The Gorleston No. 1 Life-' boat Mark Lane was launched at 11.55 P.M. on the 28th October in response to signals of distress from the Corton Light-vessel. When proceeding to her, flares were seen on a drifter near the Sands, and the Life-boat made for her, but owing to the shallow water and the fact that the vessel was rapidly drifting to the northward, she was unable to reach her. Being in tow of a tug the Life-boat made round the Sands and in the direction of the endangered vessel, but before she reached her she fell in with a small boat containing five men. They reported that two of them belonged to the steam drifter Emerald, of Lowestoft, while the other three belonged to another vessel which had gone to the assistance of the Emerald, as she was in a leaking condition.

Before help readied them, however, these five men left the Emerald in the small boat, and, when they were picked up, the boat was nearly full of water.

As «soon as the men had been taken into the Life-boat she proceeded after the drifter, but the Caister No. 1 Life- boat Covent Garden, which had also been launched, reached the vessel about the same time and rescued the remainder of the crew, eight in number.

It subsequently transpired that the Emerald had sprung a leak, and an attempt was made to reach Yarmouth ; the water, however, gained so rapidly that the fires were extinguished, and the vessel was driven rapidly to the northward in a waterlogged and help- less condition. Within a few minutes of the rescue the drifter sank. The rescued men on being landed were conveyed to the Sailors' Home, and very shortly afterwards the following letter was received from the master of the shipwrecked vessel:— " To the Life-boat Institution.

"DEAR SIR,—I thank the Caiste Coxswain and his crew for saving me and seven of my people just in the nick of time, as the vessel was sinking.

"Yours truly, " D. DURRANT, " 66, Essex Road, Lowestoft.'.