"They were paddling in circles out in the bay, drifting further away,” the teen said while recounting the rescue
Credit: Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- A 15-year-old boy rescued two men who had drifted out to sea on a small inflatable water toy
- The teen, Archie Law, spotted the pair from shore, launched his own boat and brought the men safely back to land before rescue crews arrived
- Archie’s mom said she is “so proud” of her son, adding, “He is always watching the sea”
A teenage boy saved two men who were adrift at sea on an inflatable toy boat.
The incident occurred off the coast of the Isle of Skye in Scotland on Saturday, June 20, shortly after 9:00 p.m. local time, according to a Facebook post shared by Kyle of Lochalsh Lifeboat Station, a volunteer rescue station operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) on Scotland's west coast.
The U.K. coastguard received reports that two men were in the water “after falling from a toy blow-up inflatable boat,” per the RNLI.
Credit: Kyle Lifeboat RNLI/facebook
Rescue workers promptly launched a lifeboat and headed toward the last known location of the men — but ultimately discovered that a local teen had already spotted them from shore and rescued them in his own boat.
The teen was later identified as 15-year-old Archie Law, per the Daily Mail and RadioSkye.
“I could see them from my window, and they were paddling in circles out in the bay, drifting further away,” Archie said while speaking to RadioSkye.
“I made a decision to go and check if they were okay. As I got closer, I could see it was a small kid's dinghy,” he continued.
“They seemed very cold and tired and thankful I had spotted them. I got them back to the little pier, and they were met with towels and warm clothes,” Archie added.
Credit: Getty
While speaking to the Daily Mail, Archie’s mother, Tansy, said that she was “so proud” of her son for his heroic actions — but that she wasn’t surprised.
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“He just loves the sea, and that is probably where he will end up working,” she said, adding that Archie had been “looking out with his binoculars and spotted the two men in trouble.”
“Archie was off like a rocket. He jumped into his Pioneer dinghy and pulled them from the water,” she continued, adding that the two men were not wearing lifejackets and that their cellphones had gotten wet.
“He is always watching the sea. He was up again at 5:30 a.m. today and back out fishing,” Tansy said.
Andrew MacDonald, the lifeboat commander on the rescue boat that responded to the incident, commended Archie’s quick thinking in the statement shared by the RNLI.
“A far more serious situation was averted,” he said.
MacDonald also urged the public to take sea safety seriously.
“We’d like to remind people that blow up inflatable toys should be kept for use in swimming pools and not open water, and to always ensure that you have lifejackets on and a means of communicating to the emergency services if you get into any difficulty,” he said.
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