THE VALUE OF WIRELESS Selsey, Sussex.—At 8.8. in the even- ing of the 15th of April, 1947, the Selsey coastguard reported that on the previous evening a motor launch with a small boat in tow had anchored one and a half miles south of Shelley Buoy, but had not been seen since. An hour later the coastguard asked that a search be made and the motor life-boat Canadian Pacific was launched at 9.35 in a light south-westerly breeze. 'The sea was smooth but there was fog. The life-boat found nothing, and when at 11.20 a wireless message from the Owers Light-vessel reported a steamer burning flares about three miles north by west of iher, the life-boat went to that position. Here at 12.10 next morning she found the Greek steamer Nicolaos G. Kulukundis, hard aground.

She was a ship of 10,000 tons, carrying a crew of twenty-seven and bound, laden with coal, from South America to Belgium. At the request of her master, who thought that she might break her back, the life-boat remained with her until 6.0 that evening. Then another wireless message came that two boats, believed to be those for which the life-boat had been searching earlier, had been seen off Littlehampton. Leaving the Greek steamer the life-boat went in search of the boats and found them five miles to the south-east of Little- hampton. They were the yacht Silver Spray, of Littlehampton and a motor launch which was towing her to Portsmouth, with one man on board.

He had run out of fuel and asked that a wireless message should be sent for more fuel. The life-boat did this through Niton Radio, and a supply in due course arrived, enabling the launch to go on with her tow before darkness set in. It was now eight o'clock and the life-boat was able to return to the Greek steamer, which she reached at 9.30. Although two tugs were now in attendance the life-boat was asked to remain, and she stood by until eleven o'clock on the morning of the 17th, when two more tugs came out and the steamer was refloated. The life-boat then escorted her clear of the rocks.

After her crew had been given a meal on board the steamer the life-boat left at 3.20 in the afternoon and arrived back at her station at five o'clock.

She had been out for forty-four hours.

—Rewards, £76 17*..