After 17 years in Port Stephens and responding to countless calls for assistance, the Marine Rescue vessel Danial Thain will sail out of the bay one final time next week.
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The ageing rescue vessel will leave Port Stephens on September 6.
It will journey to Brisbane to be used as a training vessel but its new owners, ECA Maritime College.
“We are sorry to see Danial Thain go, but it couldn’t have found a more appropriate home, training tomorrow’s commercial masters and crews in Queensland,” Port Stephens Marine Rescue unit commander Lee Uebergang said.
Danial Thain was delivered to Port Stephens in 1999 after serving out of the port of Broughty and along the Scottish Coast with the Royal National Lifeboat Institute for 21 years.
It was then called the Spirit of Tayside.
During its time with Marine Rescue NSW the Danial Thain was involved in hundreds of rescues.
Five rescues the vessel was involved with saw its crews recognised with major national courage awards, including a Medal of Valour presented to Coxswain Laurie Nolan.
Port Stephens Marine Rescue said that in the past 17 years the Danial Thain, along with the unit’s other vessels, have been involved with more than 2000 rescues and saved more than 4400 lives.
Danial Thain was replaced in June 2016 by a 32-foot Steber named John Thompson, a fast-offshore rescue vessel capable of reaching more than 30 knots.
“The fleet is now equipped with fast new generation rescue vessels able to react quickly to calls for assistance 24 hours per day on inshore and offshore waters,” Mr Lee Uebergang said.
John Thompson was commissioned in an official ceremony in Port Stephens on June 25, 2016.
The vessel, launched from Taree in May 2016, is named in tribute to the late John Thompson ESM who gave 44 years service to Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol and subsequently Marine Rescue NSW.
He was responsible for establishing the coastal patrol base at Nelson Head in the early 1980s after he and his family moved there from Sydney.
The Danial Thain was funded by a generous donor who supported the vessel since its arrival in Port Stephens in 1999.
Marine Rescue Port Stephens relies on the donations and bequests from donors to be able to operate its rescue fleet.
The Danial Thain will be escorted out of Port Stephens by a flotilla of vessels drawn from a number of emergency services in Port Stephens at 10am on Wednesday, September 6.
Ellie-Marie Watts
A journalist with 10 years experience, Ellie-Marie connects readers to the stories that matter in their communities. A Port Stephens-based news, sport and event writer and photographer with a passion for human interest features.
A journalist with 10 years experience, Ellie-Marie connects readers to the stories that matter in their communities. A Port Stephens-based news, sport and event writer and photographer with a passion for human interest features.
