New Brighton, Cheshire.—At 9.2 P.M.

on the 30th November a telephone message was received from the dockmaster, Salisbury Dock, Liverpool, that a motor barge, and three dumb barges in tow, were aground off the North Salisbury pierhead. There were eight or ten men on board the four barges.

A whole N.N.W. gale was blowing, with a very rough sea. The No. 2 motor life-boat William and Kate Johnston put off at 9.10 p.M., and found the motor barge T. H. Burton, of Liverpool,stern on to the tide. There was no sign of the others, and the life-boat made off to look for them. She was recalled by shouts and whistles from the T. H. Burton, and learned that the dumb barges had struck the dock wall and sunk. The T. H. Burton was nearly awash, being held down by the tow-rope of one of the sunken barges.

The life-boat went alongside, and rescued four men, three being the crew and one a man from another barge.

Of the other five men of the barges' crews, three had been rescued by men from the docks, but two had been drowned. The lifeboat landed the rescued men at New Brighton stage at 10 P.M. She then returned to her moorings, but it was found that the motor boarding-boat had been partially filled, and that the engine had been flooded. It was not until 1.30 a.M. on the 1st December that the engine was started. Five men of the life-boat crew then went ashore in the boardingboat, and two of them took her to pick up the rest of the crew. When they were coming ashore two big waves put the engine out of action again, and the boat drifted out into heavy seas.

During a lull the men rowed her back to the life-boat, and finally got ashore at 4 A.M. The barge T. H. Burton eventually broke away from the tow-rope which was holding her and drifted up the river, where she was taken in tow.

A letter of thanks was received from the rescued men. An increase in the usual money award on the standard scale was granted to each member of the life-boat crew.—Rewards, £24 5*. 6d..