ON the night of 2nd March, 1937, the Grimsby steam trawler, Lord Ernie, bound for Grimsby from the White Sea, with a crew of fifteen men, went ashore under Bempton Cliffs, north of Flamborough Head. The harbour- master at Bridlington picked up her call for help on his wireless and passed the news by telephone to the Flam- borough coxswain. It was then about eleven o'clock. The wind from the south-west was light, but a heavy ground swell was running from the north-east, the aftermath of a northerly gale. The weather was misty.

The tide was at three-quarter ebb, and the life-boat had to be launched by hand over the flat sand and rocks.

Fifty launchers took part, many of them going into the sea up to their chests. In spite of these difficulties, the motor life-boat Elizabeth and Albina Whitley was afloat half an hour after the call had come.

She found the Lord Ernie about midnight, a mile south of the place where the trawler Skegness was wrecked in September, 1935. The Lord Ernie was lying with her bows touching the cliffs. She had a heavy list; her after part was under water; and she was swept continually by the heavy breaking swell. Her crew were for- ward, or in the rigging. With bedding, clothing and fish-boxes all soaked in paraffin, they had lighted a signal fire on the forecastle head. It was burning brightly, and by the light of this fire the life-boat went to work.

Three Hours' Work of Rescue.

The starboard side of the wreck was the side giving shelter from the heavy swell, which was rebounding off the cliffs, but the coxswain knew that on that side there were rocks awash, and that to get alongside under the lee of the wreck was impossible.

He anchored and veered down, hoping to get alongside the port quarter, but he found that also to be impossible, owing to the weight of the seas. He then fired a line from the line-throwing pistol across the wreck.

By this means lines and a lifebuoy were passed to her, and one of her crew was hauled towards the life-boat.

He had nearly reached her when the life-boat sheered violently and the lines parted. The man was got safely aboard, but the coxswain saw that, if the rest were to be rescued, he must get close to the trawler. He went ahead, and dropped anchor again. Again the line-throwing pistol carried a line over the trawler and a heavier line was passed.

A four-inch mooring-rope was also passed to the trawler to keep the life- boat near her. Then one by one the trawler's crew were hauled through the sea in a bight of the line. Six men had been rescued in this way when the four-inch rope parted. A wire rope was passed from the trawler to the life- boat to take its place. By this time the bonfire on the trawler had burnt out, and the lifeboat-men and trawler's crew were working in pitch darkness, until, a little later, coastguards arrived at the top of the cliff, 400 feet above the wreck, and trained their searchlight on her. By this light the work continued, when suddenly a heavy sea swept in, lifting the life-boat with it, and flinging her on to the trawler. For- tunately she slid off again, her keel grating on the trawler's rail, but her rudder had been split, and half of it had beeen torn away.

The work went on, and the trawler's skipper, the last of the fifteen men to leave her, was hauled safely through the seas into the life-boat. The actual work of rescue had taken three hours.

Anchor was weighed with difficulty and the life-boat reached her station again at four in the morning. She had been out four and a half hours.

The Awards.

It was an exceptionally fine service, carried out in the middle of the night, in circumstances of the greatest diffi- culty and danger, in shallow water, thick with rocks, close under 400-feet cliffs, with heavy seas pounding in.

The Institution has made the following awards :— To COXSWAIN GEORGE LENG, the silver medal for gallantry, accompaniedby a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum: To each of the eight members of the crew, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum :—JOHN H. CEOSS, EDWARD SLAUGHTER, ROBERT EMMER- SON, GEORGE GIBBON, RICHARD COWLING, ROBERT LENG, GEORGE WARCUP, JNR., JOHN C. EMMERSON; To MR. EDWARD TAYLOR, harbour- master at Bridlington, a letter of thanks; To the coxswain and each member of the crew, a reward of £2 in addi- tion to the ordinary scale reward of £1 17s. 6d., making a reward of £8 17«. 6d. each ; To each of the forty-nine helpers, a reward of 5s. in addition to the ordinary scale reward of 9s.

Total rewards, £69 1.?. 6d.

The Scarborough motor life-boat was also launched, but was recalled when it was known that the Flamborough motor life-boat was going to the trawler's help. Rewards, £32 Os. 6d.

A letter of congratulation and thanks was sent to Coxswain Leng and his crew by the Bridlington Fishermen's and Boatmen's Society, and Coxswain Leng and the captain of the Flam- borough life-saving company broadcast an account of the rescue in "In Town To-night.".