Weymouth, Dorset.—At 11.35 on the night of the 17th of October, 1948, the Portland Naval Base telephoned that a liberty boat returning to H.M.S.

Illustrious, lying in Portland harbour, had sunk near the ship and that many men were in the sea, and at 11.50 the motor life-boat William and Clara Ryland was launched. A southerly gale was blowing, with a rough sea.

The life-boat and other boats searched the water for survivors, and then, at the request of the Illustrious, the life- boat searched the two breakwaters for men who might have been washed on to them. Three life-boatmen landed on the breakwaters but found nothing.

All that the life-boat picked up was some wreckage, life-buoys and clothing.

These she handed over to the Illustrious and returned to her station, arriving at 5.15 the next morning. One mid- shipman and twenty-eight men had lost their lives.—Rewards, £14 5s..