Plymouth, Devon.—On the after- noon of the 24th of June, 1950, an explosion, believed to have been caused by an oil stove, set fire to the yacht Edford, of Dartmouth, oft Blackstone Point. A man and .his wife were on board. The woman disappeared over- board, and her husband, badly burned, manned the yacht's dinghy and reached the shore. Here, two auxiliary coast - guardmen took it over and put to sea again. Two hundred yards out, they found the woman; and one of them jumped in the sea and supported her.

At 4.49 the Yealm coastguard had tele- phoned the life-boat station of the explosion, and at 5.10 the life-boat Robert and Marcella Beck was launched with Mr. A. S. Hicks, the honorary secretary, on board. The sea was moderate with a south-westerly breeze blowing. She found the two coast- guards exhausted and took them and the woman on board, where the life- boatmen applied artificial respiration on the woman. Then the lifeboat wire- lessed for a doctor and ambulance, and landed all three people at Plymouth about eight o'clock. The woman, however, was found to be dead when she reached hospital.—Rewards, £6 135.