AT nine in the evening of 4th Novem- ber, 1937, many people in the village of Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, heard the sound of a ship's siren, and thought that it must come from a ship dangerously close to the shore. A southerly gale was blowing; the weather was cold ; the night was very dark and misty, and there was a very heavy breaking sea on the outer banks.

Some people went to investigate, but it was not until 9.30 that the ship was found. She was ashore on the extreme seaward end of the south bank of the River Ythan, two miles north of the Belhelvie coastguard look-out, and ten miles north of Aberdeen. Her naviga- tion lights could be seen, and her crew were burning flares and bedding. The crew of the Newburgh pulling and sail- ing life-boat John and Robert C. Mercer were called out. Twenty minutes later all the lights and flares had disappeared.

The siren had ceased. The vessel could no longer be seen.

It was then 9.50. Five minutes later the coastguard at Aberdeen reported to the Aberdeen life-boat station that a vessel one or two miles north of Belhelvie look-out appeared to be in distress. The Aberdeen motor life-boat, Emma Constance, was away from her station being overhauled, and the reserve motor life-boat J. and W., which was taking her place, was at once called out, but ten minutes later the coastguard at Belhelvie advised her to wait while a further search was made. She waited for another ten minutes, and then the Aberdeen coast- guard advised her to go to the position already given, one to two miles north of Belhelvie look-out. It was then 10.15. Ten minutes later the Newburgh pulling and sailing life-boat, which had been taken a mile along the beachby her launching - tractor, arrived abreast of the point where the wreck had last been seen. Nothing was visible and the tide was rising fast.

Contradictory Information; A large crowd was on the spot, and information was contradictory. Some thought that the vessel had capsized when her lights disappeared. Others thought, that she had got off and put to sea, for there have been cases on the coast of vessels, supposed to be trawlers, going ashore, making distress signals, getting off again, and then putting out all lights to escape being identified.

No one of those who had actually seen the vessel could say if she had been a hundred or five hundred yards from the shore.

The coastguard with a searchlight and the life-boat crew with a powerful Alda flare searched the whole area.

They could find nothing. The night was very dark and the lights were simply reflected back from the flying spindrift. As nothing could be seen, the life-boat did not attempt to launch.

Meanwhile, the Aberdeen motor life- boat had gone north of Belhelvie.

There she was signalled by the coast- guard to go farther north. She did so, searching along the outer banks, but she could make little use of her searchlight, for its light, too, was reflected back from the spindrift.

She frequently stood in towards the land, through the breaking seas on the outer banks, took soundings, and headed seawards again. There were no shore lights to guide her. Seas continually broke on board, completely filling her, but she quickly freed herself.

Life-boat Nearly Ashore.

So the difficult search went on in the darkness. Signals from the coastguard sent the life-boat still farther north, north of the Ythan. She searched without success, and at last, turning southwards again, she saw lights which the coxswain took for the wreck.

The coxswain stood in for the lights, and found that he was heading straight for the Newburgh life-boat and a crowd of people on the beach. He put his helm hard over, but so close inshore had he gone that, as the life- boat swung round, she bumped on the sandy bottom.

The coxswain then headed seaward again; a shout was heard to windward; the searchlight was turned on and the wreck at last was seen. It was then two in the morning, five hours since the siren had first been heard. The wreck was the steam trawler Roslin, of Aberdeen. Only her masts and funnels were showing above the break- ing seas. Three men could be seen clinging to the fore rigging. The trawler was lying in the worst place along the whole of this twelve-mile stretch of sands. The sand frequently shifts, forming high banks and lakes, and the tide, running with the wind, as it was on this night, sets very strongly across the point where the trawler lay.

The coxswain attempted to anchor to windward and drop down to the wreck, but after he had veered out fifty fathoms of cable, the anchor came home. He attempted to anchor again, and again the anchor would not hold. It was then found that its stock had been lost.

Life-boat Aboard the Wreck.' As it was impossible to veer down, the coxswain took the life-boat to the lee side and boldly ran her right aboard the wreck, between the fore gallows and the fore rigging. As he did so, a rope was flung to one of the men in the rigging. He was holding on to another man. He released his hold in an attempt to seize the rope, and the second man—it is thought that he was already dead—fell into the sea and was lost. The life-boat was washed away. Again and yet again the coxswain brought her up and ran her aboard the wreck. He did it six times in all before the two men left in the rigging were each able to catch the rope flung to him, tie it round him- self and jump into the sea to be hauled aboard the life-boat.

From the men rescued it was learnt that there had been eight men on board, four in the wheelhouse, four in the rigging. The top of the wheel- house had been carried away, and the four men in it had gone. One of the four men in the rigging had been swept from his hold. Another had gone when the first rope was flung.The two men rescued were all that were left of the trawler's crew.

It was not until 5.22—seven hours after she had put out—that the life- boat reached Aberdeen again. She had been damaged when her coxswain ran her aboard the wreck, and she arrived home with a piece torn out of her stem below the water-line.

The Institution's Awards.

It had been a long and arduous search, and a rescue gallantly carried out in circumstances of great difficulty and danger, and the Institution has made the following awards : To COXSWAIN THOMAS M. SINCLAIR, a second-service clasp to the silver medal for gallantry which he already holds, and a copy of the vote awarding the medal inscribed on vellum and framed; To SECOND COXSWAIN GEORGE A.

FLETT, the bronze medal for gallantry, and a copy of the vote awarding the medal inscribed on vellum and framed ; To ACTING MOTOR MECHANIC ROBERT J. B. ESSON*, the bronze medal for gallantry, and a copy of the vote awarding the medal inscribed on vellum and framed ; To each of the four other members of the crew, the bowman, THOMAS WALKER, the motor mechanic, ALEXANDER WEIR*, JAMES COWPER and JOHN M. NOBLE, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum and framed; To the coxswain and each member of the crew a reward of £2 in addi- tion to the ordinary scale reward of £l 17s. Gd., making a total reward of £3 17s. 6d. to each man. Standard rewards to crew, £12 14s.; additional rewards to crew, £14. Total rewards, £26 14s. ; To the crew and launchers of the Newburgh life-boat rewards amounting to £19 12s. 6d.

Coxswain Thomas Sinclair won the silver medal, to which he has now been awarded a second-service clasp, for the rescue of the crew of seven of the steamer Fairy, of King's Lynn, on 26th January, 1937. He is the first life-boatman since 1909 to win a medal and a second-service clasp to it in one year. On Christmas Day, 1935, he won the bronze medal for the rescue of two lives from the trawler George Stroud, so that in less than two years he has three times won a medal for gallantry.

* The motor mechanic, Alexander Weir, was in charge of the engines of the Emma Constance while they were being overhauled, and his assistant, Robert J. B. Esson, was in charge of the engines of the temporary life-boat.

That was why in this service, carried out bj- the temporary life-boat, the assistant motor mechanic was in charge of the engines, and the motor mechanic went out as a member of the crew..