The distress at sea began as a seemingly routine operation for the volunteer crew of the rescue boat "Paul Neisse" from the Eiderdamm station. In the morning, the fishermen with a net in the propeller of their 17-metre cutter had asked for help. However, the stiff westerly wind with force 7 (over 60 km/h wind speed) brought the situation to a head: the unmanoeuvrable wooden cutter soon got stuck in the mudflats about 1.5 nautical miles south of the St. Peter-Böhl lighthouse.
After the powerful and manoeuvrable "Paul Neisse" had freed the "Korona", the two fishermen suddenly reported water ingress in the engine room. The sea rescuers put a bilge pump on board the cutter via the stern of the shipwrecked vessel. It was impossible for them to go alongside as the fishermen could no longer haul in the fishing gear deployed on both sides due to the "Korona's" electrical system failing.
To support the bilge work, the rescue cruiser "Theodor Storm" sailed from its station in Büsum to meet the towing convoy. In the meantime, the "Korona" was listing about five degrees to port in a swell of a good metre. At around 12.50 p.m., the "Theodor Storm" reached the cutter about seven nautical miles west of the Eidersperrwerk and immediately began to tow it, while the "Paul Neisse" continued to tow the damaged vessel.
The sea rescuers brought the shrimp cutter to the outer harbour of the Eidersperrwerk, which they reached at around 2 pm. In the meantime, the Bremen Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of the DGzRS had also ordered firefighters there. Together, they managed to keep the cutter afloat. The two shrimp fishermen were uninjured.
