was rescued in treacherous conditions on Saturday.

The fishing boat was 15 nautical miles from St Ives Head when it ran into difficulties.

St Ives Lifeboat Station was launched the all-weather Shannon class lifeboat Nora Stachura in very poor weather conditions. The volunteer crew faced waves of around 20-foot, but pushed on as quickly as conditions would allow

On arrival the crew established that the vessel was taking on water in the stern of the boat. The conditions were far too poor to transfer any salvage pump, or any crew members onto the casualty vessel.

Thankfully the crew of the trawler was able to get the intake of water under control.

Coastguard Search and Rescue Helicopter 924 was also on scene, they were able to lower a winch person with a salvage pump on to the casualty vessel.

Conditions continued to be difficult, the pump was not as effective as it could have been, mainly because the vessel was moving up and down considerably; one minute the pump was under water and the next it wasn’t.

The Nora Stachura lifeboat stood by the casualty vessel and then started to escort her back towards Newlyn.

At 12.35pm Penlee Lifeboat's crew also received a tasking request from Falmouth Coastguard and launched the all-weather lifeboat Ivan Ellen, from Newlyn.

With coxswain Jack Shannon at the helm they were quickly on scene and took over the escort of the trawler just off Cape Cornwall - she was then shadowed and escorted safely back to Newlyn, arriving at 5.59pm.

Crew - Coxswain Jack Shannon, Mechanic Marcel Le Bretton, Ben Keogh, Dan Sell, Tom Matson, Mike Iles and Amy Smith.