The Christmas Gales.

Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Life-boat's Four Launches in one Day.

THE gales at the end of October and November were followed by rough weather at the end of December, with heavy gales on Christmas night and the following day. During the seven days of the Christmas week, from 21st December to 27th December, there were 20 launches, and 37 lives were rescued.

The majority of the launches were on the East and South coasts, and two of the Life-boats which had taken part in the great services of the November gales again distinguished themselves, the Motor Life-boat at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston and the Motor Life-boat at Cromer.

On 21st December the Motor Lifeboats at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, Clacton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze were all launched, the first of them going out four times in the one day. On only one of the services was her help required, but the day was remarkable for the courage and devotion shown by Coxswain William Fleming and the Motor Mechanic, B. J. Darby, both of whom, although injured on the first service, insisted on going out on the other three.

The first call came shortly before four in the morning from a Swedish steamer, Oscar, which was on fire in the roadstead.

A strong gale was blowing from the S.S.E., with a rough sea, and the night was very dark, with squalls of rain and hail. Asthe Life-boat was rounding the turn out of the harbour the Coxswain's vision was temporarily obscured, and the Lifeboat rammed the piling of the pier very heavily. The Coxswain was thrown off his feet and fell with his chin on a spoke of the steering wheel, cutting his chin and loosening his teeth. The Motor Mechanic was also thrown off his feet and fell against the control-wheel, severely bruising his body. Both men carried on. The Oscar could be seen blazing furiously in the gale. Her deck cargo of timber was alight, and the whole length of the vessel except the forecastle head. The crew of the steamer, 19 in all, were found in the ship's boats, sheltering under the lee of the steamer's bow, and were taken into the Life-boat.

The Life-boat had only just returned, and the Coxswain was having his injured face bandaged, when fresh signals of distress were received. In the opinion of the Honorary Secretary he was not fit to go out on another service, but all he said was, " I'll have another go," and he again took command of the Lifeboat, the injured Mechanic taking charge of the engines. This second call was from the St. Nicholas Light-ship. The Life-boat found, on reaching her, that she had been firing guns for tha Oscar, not having seen, in the thick weather, that the Life-boat had already rescued her crew.

The Third and Fourth Calls.

It was seven in the morning when the Life-boat returned to harbour. Just before two in the afternoon she was called out again. A dense fog had come up, the sea was running heavily, and a steamer was reported aground. No steamer was found in need of help, but as one was passed coming from the direction in which the casualty had been reported, it was evident that she had been aground and had got off.

The Life-boat was back in harbour by 2.30 and the fourth call came two hours later. The fog was still dense and there was a nasty sea on the sands. Another vessel was reported aground, but again nothing was found, and the Life-boat returned. Later in the evening a trawler came in and reported that she had grounded but had got off. It was six o'clock before the Life-boat reached harbour after the fourth call. The injured Coxswain and Mechanic went out with her on all four services, the Mechanic leaving his bed for each of the last two calls. In recognition of their very plucky conduct Coxswain Fleming and Motor Mechanic Darby both received additional monetary rewards.

On the following day the Runswick Pulling and Sailing Life-boat rescued 9 lives from the S.S. Pyrope, and on the 23rd the Motor Life-boats at Bembridge and Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, were called out to the Isle of Wight packet- boat Prince of Wales, which had been in collision in Cowes Outer Roads, and stood by her until a tug arrived. On Christmas Day the Fishguard Motor Life-boat went to the help of a schooner, and in the gales on the following day six Life-boats were launched.

Launch from the Lizard.

