While a whole gale from S.E. was raging, accompanied by a very heavy sea, on the night of the 14th January, signals of distress were observed from a vessel on the " Middle Ridge," near Appledore. The Life-boat Jane Hannah MacDonald was launched, and finding the ketch Advance, of Bideford, in a sinking con- dition rescued her crew of three hands.

The ketch was bound from Newport to Plymouth with a cargo of coal, but a few minutes after her crew were taken off she filled with water and sank..