Southend-on-Sea, Essex.—At 11.20 on the night of the 15th of November, 1949, during a fog, the coastguard reported that two ships had been in collision off Thames Haven. As a result, four men were adrift in a ship's boat, others were in the water, and one of the vessels was reported sinking.

At 11.45, therefore, the life boat Greater London, Civil Service No. 3, was launched. A light easterly breeze was blowing and the sea was calm. She found the motor vessel Mercurius, of Amsterdam, at anchor, but holed and listing. However; as her skipper said she was safe, the life-boat went to look for the other ship, the motor vessel Sedulity, of London, which was reported to be about a mile west of the Mercurius.

While she searched, a wireless message announced that the Sedulity and her crew were safe. Accordingly she gave up the search; but on her way back heard a motor boat in the fog, and shortly after came up with a boat from the Mercurius, in which her skipper and a member of her crew had been trying to reach the shore.

The life-boat took them on board, towed their boat back to the Mercurivs and, at the request of the skipper, landed a man at Southend, reaching her station again at 4.15 the next morning.—Rewards, £16 9s..