AT 11.30 on the morning of the 28th August, 1919, during a strong southerly gale with a very heavy sea and thick rain, the Bembridge Life-boat was launched to the help of an American steamer, the s.s. Wakulla, of Los Angeles, which had driven on shore at . the West Wittering shoal, near Chichester, with a crew of forty-five.

On arriving near the scene the Lifeboat was taken in tow by a Government tug, until she was to windward of the Waknlla, when she dropped down to her through a mile of heavy breaking sea. With great difficulty she got alongside, and as the Captain feared that the ship would break up, at once began to embark the crew. Owing to the heavy sea it was only possible to take thirteen on board, and this not without great difficulty. , ' The return passage was very dangerous owing to the heavy sea and the flood tide, which had now set in; but the thirteen men were safely landed, and the Life-boat returned at once to the Waliulla. At the request of the captain she " stood by," and remained so, right through the night, although there was a continuous risk that the heavy breaking seas would throw her against the vessel; and

By the morning the wind had shifted to the west, and the weather became less wild, and just before four o'clock, her help being no longer required, the Life-boat returned to Bembridge. She had been afloat in a heavy sea for nineteen and a half hours.

It was* decided to award the Silver •Second Service Clasp to Coxswain J.

Holbrpok, and an additional monetary reward to him and to each member of the crew. A Letter of Thanks' was also sent to Mr. D. G. Watney, Jun., of the Bembridge Sailing Club, who served with the crew as a volunteer. The Silver Medal, to which Coxswain Hoibrook was awarded a Second Service Clasp, had been won by him for a gallant service during the war, when the,Bembridge boat, -with great difficulty, rescued 110 men from, the military transport Empress Queen, which went ashore in the neighbourhood of the Foreland on the 3rd February, 1916..