QUICK-THINKING by two crew members from the Brecqhou Warrior saved a man from drowning yesterday. It is understood that the man fell 30ft into St Peter Port harbour around dawn.

The crew heard his muffled cries from the water.

‘He’s lucky that we came in early this morning otherwise he wouldn’t be alive,’ said captain Mike Scrimshaw, 44.

‘He’s very lucky. Half-an-hour later he would have died for sure.

‘No one would have known he was there. He would have drowned in the harbour and no one would have known what had happened to him.’

It is understood that the 23-year-old hotel worker, who is believed to be French, had been out all night with friends celebrating his forthcoming departure from the island.

He had been on the harbour inner wall near the sand sculpture to watch the sun rise.

It is reported that he had been seen drinking from a two-litre bottle of wine before he fell into shallow water.

At 6.45am, Mr Scrimshaw arrived at work on the White Rock and heard faint noises coming from the water.

When he checked to see where they were coming from, he saw a man clinging to a rope by one arm.

Together with engineer Dan Perree, 26, who had also decided to come in early, they ran to get their lifejackets, dialled 999 and took a dinghy over to the man.

‘The problem was he was wearing a brown shirt and he was covered in seaweed and mud,’ said Mr Perree.

‘It was hard to hear him and to see him as well. It was a bit confusing.’

When they got to him, the rising tide was up to his chest. It was estimated that he had been in the cold water for 15 to 30 minutes.

‘We got alongside of him. He had a big gash in his head,’ said Mr Scrimshaw.

‘He said ﾓGet me out of the water, get me out of the waterﾔ. He was shaking.’

They managed to get him into the boat and took him over to the steps by the Trident kiosk where an ambulance was waiting.

After strapping him to a spinal board to transfer him to an ambulance, the steps proved to be too steep.

Instead they had to rush to the other side of the harbour to the old lifeboat slipway where he was transferred to an ambulance for the journey to hospital.

It is understood that he has a broken right arm and left leg, a severely dislocated hip, facial abrasions and was suffering from hypothermia.

‘He was well and truly drunk,’ said Mr Scrimshaw. ‘When he sobers up he will be in a lot of pain.’

No one at the Harbour Office was prepared to comment on the incident.