MIKE Fox was 30 when he took a call he would remember for the rest of his life.

The Shoreham Lifeboat crew member had been an RNLI volunteer for more than a decade on the day the Athina B cargo ship beached on Brighton seafront 40 years ago.

“It was in the family, I was the fourth generation and my son’s carrying on the tradition,” said the 70-year-old, who lives in Portslade.

“I found it thrilling, exciting, but for me to get my excitement other people had to be in danger. I always hated theme parks, I’d scream, but I loved being on a lifeboat.”

On the morning of January 21 1980, Mike was at work when he was called to the boathouse in Shoreham Harbour.

The Athina B, a Greek ship carrying 3,000 tonnes of pumice, had suffered engine failure and was in danger of beaching near the port.

“Our coxswain Ken Voice was watching and alerted the lifeboat crew,” said Mike. “‘Let’s get out there, better out there than sitting in here,’ he said.

“On our way there we were hit by a big wave and we flew up into the air and crashed down on to the sea.

“There were such rough seas I couldn’t see anything on the radar, just a mass of white dots.”

The lifeboat crew pulled up alongside the ship and rescued the captain’s wife and two daughters, as well as a French girl with hypothermia.

After returning to port, the lifeboat was called back out to rescue a dozen more crew members. But with the Athina B regaining control of its engines by early afternoon, the lifeboat crew stood down. “I went back to work and thought that was the end of it,” Mike said.

By the evening, things had taken a turn for the worst.

“The Athina B was close to beaching in Brighton but the captain thought he was just outside Shoreham Harbour,” Mike said. “We went back out surfing down the waves.

“All this time the captain of the ship was yelling through our radio: ‘Can’t you see me, I’m right outside Shoreham Harbour, we’re running ashore’.

“It wasn’t until we cleared the end of Brighton Pier that we saw the Athina B. I thought ‘Bloody hell there’s a big ship on the shore’.”

Thinking quickly, the lifeboat crew crashed the boat into the ship’s hull, ready to catch the Athina B’s crew.

“They all brought their suitcases and Tesco carrier bags. They were throwing them down on the deck and we were saying ‘no!’,” Mike said.

“Everyone came aboard and we asked the captain if everybody else was there. He said one was missing. So we looked up and saw this one terrified sailor clutching his Tesco carrier bag holding on to the rail.

“He jumped eventually and went straight over the side but we managed to drag him out. We tried to make everyone tea but one of the sailors was being sick in the pot.”

After a choppy ride back to Shoreham Harbour, the entire crew of the Athina B had been saved.

But it was hardly the end of the night for Mike. “I didn’t sleep at all that night, I was too excited,” he said.

“I still think about that night.”