Aberdeen, and Newburgh, Aberdeenshire.

—On the morning of the 16th December the Cockenzie drifter Margaret and Francis was bound, light, from Burghead to Leith, with a crew of three on board. A whole southerly gale was blowing, with a very heavy sea.

The Margaret and Francis sprang a leak, became unmanageable, and was driven on to the beach at Belhelvie.

Life-boat stations were warned by the coastguard, and the Aberdeen No. 1 motor life-boat Emma Constance put out at 11.5 A.M. She found the drifteralmost submerged and partly broken up by the tremendous seas ; but she received a recall signal from the coastguard, and returned to her station at 1.20 p.M. Of the drifter's crew of three, one had been swept off with the wheelhouse, and the others had jumped overboard. Unfortunately only one man reached the shore. The Newburgh pulling and sailing life-boat John and Robert C. Mercer had been taken along the beach on her carriage, and arrived opposite the wreck at 11.30 A.M., but by that time the men had all gone overboard. She, therefore, made for home again, arriving at 5 P.M. A letter of appreciation was sent to the Newburgh station for the smart way in which the tractor and life-boat were taken to the scene of the wreck, along three miles of soft beach against the gale and sandstorm.—Rewards, Aberdeen, £6 17*.. Qd.; Newburgh, £17 7*. 6d..