LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

Advanced search

The S.S. Emma

At about 11.30 P.M. on the 9th Decem- ber distress signals were made from the Long Stone Lighthouse, and the Life- boat Forster Fawsett was speedily launched. When about two miles out the Life-boat fell in with a steam yacht belonging to the Duke of Leeds, and she took the Life-boat in tow to the scene of the casualty, thereby saving valuable time. .The vessel proved to be the s.s. Emma, of Gefle, which had stranded near the Knave- stone Rock whilst bound from Sundsvall to Manchester with a cargo of pulpwood and iron. Seventeen men were on board, and they were promptly saved by the Life-boat.

Before the boat reached the vessel the ship's boat had been lowered with three men in her, the boat then broke adrift, and when the Life-boat arrived there was no trace of the boat. The Life-boat, therefore, returned to North Sunderland, where the seventeen men were landed at 3.30 A.M. At about 8.30 A.M. the missing boat was observed drifting some distance off North Sunder- land Point; the Life-boat was again launched and rescued the three men in her. At the time of the casualty an E.N.E. gale was blowing, and in. the vicinity of the wreck the sea was very heavy..