Wick, Caithness-shire.—At 6.42 P.M.

on the 29th September, 1938. the coastguard reported that an aircraft had come down in the sea and was firing rockets for help. After calling out the life-boat, the coastguard, in view of the urgency of "the case, asked the Danish motor fishing boat Max Georg also to go to the rescue. Afresh S.S.E. breeze was blowing, with a choppy sea, and the weather was foggy.

The motor life-boat Frederick and Emma was launched at 6.52 P.M., and found the R.A.F. flying-boat Walrus L.2237 about twenty yards off Helman Head. She carried a crew of four and had been bound from Gosport to Scapa Flow. The Max Georg had arrived just before her, and had lowered, and was preparing to man, a small boat. The life-boat rescued one man by means of her breeches-buoy and then went alongside the sea-plane and took off the other three. She got the sea-plane in tow, but after about half an hour the line parted and the sea-plane capsized and sank. The lifeboat returned with the rescued men at 8.30 P.M.—Rewards: Life-boat, £8 Is.; shoreboat, £5, and 12s. 6d. for fuel used..