At 4.30 A.M. on the 17th December, rockets and large flares were seen in the direction of the Cross Sand; the Cockle Lightship was also firing guns and rockets.

As the wind was blowing from the S.E., and it was ebb tide, it was impossible for the Life-boat to sail to the sand, and a message was therefore sent to Great Yarmouth for a steam-tug, which arrived and towed the No. 2 Life-boat, the Godsend, to the sand, where a steamer and a schooner were found stranded. The steam-tug went to the schooner and towed her off, and the Life-boat proceeded to the aid of the steamer. The No. 1 Life-boat, the Covent Garden, afterwards came up, and with the assistance of the two Life-boats the steamer was got -afloat. She proved to be the Bradley, of Liverpool, from Bilbao to Sunderland with iron ore. She had a crew of fifteen men..