A NORTH-EAST lifeboat station was called to give assistance - in Australia.

The station received a distress call on its website from a funeral director in Queensland trying to find the words to the Seaman's Prayer for the funeral of a British ex-seaman who died in Australia.

The lifeboat station contacted its chaplain, the Reverend John Wheatman, of St Peter's Church, in Redcar, east Cleveland, and Colin Worslick, the chaplain to the local Mission to Seafarers.

The clergymen found the words to the Seaman's Prayer and the poem Crossing the Bar, written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, which is often used in funeral services for sailors.

The words were flashed across the globe by e-mail and arrived in time to give the deceased sailor the send-off that he had wanted.

Phil Connolly, managing director of Newhaven Funerals in Queensland, Australia, said: "Redcar lifeboat station are lifesavers in more ways than one now."

A spokesman for Redcar lifeboat station said: "Over the years, we've had some unusual calls for help, but this was one of the oddest.

"Even though it demanded all the latest technology, it was still lifeboat teamwork that saved the day."