AT six o'clock in the morning on the 5th of December, 1947, the Bembridge motor life-boat, Jesse Lumb, went out to the help of a vessel firing signals of distress about four miles south-east of St. Catherine's Point. A gale was blowing from the south-south-east. An hour and three-quarters later the lifeboat found H.M. trawler Erraid. She was about a mile east of St. Catherine's Point, at anchor, in heavy breaking seas, off a dead lee shore. A corvette had been sent out from Portsmouth and was standing by. The life-boat tried to take a line from the corvette to the trawler, but it could not be done. The weather was getting worse very rapidly, and the corvette, for her own safety, had to move out into deeper water.

A tug then arrived, and this time the life-boat was able to get a rope from her to the trawler. But the rope parted and the tug went on, leaving the trawler to the life-boat's help.

The trawler was now only about half a mile from the shore and her anchors were dragging. The life boat had to go alongside four times in those heavy seas before she was able to take off the eighteen men of the crew, their dog and their cat. One of the men fell between trawler and life-boat, but he was hauled on board unhurt. It was not until ten minutes past two in the afternoon that the life-boat returned to Bernbridge.

She had then been out just over eight hours.

The Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth sent his congratulations and thanks to the crew and the captain of the trawler wrote: "I don't know how I can thank your wonderful boat's crew. . . . the way they stayed out in that filthy weather, the way the boat was handled, the manner in which we were treated when taken into the boat, was something which I had read about but had never believed until that day." The Institution has made the following awards: To COXSWAIN ALBERT E. BAKER, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum and a reward of £2 in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £2 15s.; To the motor mechanic, H. E.

WATSON, a letter of thanks and, in addition to his full-time pay, a special reward of £2; To CHARLES HOLBROOKE, a member of the crew, who acted as assistant motor mechanic, a letter of thanks and a special reward of £2 in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £2 15s.; To each of the other five members of the crew a special reward of £2 in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £2 15*.

Standard rewards, £22 2s. 6d.; additional rewards, £16; Total rewards, £38 2s. 6d..