At 9.40 A.M. on the 17th December a telephonic message was received, stating that distress sig- nals were being made by the South Goodwin Light-ship, and that a Nor- wegian barque was on the Sands. The Life-boat Mary Homer Hoyle was at once ordered out, and the boat, as soon as she was clear of the harbour, was taken in tow by the Government tug Herculaneitm, kindly sent out to assist her by the King's Harbour Master. The boat was towed to the Sands, but there the water was too shallow for the tug, and a motor-boat, which had also put off, towed the boat to the vessel. A strong south-west gale was raging with a very heavy sea, and the boat had great difficulty in rescuing the crew, eighteen in number, who were com- pelled to drop, one by one, from the jib-boom into the Life-boat. One man was less fortunate than his comrades, and fell into the sea, but he was promptly picked up. The coxswain, in order to get clear of the wreck, was obliged to cut the boat's cable, and when she was clear of the Sands the tug again picked the boat up and towed her back to Dover.

This was an excellent service carried out in a skilful manner, and the Com- mittee of Management granted an additional reward to each of the crew, and sent letters of thanks to the owners of the tug and the boats which had assisted the Life-boat. The vessel was the barque Gudrun, a Norwegian vessel of 1,361 tons, bound from Chili to Ham- burg with a cargo of nitrate..