THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 109 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 67 LIVES RESCUED - 63,058 from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to November 26th, 1932 Silver Medal Service at Cromer.

AT four in the morning of Friday, 14th October, a 5,000-ton Italian steamer, the Monte Nevoso, of Genoa, on her way from Buenos Ayres to Hull, stranded on the Haisboro' Sands, some fourteen miles from Cromer. The weather was then fine, with a moderate westerly breeze. The steamer sent out a wireless message at 8.30 in the morning, asking for the help of tugs. The news reached Cromer from the Coastguard at Gorles- ton, and at 9.30 the Motor Life-boat was launched. She reached the steamer about noon, to find the tug Noordzee, of Rotterdam, standing by. A man from the tug had gone on board the steamer.

Coxswain Blogg, of the Life-boat, also went on board, and it was arranged that the tug should try to refloat the steamer, the Life-boat standing by. Five more tugs arrived later, and at 4.30 in the afternoon the attempt to tow off the steamer began. The six tugs were all engaged in the work.

Meanwhile the wind, which had been moderate at first, was gradually in- creasing, and by five in the morning of the Saturday a gale was blowing from the North West, making a heavy sea.

Two or three times the Life-boat, which was anchored near the steamer, had to weigh anchor and move into deeper water.

About daylight the tow ropes of two of the tugs broke, and a third tug had to cut her tow as she was in a very dangerous position. By eight o'clock all the tugs had had to cast off the tow- ropes ; the steamer showed signs of breaking up, and the Life-boat was signalled to take ofi her crew.

The Rescue.

Coxswain Blogg weighed anchor, and getting as near the steamer as he could, he anchored again to windward and veered alongside. In the heavy sea running it was a hard and dangerous task to transfer the steamer's crew to the Life-boat. It took an hour to get them on board her, and one of them, misjudging the distance when he jumped, fell into the sea between the steamer and the Life-boat, where he might have been crushed between the two, but he was hauled aboard unhurt.

At the end of an hour the Life-boat had rescued the twenty-nine men of the steamer's crew and the man who had gone on board her from the Dutch tug.

The Captain, Mate, Chief Engineer and Wireless Operator refused to leave the Monte Nevoso, and the Life-boat left, with the thirty rescued men, for Gorleston, twenty-one miles away, where she arrived about noon. Here the res- cued men were taken to the Mariners' Eefuge, a fresh supply of petrol was taken on board, and some of the Life- boat's Crew, all of whom were soaked through, got dry clothes. They had had no food, except some dry bread, tinned meat, and cheese, since they had gone out at 9.30 on the morning of the pre- vious day. Nor had they touched the emergency rum ration which all Life- boats carry. But without waiting to get a hot meal, and declining the offer of the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Life-boat to relieve them, they put out again at two o'clock and returned to the wreck, in the hope of persuading the four men still on board to leave her.

The Life-boat reached the wreck at 4.45 in the afternoon, but the Captain still refused to abandon her. The weather was moderating. His wireless was in order. He would call for help again if it were needed.

The First Meal for 35 hours.

The Life-boat then returned to Gorleston, where the Crew had their first proper meal for thirty-five hours.

They were put up at the Mariners' Befuge, close to the Coastguard Station, so that they were ready to set out at once if an S.O.S; came. Nothing, how- ever, was heard, and about five o'clock on the Sunday morning Coxswain Blogg took the Life-boat out again, accom- panied by two tugs, and reached the wreck at eight o'clock. He found that she had broken her back, and that the four men had abandoned her and got away in the steamer's motor-boat.

They had, however, left two dogs behind them, one a large St. Bernard, so the Life-boatmen boarded the wreck to rescue them.- The St. Bernard they were able to take. pJE;Jjn± the other, a small dog, would not allow itself to be caught, and the Life-boatmen were compelled to leave it behind.

As there was norsign of the motor-boat with the four men on board (they were picked up by a trawler and taken to Lowestoft), Coxswain Blogg made for the Haisboro' Light Vessel, to find out if the weather conditions were such as would allow the Life-boat to be taken up her slipway. He then made for Cromer, where the Life-boat arrived at one in the afternoon, nearly fifty-two hours after she had been launched. She had travelled altogether some seventy miles.

Rewards.

It was an outstanding service, marked by faultless seamanship on the part of Coxswain Blogg, and great courage, endurance and devotion to duty on the part of Coxswain and Crew. The Com- mittee of Management have made the following awards:— To COXSWAIN HENRY G. BLOGG, the Silver Medal of the Institution, accom- panied by a Vellum, signed by H.R.H.

The Prince of Wales, K.G., as President of the Institution. Coxswain Blogg has already twice won the Gold Medal for conspicuous gallantry, and is the only man living on whom this, the highest honour of the Life-boat Service, has twice been conferred. All three awards, it is interesting to note, have been for services to foreign vessels. Coxswain Blogg won the Gold Medal in 1917 for the rescue of eleven lives from the Swedish steamer Fernebo, sunk by a mine, and a Second Service Clasp to his Gold Medal in 1927 for the rescue of fifteen lives from the Dutch oil- tanker Georgia, which, like the Monte Nevoso, was wrecked on the Haisboro' Sands.

To each of the twelve members of the Crew, the Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum.

Money awards have also been made amounting to £8 Os. Qd. each to the Coxswain and Crew. The total pay- ments for the service, including the helpers and shore-attendant, amounted to £106 9s.

The Canine Defence League has awarded its Silver Medal to Coxswain Blogg for the rescue of the dog.

At a meeting of the Cromer Urban District Council on 7th November the Chairman, Mr. Willins, referred to the Institution's awards and said: " "We are sometimes told that Cromer is not sufficiently advertised. . . . These gal- lant men have done more to make the name of Cromcr famous than any work your Advertising Association can ever hope to do.".