Retirement on the Tees: Paul Dunn

December 9th, 2008 by JCB
Posted in Coastlines | No Comments »

RETIREMENT ON THE TEES: Paul Dunn

Paul receives a retirement gift from colleague Alan Hayward at the UKMPA conference.

The UKMPA conference saw a further reduction in the dwindling numbers of Trinity House pilots still piloting when Tees pilot Paul Dunn retired after 29 years of service.

Being a mere 60, Paul hadn’t been planning to retire just yet but an impromptu swim after falling into the water when transferring from a ship to the cutter in April provided a not unsurprising stimulus to the decision making process. As Paul told me at conference there are occasions when life provides you with a message and a fall into the freezing waters of the North Sea in April cannot be ignored especially since he was the first pilot to fall into the sea since 1979. In 1979 the pilot who took the swim was none other than Paul himself and he is probably not exaggerating when he states that   “I believe I am the only person to survive falling into the North Sea twice and survive – normally when someone goes in, the task is the recovery of a body”.

Paul Dunn prior to his first “swim”!

On both occasions Paul was wearing his SeaSafe jacket with the integrated auto inflating lifejacket and thus his swimming prowess has earned him the unique honour of being featured in a SeaSafe press release!
In no doubt as to the vital role that his jacket played in his survival he states “On each of these life threatening incidents I was wearing my SeaSafe coat and both times it worked brilliantly – inflating instantly, giving vital buoyancy and aiding recovery so, apart from the extraordinary endeavours of my fellow crew members, there is no doubt that I have my SeaSafe jacket to thank for being alive – twice over.”
Paul concluded, “My wife Carole and I were counting the hours to my retirement when this happened and it’s hard to comprehend that such life threatening incidents marked both the start and end of my working career as a river pilot – I must admit I would rather have gone out with less fuss!”

JCB