A British transatlantic sailor Richard Tolkien was forced to abandon his yacht after suffering a head injury on Friday night and was saved and rescued by a passing cargo ship captained by a Dubrovnik sailor. Richard Tolkien was competing in the TRANSAT race, the oldest single-handed transatlantic race across the North Atlantic starting this year in Plymouth, UK and finishing in Brooklyn, New York.

During sailing he was hit on the head by one of the sails on Friday night. Using an onboard alert system, he called for assistance sometime between 8.30pm and 9 pm. Two hours later he was picked up in the middle of the Atlantic by the Anton Topic cargo ship where he was treated for his injuries and remained on board. His support team are now attempting to arrange for his yacht to be recovered. The Anton Topic cargo ship was heading to Philadelphia, where it is expected to arrive on the 18th of May.

The captain of the cargo ship that rescued the British sailor is Ante Raguž from Croatia. In fact he is a native of Dubrovnik and lives in nearby Župa Dubrovačka.

Bravo Ante!