AT 6.25 in the morning of the 9th October, 1939, the Cronier coxswain learned through the Humber radio and the coastguard that a vessel had gone ashore on Haisborough Sands, thirteen miles to the east. A breeze was blowing with increasing force from S.E. by E. A very heavy sea was running.

The tide was at half ebb. There was mist and rain. At 6.45 the No 1 motor life-boat, H. F. Bailey, was launched. Before launching the coxswain had asked the coastguard to get the position of the vessel and shortly after eight o'clock the life-boat heard on its wireless the coastguard asking the Haisborough Light-vessel to tell her that the vessel had grounded on the Ower Bank. She was nowhere near the Haisborough Sands, but another nineteen miles further on.

At this time the life-boat was near the North Middle Haisborough Buoy.

She went south towards Middle Haisborough Buoy and then across the sands to the gap between that buoy and the East Haisborough Buoy.

From there she set a course for the Ower, to the north-east. About one o'clock she crossed the Leman Bank, and shortly afterwards saw the vessel aground on the Ower. She was a Greek steamer, the Mount Ida of Piraeus, of 4,275 tons, loaded with grain and timber and on her way from Vancouver to Hull. She had a crew of twenty-nine on board.

The steamer was lying nearly head on to the seas, so that she offered the lifeboat no lee. She had a list to starboard.

Part of her bridge had been smashed. Her starboard life-boats had been carried away. A very heavy sea was running on the bank.

A Dozen Ropes Snapped.

It was now about 12.30 P.M., and the coxswain approached her on the port side, but before a rope could be thrown the life-boat was struck by two heavy seas and flung back. The coxswain made a second attempt to get alongside, but he found that the ship had set up such strong cross currents in the tide as made it impossible for the life-boat to remain alongside her. He decided to wait until slack water before making another attempt. He took the life-boat clear of the sands and signalled to the ship what he intended to do.

At 2.15 in the afternoon the coxswain decided that the tide had slackened enough for another attempt to be made.

Wind and sea, however, had by this time considerably increased. The lifeboat got alongside and ropes were thrown to her from the wreck, but they snapped almost at once from the strain put upon them by the heavy seas.

At least a dozen ropes were snapped.

There was no hope of being able to keep the life-boat alongside the steamer by ropes. Instead the coxswain used the life-boat's engines. He drove ahead as the seas broke alongside the ship, and so prevented them from sweeping the life-boat away from her.

A rope ladder was dropped over the steamer's side and six men climbed down into the life-boat. A seventh man began the attempt, but when about half-way down he hesitated.

The life-boat's crew shouted to him to jump. Instead he started to climb back, but before he could get aboard the steamer again a big sea lifted the life-boat right to the top of the ladder and the man's leg was crushed between her and the steamer's side. His comrades pulled him aboard and did their best to stop the flow of blood from his mangled leg. Then they tied him in Hankets and lowered him by ropes from the steamer's port life-boat into the life-boat.

While the injured man was being attended to, no other members of the steamer's crew would come down the ladder. Then only about six of the remaining twenty-two would venture to use it. The others slid down a rope from the port life-boat.

Twenty-nine Rescued.

It was not until about 3.30 in the afternoon that the last of the twentynine men had been rescued. The lifeboat had been alongside the steamer, held in position there by her engines, for well over an hour. She had been swept almost continuously by heavy seas. She had been flung against the wreck and badly damaged. Only the bold seamanship of the coxswain, the care with which the mechanics had handled the engines, and the promptness with which they had carried out the coxwain's orders had made it possible to keep alongside the steamer at all.

The last man rescued, the coxswain decided that his best way of clearing the sands was to drive straight ahead through the seas. This was safely accomplished, and he made for Cromer as the best place to land the injured man and to get him medical help as soon as possible.

A Launching Mishap.

There the life-boat arrived at eight in the evening, but, with the sea that was running, it was impossible to land the man on the slipway. The coxswain thereupon called out the No. 2 life-boat Harriot Dixon, which is launched by tractor off the open beach. The Harriot Dixon was launched at 8.25, with Dr. D.

Vaughan on board. Unfortunately, as she was being launched, a throttle wire broke, the engine stalled, and the lifeboat was thrown right across the carriage. A hole was knocked in her port quarter, the carriage was broken, and the life-boat was launched stern first. In spite of this mishap she got safely away, and brought ashore the injured man, the other twenty-eight rescued men, and the H. F. Bailey's crew. The motor mechanic of the H. F. Bailey stayed on board her, with four members of the Harriot Dixon's crew, to look after her while she lay at anchor.

