LYNMOUTH, NORTH DEVON.—Telegrams were received at about 7 P.M. on the 12th January asking for assistance to a vessel showing signals of distress off Grore Point.

Almost immediately after the messages had been received the wires were blown, down and it was impossible to obtain any further information. A whole gale was blowing from W.N.W., the weather was thick and the sea so heavy as to render it impossible to launch the Life-boat Louisa at Lynmouth. It was therefore decided to take the boat on her cairiage by road to Porlock. Those who are unacquainted with the nature of the road between Lynmouth and Porlock can form but little idea of the immense difficulty of the undertaking. The course taken was over two of the steepest hills in England, the road rising 1500 feet in two miles; in parts of the route the Life-boat had to be taken on skids, the carriage being taken through fields, gates and posts having to be pulled down, the roadbeing too narrow for the •wheels to pass, and the men were obliged sometimes to haul, and at other times to hold the boat back, so that their strength was greatly taxed. The undertaking even in daylight •would be beset with danger to life or limb, but on a dark and stormy night, when it was difficult for a man even to stand in exposed places, it was only just possible to accomplish the work. However, in the tin certainty as to the danger to the vessel and in the absence of any other means of getting to her, it was decided to make the attempt. Horses were procured and the crew with twenty-eight helpers started with the Life-boat. The journey, which occupied ten and a half hours, ended without casualty, and at six o'clock on the following morning the Life-boat was launched at Porlock and proceeded to the vessel, which proved to be the fallrigged ship Forrest Hall, of and for Liverpool, from Bristol in ballast, 1900 tons register, with a crew of fifteen men ; she was lying at anchor disabled. It appeared that she had been in tow of a steam-tug, and when westward of Ilfracombe the hawser parted and the tug collided with her and disabled the steering gear. Shortly after the arrival of the Life-boat two steam-tugs came up and took the ship in tow, the Life-boat men assisting to get the anchors up, and the Life-boat remaining by her, as she was in an unmanageable state owing to the loss of her steering gear, besides which the weather had become very bad. . She was ultimately towed to a safe anchorage outside Barry, and the Life-boat crew, •who bad been, without food for twentyfour hours, landed at Barry Dock to obtain refreshment. On the following day they returned to their station, a steamer kindly giving them a tow part of the way, arriving there at 11.30 A.M. The carriage was brought back by road, having covered a distance of twenty-eight miles..