The chief service of the day was by the Motor Life-boat at the Lizard, which rescued two men from a ketch, the Lady Daphne, of Rochester, in circumstances of great difficulty, and after the two men had gone through an exhausting and terrible struggle in bitterly cold weather. On Christmas night, in a north-easterly gale, with a heavy sea running, snow and sleet, the master of the ketch had been washed overboard and drowned when attempting to make Plymouth. The ketch then became unmanageable, and with her sails in ribands drove down channel, burning flares and handlights, from ten at night until nearly four next morning, when her signals were seen oS the Lizard and the Motor Life-boat was launched. No further flares were seen until the Lifeboat burned some handlights. These were answered, and it was discovered afterwards that the two men on board had already burnt everything that could be used for signals, and when they saw the handlights did not know how to answer them until they remembered that there was still some oil left in a lamp in the cabin. With that last drop of oil they showed their position.The Life-boat in Pursuit.

As the ketch drove down Channel before the gale the Life-boat did not overtake her until she was 12 miles W.S.W. of the Lizard. In the heavy sea it was very difficult to get alongside. At the first attempt one of the two men jumped on to the Life-boat's end-box and was hauled into the boat. The Life-boat was then carried away from the ketch, but again got alongside of her, and the second man was dragged aboard. The Life-boat herself was slightly damaged by a blow from the rail of the ketch, and the two rescued men were utterly exhausted by their long struggle. The Life-boat was out for three and a half hours, and additional monetary rewards were given to her Coxswain and Crew.

One of the Crew on this service was the father of one of the regular members, who was away, and the father, an old soldier, a man about 60 years old and a landsman, considered it his duty to take his son's place. He not only did this, but probably saved the Bowman's life.

While the Life-boat was alongside the ketch he saw the ketch's boom swinging down on the Bowman and likely to sweep him overboard, so he promptly knocked him down—much to the Bowman's annoyance until he realised the reason for it. The abandoned ketch drove down Channel, weathered the storm, and on the same day was sighted off the Isles of Scilly. The St. Mary's Motor Life-boat went out to her and found the master's canary in its cage.

Later, the ketch was salved.

The Cromer Life-boat's Twelve Hours' Journey.

On the same day, on the East Coast, the Motor Life-boat at Cromer was launched in weather described as the worst which she had ever experienced.

A whole gale was blowing from the E.N.E. The weather, though fine, was very cold, and the sea was so heavy that had she been an open boat of the Norfolk and Suffolk type, instead of the Watson Cabin type, her Crew would have been washed out of her as she took the water at the end of the Slipway.

She was launched just before eleven in the morning to the help of the s.s. Crawford Castle, of the Union Castle Line, which was reported to have been in collision with the Haisborough Lightship and to be drifting, unmanageable, into shoal water.

Shortly afterwards messages were received that the steamer was under control, but the severe weather made it impossible to communicate with the Life-boat. Some anxiety was felt for her safety, and as all the telegraph poles had been blown down messages were sent by motor-car to the neighbouring Stations.

The Life-boat meanwhile had found no trace of the steamer, and had then learnt from the Light-vessel that she had been seen going north under her own power. It was impossible for the Lifeboat to return to Cromer in the E.N.E.

gale that was blowing, or to make for Great Yarmouth, so she set a course for Grimsby. It was 11.35 at night before she arrived, and she had then travelled altogether 65 miles. This journey in such weather was a severe test for the Life-boat. The seas were very steep.

Heavy spray was continually breaking over the boat, and about every twenty minutes she took heavy green seas on board which buried her, sweeping along the deck and filling the cockpit. But so quickly did the relieving valves empty the boat that at no time was the cockpit fuller than the deck level.

The journey was no less a severe test for the Crew. They were wet to the skin within a few minutes of leaving the Slipway, and the weather was bitterly cold. In recognition of their endurance they were all given additional monetary rewards.

The Christmas Snow-storms.

While there was rough weather at sea, on land the heavy snowfalls isolated many villages, and there was much anxiety and suffering from scarcity of food. To help in relieving this scarcity the Motor Life-boat at Torbay offered, without expense to the Institution, to take food by sea to a number of villages along the coast, but when this offer was telephoned to them it was found that they had succeeded in getting supplies..