ANOTHER distressing wreck occurred just to the north of the town, on Sunday morning, the 13th January, 1895, when, after a heavy S.E. by S.

gale all night with snow squalls, the brig James and Eleanor, of Shields, was seen at daybreak aground on the shoal, with a fearful sea breaking over her.

The Alfred Corry was launched at 7.30 A.M. and reached the wreck in half-an-hour, finding the crew in the fore rigging. The anchor was let go, and as the boat was veering down the ship's foremast went overboard, carrying the crew with it. One man was rescued, and the cable was then slipped, and the boat sailed into the raffle and rescued another man; one of the crew had hold of a third man but could not break his hold, and while trying to get him the grapnel gave way and the Life-boat was driven broadside on to the beach. Two other men were rescued from the shore, but the captain and two others were dead when they were washed ashore.

So heavy was the sea that by nine o'clock that morning the brig was all to matchwood and her planking was washing along in front of the town.

On the 31st March, 1898, John Cragie, on his retirement, was presented with the Institution's Third Service Clasp and a Certificate of Service awarded for his long and faithful service of fifty years, in which period he had been twenty-one years Second Coxswain and nineteen years First Coxswain, entitling him to a pension of £12 per annum. Cragie died in November, 1903.

The brigantine Economy, of Harwich, was seen trying to beat out of the bay at daybreak on the 28th December, 1899. There being a strong gale at S.E. by S., she tacked off Dunwich, and was going off to sea well when, about eleven o'clock, her fore-topmast carried away and she began to drive rapidly to leeward. The Alfred Corry was quickly launched, and getting a rope ahead endeavoured to save the vessel, but the rope broke, and as she seemed doomed to go ashore the Coxswain! took the crew of four off with great difficulty, and the Economy, going ashore at Covehithe Ness, became a total wreck in a very short time.

In 1897 the second Quiver was condemned, and a new boat was built at Lowestoft by Reynolds, in accordance with the views of the men, out of funds provided by the will of Mr. J. B.

Bark worth, the brother of a- former member of the Southwold Committee.

This boat is of the Norfolk and Suffolk type, 32 ft. long and 9 ft. beam, and was exhibited by the Institution at the Jubilee Exhibition in London in 1897.

She was christened Rescue on the 7th September, 1897, and performed her ! first service on the 9th June, 1904, when she was launched about 11 P.M., ! and rescued the crew of three in the local punt Rapid, being unable to find the little boat, however, until 2.30 next morning.

In 1900 Mr. John Sinclair, who had been Secretary for twenty-five years, resigned office owing to increasing age, andwas presented with a Resolution of Thanks from the Institution, specially signed by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, as President.

In 1903 the Dunwich Station was closed and the boat removed, there not being sufficient men at Dunwich to work her,and Southwold is now the Southwold and Dunwich Branch. The Thorpe Boat had been removed some years earlier, so that Aldeburgh is now the nearest station to Southwold on the south.

In 1904 the sea attacked the Life-boat houses, the front of the houses were undermined, and the Alfred Carry had to be taken out. The Institution closepiled the-,front at a cost of £160, and this, with the extension of the piers in 1907, saved the houses from a similar fate to that of the Old House under North Cliff.

At daylight on the 27th November, 1905, the Coastguard reported something ashore at Covehithe, and as soon as it was light enough the masts of a sunken vessel could be seen with a glass. The Alfred Carry was launched at 7.30 A.M., the wind then being W.S.W., a moderate gale and sea after a heavy gale at S.S.W. most of the night. The wreck was reached at 8 A.M., when it was seen to be a smack completely sunk, with the crew hanging on to the foremast- head in the greatest peril, as the vessel rolled from side to side in the swell. The cries of these poor fellows as the Life-boat approached were most piteous, and not an instant was lost in laying the boat alongside the mast, whence the men dropped into her without difficulty. They turned out to be four men of the French trawler, Joseph et Yvonne, of Dunquerque, which had struck on the Barnard about four o'clock in the morning and sunk in deep water inside the sand. Some of the men were only partly dressed, as they turned out when she struck and had suffered much from exposure in their desperate position.

The Covehithe Rocket Brigade had got a line fast and had saved a boy, when the Apparatus got foul and they could not work it again. In 1908 the French Government awarded Silver Medals and Diplomas to the two Coxswains and the Secretary, and Bronze Medals and Diplomas to the rest of the crew in respect of this service. These awards were presented at a public meeting held on the 29th October, 1908.

In 1906, the Institution sent down an experimental set of Life-belts made of kappk, a substance like cotton, which comes from the Malay Peninsula, and is obtained from the seed pods of the Eriodendron Anfractuosum; it is more buoyant than cork, and the belts are warmer and much more comfortable than the old style.

On Sunday evening, the 8th March, 1908, a ketch, mistaking thenew Harbour Works for Lowestoft, got on the Hayle Sand, nearly opposite the Life-boat houses, and immediately put out a flare, although the weather was not bad.

The Rescue was launched in charge of the Second Coxswain, Charles Jarvis, the Coxswain, Sam May, being at home ill; the vessel was got off and taken to Lowestoft by Life-boatmen, the Life-boat returning ashore.

The first service from the new harbour occurred on the 8th December, 1908, when the spritsail barge Maria, of Rochester, while running into the harbour in a moderate S.S.W. gale, got intodifficulties, and let go her anchor in be- tween the pier heads; the ebb tide drove her out again and into broken water be- hind the North Pier head, where the anchor held, but the sea was breaking over her. The Alfred Carry was launched about 4 P.M. and, sailing out, took off the two men in a very few minutes, returning at once into the harbour.

On the 28th October, 1909, the Alfred Carry was launched at 7.45 A.M. for a steamer showing urgent signals, with a moderate gale at E.N.E.; she proved to be the s.s. Hermina, of Rotterdam, b o u n d to Dieppe with coal, and, her steering gear having collapsed, the captain engaged the Lifeboat to assist him to Harwich.

On the 24th January, 1910, the Alfred Carry was launched about 3 A.M. to the assistance of the smack Integrity, of L o w e s t o f t , ashore near Covehithe in diffimoderate weather. The Life-boat carried out two anchors, and when a tug arrived assisted to get her off and into Lowestoft about 9 o'clock in the morning.

An instance of the affection and strong sense of duty which attaches to the Life-boat Service in Southwold was displayed in the case of a veteran of over seventy who, while on his death- bed, conceived the idea that the Life- boat was going off; he at once got up and demanded his clothes, so that he could go to help launch the boat, andwas only persuaded to return to bed when assured by some of his people that the weather had come so thick with snow they had given it up ; a few hours later he passed away, and his Life-boat service was finished for good, The winter of 1911-12 was a record one for the Southwold Life-boats, they being off six times on service," saving three crews, one vessel and a boat.

The first service was on the 4th October, 1911, about 7' the Life-boat.

P.M., when the Alfred Garry went out and saved a fisherman and a visitor from Kessingland who had been after herring in a small boat and were almost e x h a u s t e d , there being a fresh breeze with squalls and a rough sea.

The n e x t effective service occurred on the 22nd December, 1911, when several barges ran'ihto the harbour for shelter from a rising S. gale, and after dark flares were seen opposite the harbour from a vessel in diffimoderate culties or wanting a pilot. It being much too bad for any boat to get out, it was decided to launch the Life-boat, which was accordingly done at 7 P.M. The wind and rain being the Life-boat had to be to the pier head and then very bad and dead into harbour, the tracked down just succeeded iii getting clear of the South Pier. She found the vessel to be the barge Beryl, of Faversham, anxious to get into Southwold for shelter.(To be continued.).