ON the night of June 13th the Motor Life-boat at Stromness was called out to the help of a large steamer, the Hastings County, of Bergen, on her way from Hamburg to Montreal with a general cargo, which the Coast Guard had reported to have gone ashore at Auskerry.

When the Life-boat was launched at 11.30 there was a thick fog, with a moderate wind from S.E., changing afterwards to N.E., and a moderate sea. The fog cleared later on, but the wind got up and the sea became fairly heavy. The wreck was reached at five in the morning, and the Life-boat took off 31 of her crew of 40, the Captain, Second Mate and seven men remaining on board. They were taken off later bya tug. The 31 rescued men were taken to Kirkwall, and were landed there at about nine in the morning. The Lifeboat also towed two of the ship's boats which had the men's clothing on board.

Two hours later she left Kirkwall again, and reached Stromness at 4.30 in the afternoon. She had been out for seventeen hours and had travelled about eighty-five miles. This is another to be added to a number of very fine longdistance services which the Stromness Motor Life-boat has carried out..