The injured man was taken at once to the Cromer and District Hospital, but there he died of his injuries the next night.

The coxswain sent his crew home at once to get dry clothes and a meal.

They had then been out for fourteen hours.

A Second Call.

Meanwhile, the tractor and the carriage of the Harriot Dixon had been completely submerged. They had to be hauled out by means of the winch and a wire hawser, a difficult task in the darkness, wind and rain. The coxswain remained on the beach until this had been done. He then went home, but he had only just got inside, when news was brought him that a vessel was in distress off Bacton, nearly ten miles south-east of Cromer. He called out the crew again, stayed only to put on dry clothes himself, and went to the boat-house intending to refuel the H. F. Bailey from the slipway. This was found to be impossible. It was impossible also, owing to the mishap to the tractor, to launch the Harriot Dixon again, so the biggest shoreboat available was loaded with forty tins of petrol, and she took them and the crew out to the H. F. Bailey. Two of the life-boatmen brought the shoreboat in again. They narrowly escaped being capsized in the broken water. The H. F. Bailey stood by until they had signalled that they were safely ashore, and then made for Bacton. A strong wind was blowing from the south-east.

There was haze and heavy rain, but the sea was now moderate.

The vessel in distress was the steam drifter Vera Creina, of Lowestoft, with ten men on board. She was on her way home from the fishing grounds and had run aground.

The life-boat reached her at one o'clock next morning. She was hailed from the shore and told that the drifter's crew had already been rescued by the Board of Trade's life-saving rocket apparatus. The drifter herself was refloated two days later.

As the life-boat had been damaged during the service to the Mount Ida, the coxswain, instead of returning to Cromer, made for Lowestoft, twentyfive miles further south, where repairs could be started at once. The life-boat arrived there at 6.30 in the morning and her crew returned by road arriving at midday. It was then thirty hours since they had set out to the help of the Mount Ida. During those thirty hours they had been at sea nearly twenty-one hours and had travelled over JOO miles.

The Damaged Life-boats.

The smaller life-boat, Harriot Dixon, was found to have six planks in her skin fractured on the port side and a hole in one of the air-cases. She was temporarily repaired with a patch of copper on the outside, and strengthened with timber on the inside. These repairs were completed by the 12th and the life-boat was then again ready for service.

The larger life-boat, the H. F. Bailey, was found to have her stem badly damaged at the forefoot. Four inner skin planks, two ribs and two deck beams had been fractured. Twenty feet of the fender on the starboard side had been broken to splinters. The footwale was badly split all along the starboard side. Stanchions had been bent and the guard chains broken. The repairs were completed late on the night of 20th October. The life-boat was launched next day. She returned to Cromer, ready for service again, on the 22nd October.

The Rewards.

This was a very fine service, carried out in very severe weather, and the Institution has made the following awards: To COXSWAIN HENRY G. BLOGG a third-service clasp to the silver medal for gallantry which he already holds, accompanied by a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum; To SECOND COXSWAIN J. J. DAVIES, SENIOR, a third-service clasp to the bronze medal and clasp which he already holds, accompanied by a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To the MOTOR MECHANIC H. W.

DAVIES, a second-service clasp to the bronze medal which he already holds, accompanied by a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum; To the ASSISTANT MOTOR MECHANIC J. W. DAVIES, a second-service clasp to the bronze medal which he already holds, accompanied by a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum; To the BOAT SIGNALMAN H. T.

DAVIES, and to each of the seven other members of the crew, R. C.

DAVIES, F. DAVIES, J. J. DAVIES, JUNIOR, W. H. DAVIES, R. DAVIES, R. Cox and G. Cox, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum; To the coxswain and each of the eleven members of the crew of the H. F. Bailey, who went out to the Mount Ida, a reward of £3 in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £3 6s.

Standard rewards, £41 6s. 6d.; additional rewards, £36; total rewards, £77 65. 6d.; To the coxswain and crew of the Harriot Dixon who, owing to the accident with the tractor were on duty for eleven hours, £1 17s. 6d. each; total rewards, £33; To the coxswain and crew (some of whom had manned the H. F. Bailey and some the Harriot Dixon in the service to the Mount Ida) who went out to the Vera Creina, £1 17s. Qd.

each; total rewards, £23 2s.; Total rewards for the services to the Mount Ida and the Vera Creina, £133 8s. 6d.

The owners of the Mount Ida gave £50 to the Institution..