London ? Rescue operations Friday saved scores of people from two ships that ran aground in stormy waters off the British coast, but efforts to evacuate the injured captain of a third distressed vessel had to be called off.

Rescue workers airlifted 37 people from the two ships that ran aground off Britain’s northwestern coast.

A Royal Air Force helicopter was sent Friday night to remove the seriously injured captain from a freighter that lost cargo in rough seas and was partially flooded near Scilly Islands off southwest England, officials said. But the rescue had to be called off because conditions were too dangerous.

Early Friday, helicopters rescued the 14-member Spanish crew of the Spinning Dale trawler on rocks off St. Kilda in Scotland’s Western Isles, coast guard spokesman Fred Caygill said. Two of the crew were treated at a British hospital for hypothermia.