AT two o'clock in the morning of 14th November, 1901, the Beauchamp, the No. 2 life-boat at Caister, Norfolk, was launched in answer to flares of distress seen from a vessel on the Barber Sands.

A whole gale was blowing, with a very heavy sea.

Sail was set and the life-boat made for the sands, which were dead to windward. On nearing the sands the coxswain stood ashore and tacked just outside the surf. He tacked again and then a third time, but this time the boat missed stays. Twice she failed to come round, and was now in the breakers close to the beach. Her bow struck. At the same moment a very heavy sea caught her and turned her right over. Her masts were broken off short and the crew pinned beneath her. Of the twelve men on board only three were saved, and these three by the efforts of James Haylett, ex- coxswain of the life-boat, a man of seventy-eight, and his son Frederick Haylett, who both rushed into the surf and dragged them out. It was one of the most terrible of life-boat disasters, but made memorable by the heroism of James Haylett, who was awarded the Institution's gold medal.

Two of his sons and one grandson were among the dead.

One of the nine bodies was carried away by the sea, but the other eight were buried in Caister Cemetery. A memorial of stone in the form of a broken mast was erected on their grave and a memorial window was placed in the parish church.

Six widows, thirty-three children, three other dependent relatives and one partly dependent were left to be provided for if hi want. A fund was opened and contributions were re- ceived from all over the country.

Some £12,000 was subscribed, of which the Institution contributed £2,000.

During thirty-one years weekly allowances have been paid to the dependants out of this fund, of which Mr. H. Chamberlin, notary public of Great Yarmouth, has been the honorary secretary since the beginning, while the actual distribution of the allowances has been made by the successive rectors of Caister.

The final meeting of the committee of the fund was held on 23rd November, 1932, with the Mayor of Great Yar- mouth presiding, and the audited accounts for the previous year showed that the fund would be exhausted by Christmas, 1932. The position of the fund was then brought to the no.tice of the Institution.

Six persons were still receiving help from it. Two were widows of men who had lost their lives in the disaster.

Another was the eldest daughter of a member of the crew who was a widower, and as she had brought up her eleven brothers and sisters, she was from the beginning treated by the fund as the " widow " of her father. Two others were a sister and a daughter of members of the crew. The sixth had himself been a life-boatman for forty-seven years. He was not in the life-boat at the time of the disaster, but his father and son were on board. The father was rescued, injured, the son, a boy of nineteen, who was taking part in his first life-boat service, was drowned.

The Institution has undertaken to continue the pensions and allowances to these six, all of whom had suffered bereavement and loss through the disaster..