IRAQI fishermen cheered, applauded and hugged British sailors who rescued them after a week adrift in the northern Gulf.

HMS Sutherland, Britain’s current Gulf guardian, launched her sea boats with teams of Royal Marines and marine engineers to help the stricken sailors when the frigate came across the dhow.

At first it was feared the boat posed a threat to friendly shipping in the northern Gulf as it seemed the dhow was heading for an exclusion zone.

But a Royal Marines party dispatched by Sutherland to investigate quickly found that the dhow was in difficulty – and a second party was sent by the Devonport-based frigate.

Deputy Marine Engineer Officer Lt Alastair Brown and CPO John Martin and their team spent a couple of hours fixing the engines – the root of the problem was a faulty battery – and then set the sailors on their way with food and fresh water.

“The team discovered that these poor souls had been drifting for seven days with engine difficulties, were running low on food, were out of water and to cap it all they had caught no fish,” said Sutherland’s CO Cdr Paul Romney.

Sutherland will soon be joined in the Gulf by HMS Cornwall, which has just left Devonport at the beginning of a seven-month deployment.