A Gallant Service off Folkestone.

ON the night of Sunday, 13th December last, a strong S.W. gale was blowing off Folkestone, with a very heavy sea and driving rain. The day had been fine, and early in the afternoon the motor fishing boat, Josephine II, had put out with three men on board. She was caught in the gale, returning to Folkestone. Her propeller was fouled by a trawl-rope; she carried no sails; and shortly after ten at night, when half a mile south-east of Copt Point—a mile east of Folkestone—she sent up signals of distress. The 20-ton motor fishing boat, Florence Rosalind, manned by her owner, Mr. William Hall, her skipper, Mr. William Fagg, and six Folkestone fishermen, at once put out.

It was then 10.15. The men were in their Sunday clothes. They did not wait to change.

The news was passed by the Sandgate coastguard to the motor life-boat station at Hythe, five miles away, and arrived at 10.30. With a gale blowing from the south-west, a very heavy sea and a spring flood tide making, it was not only difficult, but dangerous to attempt a launch (which at Hythe is by means of skids laid on the beach), owing to a wooden groyne and sea-wall near the launching-place and to lee- ward of it. Fortunately the tide was not quite full, but even then the risk was great that the life-boat would foul the groyne and damage her propeller.

The coxswain decided to take the risk, and warned the crew and the fifty- three launchers that success depended on their efforts. The motor life-boat Viscountess Wakefield was launched in twenty-five minutes from the firing of the maroons. The wind and seas carried her eastwards along the beach, but she got clear, missing the groyne by only six feet. It was then 11.15.

The Rescue.

About half an hour after midnight the life-boat found the Josephine II, which by that time was two and a half miles east of Copt Point. The Florence Rosalind had already reached her, had taken her in tow, and had saved her from being driven on the rocks. She had had her in tow for over an hour, but as the life-boat came up the tow-rope parted.

The life-boat then passed a rope aboard the Josephine II and the Florence Rosalind returned to Folkestone. As soon as the life-boat started to tow the rope parted. She went alongside the fishing boat again ; passed a second and heavier rope ; and once more started to tow, but the strain was so great that it pulled out the Josephine IPs stem- piece. A third time the life-boat went alongside her, and this time the three fishermen decided to abandon their boat. She was now only a quarter of a mile from the rocks at the foot of high cliffs. The three men were saved.

Their boat went ashore and became a total wreck.

Meanwhile the Dover motor life-boat Sir William Hillary had also arrived.

Her crew had stood by since 11 o'clock, and at 11.40 she put out, as the news then received from the Sandgate coast- guard was that the Florence Rosalind had the Josephine II in tow, but could make no headway, and that the Hythe life-boat was not yet abreast the coast- guard station. She reached the scene an hour later, ten minutes after the Hythe life-boat.

The Florence Rosalind arrived back at Folkestone at 1.15 next morning.

The Hythe life-boat, with the three- rescued men on board, arrived three quarters of an hour later. The Dover life-boat reached Dover again at 3 o'clock in the morning.

The crew of the Florence Rosalind, by their promptness and gallantry, and at the risk of their own lives, undoubtedly saved the three men of the Josephine II.

But for them she would have been driven ashore, and the men have lost their lives, before the Hythe life-boat could arrive.

One of the rescued men graphically de- scribed the danger run by their rescuers.

" The men in the Florence Rosalind were for nearly all the time in more danger than we were in the Josephine.

The wind was as hard a blow as I have ever been in in a small boat. As the Florence Rosalind came towards us, and while having us in tow, we could see her being continuously washed by tremen- dous waves, and it was a .wonder some of the men were not washed overboard.

The wind and seas knocked the boat's light out several times, and they were pumping water out of the boat prac- tically the whole time. When the Florence Rosalind got hold of us the wind got fiercer, and it was only with the utmost difficulty that she made very little progress, but she certainly held us to prevent us going on the rocks." The Rewards.

The Institution has made the fol- lowing awards : To MR. WILLIAM HALL, the owner, an inscribed silver watch and £1 17s. 6d.

To MR. WILLIAM FAGG, the skipper, an inscribed silver watch and £1175. 6d.

To each of the six other members of the crew £1 17s. 6d.

The Institution has also paid £4 to Mr. Hall for ropes lost and damaged and petrol used.

The launch of the Hythe motor life- boat was carried out in the face of great difficulty and danger, and its success was due to the courage and fine spirit of the coxswain and crew. The Institution has made the following awards : To COXSWAIN HENRY A. GRIGGS, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum.

To the Hythe branch, a framed letter of appreciation.

To coxswain and crew, £1 17s. 6d.

each.

To each of the two members of the Dover crew who are not full-time employees of the Institution, £117s. 6d.

The total payments for the service amount to £84 10s. 6d.

There was a double ceremony for presenting the awards. At Hythe on 26th January, the Mayor of Hythe, supported by the Mayoress and the Mayor and Mayoress at Folkestone, presided at a meeting at which the awards to the Hythe crew were pre- sented, and the money awards to the crew of the Florence Rosalind. The silver watches awarded to the owner and skipper of the Florence Rosalind were presented at Folkestone by the Mayor on 30th January. In addition a wallet with ten shillings was presented to each of the eight men, a personal gift from members of the Folkestone branch of the Institution, and a wallet with ten shilling to each of the three men of the Josephine II, a gift from the Mayor of Folkestone. The coxswain and second coxswain of Hythe and their wives attended the presentation, and they, with the crews of the Florence Rosalind and the Josephine II, and their wives, were entertained to supper by the Mayor..