A 61-year-old Scots fishing boat skipper was hailed a hero yesterday after sacrificing his life in a rescue bid for a young crew member.
Popular dad-of-two Lachie Robertson did not think twice when a young member of his crew fell overboard in rough seas.
The piper plunged over the side of his trawler into the icy water fearing the young lad would drown.
But in a tragic twist, the younger man was saved when another crewman pulled him back aboard the 50ft wooden trawler, Reul a’ Chuain – Gaelic for Star of the Sea – and it was the veteran seaman who drowned.
Lachie was later retrieved from the water in the Inner Hebrides but could not be revived.
The drama happened last Thursday two miles north-west of the island of Eigg and in view, a few miles away, of Camusdarrach beach – made famous by hit movie Local Hero.
The beautiful beach is only a couple of miles south of the fishing and ferry port of Mallaig, where music-mad Lachie lived and would have taken his two daughters, Dr Kenna Robertson, 28, and sister, Rachael, 24, as youngsters.
A friend said yesterday: “Lachie was loved by everyone who met him, a proper gentleman, a legend.
“Now he is also a hero, our Local Hero.
The trawler was escorted back to Mallaig by the local RNLI lifeboat, where it was yesterday covered in bunches of flowers from heartbroken locals.
The government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch has already started a preliminary inquiry into the tragedy.
