On the morning of the 2nd May a pilot reported to the coxswain that a vessel in the Gore Channel was flying a signal flag, and a life-boatman went to Westgate to find out the nature of the signal. He telephoned that it was a distress signal, and the motor life-boat Lord South- borough (Civil Service No. 1) was launched at 9.30 A.M. A moderate E.N.E. gale was blowing with a heavy sea, and visibility was poor owing to heavy rain. The life-boat found the ketch Ethel Edith, of Faversham. She had on board five men and a woman, and was bound from Par to Dagenham with a cargo of china clay. She was leaking badly and her crew, who had been pumping all night, were exhausted.

At the master's request some of the life-boat crew went aboard and pumped her free of water, and then got her under way. The life-boat escorted her to Whitstable and towed her into a safe anchorage in Whitstable Harbour at 4 P.M., saving the vessel and the six persons on board. She arrived back at her station at 7 P.M., having been on service for nine and a half hours, but she could not be re-housed until next day owing to the heavy seas on the slipway.—Property Salvage Case..