ON the 2nd September, 1932, two men had gone out from Dooey, Co. Donegal, in a curragh, to lift lobster-pots. The wind increased, and a heavy sea swamped and capsized the curragh.

Their cries for help were heard, and two other men put off at once to their help in another curragh. It was described by the district inspector as the most primitive curragh he had ever seen on the Irish coast. It was 15 feet 6 inches by 4 feet, with a depth of only 1 foot 8 inches from gunwale to keel.

Its ribs were hazel sticks with the bark still on, tied together with string and bits of line, and covered with calico and tar. Its weight was about 100 Ibs.

In this curragh the two men rowed against wind and tide. They reached the scene to find that one of the menwas already drowned, but they picked up the other just as, exhausted, he was losing his hold on the oar to which he had been clinging.

It was a very fine rescue, carried out at considerable risk. The two-men rowed about two miles, and must have handled their boat with great skill to be able to get a man aboard out of the water without capsizing her. One of them, Mr. John McFadden, who served in the Irish Guards during the War, was badly wounded in the leg and invalided. He had been a fisherman, but owing to his injury had to give this up and take to work on the land. To each of these two men, Mr. John McFadden and Mr. Michael Carr, the Institution has awarded its thanks inscribed on vellum and £2..