A telephone messsage from the Maplin Light-house at 5.30 A.M. on the 3rd August reported that the Swin Middle Light-vessel was making signals for assistance. The Life-boat Albert Edward was speedily launched, and when proceeding through the Swin Spitway the Coxswain observed a barque on the East Barrow Sand.

He made for her and found she was the Magnat, of Langesund, bound from Brevig to London with a cargo of ice.

The boats of H.M.S. Vindictive had already transferred the captain's wife and two children to a tug which was also standing by. The Coxswain offered his services, but the captain of the Magnat decided, the vessel's back being already broken, to abandon her. The master and remaining men, eight in number, were taken into the Life-boat, which conveyed them to the tug, and the Life-boat then made for home..