A New York family had reason to be grateful to the crew of Bermudian cargo vessel Oleander after it rescued their small fishing boat off the US coast.

The Oleander took on the role of protector to a small yacht that had strayed far away from land in poor weather - leaving its skipper and four passengers, including two children terrified as ten to 12 foot seas pounded the 28 foot boat.

The Bermuda ship, which was 80 nautical miles off the US East Coast when the incident happened, shepherded the yacht to the safety of the US Coastguard, who took it to port.

Captain of the Oleander, Philippe Canniccioni, told The Royal Gazette how his crew came to rescue the PXO.

"I received a call at three in the morning from my second officer who said that he seen a red flare in the area and could I come up to the bridge of the ship," he said.

Captain Canniccioni said by the time he arrived there, the captain of the pleasure craft had sent a 'may-day' as well: "The man was panicked and was unable to give us his position, but when he flared again, we could see that the vessel was nearby.

"To be sure it was the boat, we asked him to turn off all of his lights, then turn them on again."

After assuring the man that he would be escorted safely to a port in New York, the captain had to change fuel in order to decellerate.

"When we are at sea, we burn a much heavier fuel, so we had to change over to diesel. We circled the boat for 40 minutes before we were able to slow down."

Captain Canniccioni said when the Oleander reached the PXO, the waves were ten to 12 feet high. The frightened skipper asked him if the crew could wait until day break to escort them in, but was told that the longer they waited, the greater the chance of the weather worsening.

"Once he gained his confidence, we kept the boat on the port side of the ship to protect him from the wave and I had a seaman keep an eye on the boat the whole time," he said.

The boat was released from under the container ship's watch once they were 15 miles from the Ambrose pilot station in New York. It was then escorted to shore by the US Coast Guard.

Happy that the ordeal ended without tragedy, Captain Philippe said that this was the only the second time in ten years that the Oleander had rescued a distressed vessel, but said that he hoped a lesson was learned from this.

"This was the PXO's maiden voyage. The Long Island man was fishing and had drifted too far away from the shore. Next time, he should not sail so far that he cannot see land."

Although he never got a chance to shake the man's hand, Captain Philippe said the man expressed gratitude for being saved.

"I told him that all I wanted was the fish on board, but he was so rattled that he didn't even get the joke," the captained said and smiled.