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Breakwater Two Rescued

_{News Item from 1988}

On January the 6th 1988 when we received a call that lights where seen at the end of the north pier.We left to have a look expecting to see nothing due to the weather we did not expect to see any one on the pier.Little did we know it would become a very hairy rescue below is the report that was in the next days newspaper less the names of the casualty`s

Two of the Lifeboat Crew who rescued the Fishermen .The third member of the crew was Tom Reeves

By Norman Denby

Three members of the Port Talbot R.N.L.I (NOTE:Back then a lot of the Team where in the Coastguard and the R.N.L.I) inshore rescue team lashed themselves together with a rope and battled though huge waves which crashed onto the breakwater at Aberavon Beach last night to rescue two fisherman

Photos of The Pier We Took The Next Morning at Low Water
The Boulders Can Be Seen Standing on the Pier

When they reached the men aged 21 and 22 they were huddled behind a boulder as the sea water swirled around them. The three members of the crew Robbie Harris,Graham Locke,Tom Reeves,tied a rope around the men,and the five of them battled their way back along the breakwater though the pounding waves to the shore.

The rescue alert went out at 18:50 when Mr Paul Evans,of Commercial Road,Taibach,saw flashing lights at the end of the breakwater. The three crew members were in the boathouse near the breakwater and also saw the flashing torch light."The waves were crashing over the end of the breakwater and we flashed a signal back which was answered,but after a short time we got no response to our signal" said Robbie

"We were very concerned and with Tom and Graham donned our lifejackets and dry suits,lashed ourselves together with a rope and started to make our way towards the end of the breakwater.

"The waves were crashing over us and when we got near the end we saw the fishermen were huddled and frightened behind one of the boulders around the pier.

We then tied the rope around them as the water swirled over us and started to make our way back to the shore. There was a handrail along one side of the pier and we were all clutching this as the waves crashed down on us.We had our backs to the sea and it was a bit hairy "We managed to get back to the shore after about threequarters-of-an-hour"

The fierce wind blew in the window of the Spar Supermarket in Talbot Road Port Talbot. Also a wall collapsed on to the road at the Aberavon Rugby Ground and fencing blew into the A48 road at Baglan. A power cable crashed down in Duffryn Road Taibach but Electricity Board workmen were quickly on to the scene to restore supplies. West Glamorgan Firemen were called to Pendrill Street Neath to make safe a chimney

The Pier as it is today the hand rail or the Boulders are no longer there
taken away by the sea in other storms