Former lifeboat William and Kate Johnston has been saved at sea after getting into trouble on Thursday. The 1920s rescue vessel was on passage from Holyhead to Falmouth when she began taking on water in a swell off Anglesey.

Both the Holyhead and Trearddur lifeboats hurried to the scene, where they joined a Sea King helicopter from Anglesey’s RAF Valley. William and Kate Johnston was taken in tow and safely beached at Rhoscolyn, on the tip of Anglesey.

The lifeboat crews commented that the conditions ‘weren’t too nice at all’ and that at one point they had been forced to consider taking everybody off the former lifeboat and letting her sink. The transit crew were unharmed, but are understandably dismayed by the accident. Investigations are being carried out into the cause of the problem.