ON the morning of 10th October, 1935, the barge British Oak, of Roches- ter, was running for Ramsgate. She was bound from Goole to Hayling Island, with a crew of two men and a cargo of coal, and had been wind-bound off Deal for several days. On the 9th a S.W. gale sprang up; the barge became unmanageable; a motor boat put out to her; and four Deal boatmen went on board to help her crew to get her under way. It was decided to make for Ramsgate. The gale was still blowing, with a high confused sea and driving rain.

In the heavy seas the barge missed the harbour entrance, and drifting rapidly, was carried past the pier-head.

She struck the stone wall and her bow- sprit was snapped off, and hung with its rigging over the bows. She was carried helplessly along; her anchor failed to hold; and she struck and remained fast on Ramsgate Sands.

There she lay, broadside on to the seas, which were breaking right over her. The six men were all forward, hanging on to prevent themselves from being washed away.

Quick Work.

Her plight had been seen by the coastguard, and both the motor life-boat Prudential and the coastguards' rocket life-saving apparatus were called out.

A rocket was fired over the barge at the first shot, and a rope made fast, but the men on the barge waited for the life-boat. She had been launched at 7.52 A.M. Coxswain Howard Knight was in command. After serving for thirteen years as bowman and second- coxswain, he had been appointed coxswain nine days before, and this was his first service as coxswain.

The life-boat reached the barge in a few minutes, but found that there was not enough water to enable her to get under the barge's lee. The coxswain then anchored to windward and veered down, bumping on the sands. He was aiming to get under the barge's bow, but the raffle of gear of the broken bowsprit made this impossible.

The life-boat drew off, and the cox- swain then decided to get right along- side the barge, still on the weather side.

The difficulty of this was increased by the fact that the barge's dinghy was hanging in pieces over the side, and her crew could not get aft to cut it away.

In spite of this the life-boat got along- side and, while several of her crew clung to the barge's cable to prevent the life-boat from being flung on to the barge, three of the men jumped aboard her.

All Saved.

The life-boat could not remain longer in her perilous position and sheered off.

A second time she came alongside, and the remaining three men on the barge jumped into her. She drew clear, and landed the six men, unhurt but ex- hausted.

From the time when she put out until the time when she returned to harbour, the service took three-quarters of an hour. It was an act of great daring on the part of the coxswain to take the life-boat alongside in such conditions, and he handled her with great skill. A single error, and she would almost certainly have been flung against the barge and badly smashed.

In recognition of his skill and daring the Institution has awarded COXSWAIN HOWARD KNIGHT its thanks inscribed on vellum, and to him and his crew money awards amounting to £8 1*. 6d..