Boulmer, Northumberland.—At 4.50 in the morning, on the 26th of January, 1951, the coastguard telephoned that a ship was aground on the north side of the entrance to Boulmer Haven.

She was sounding her siren. At 5.15 the life-boat Clarissa Langdon was launched in a rough sea with a lightsoutherly breeze. She found the motor vessel Van Brakel, of Rotterdam— laden with scrap iron and bound for Grangemouth with a crew of eight— lying in broken water and held firmly by the rocks. The life-boat closed her, but the skipper said he did not want to abandon ship; so the life-boat lay off and stood by for a little. But the tide was ebbing fast, and soon the life-boat could be of no further help; so she returned to her station, arriv- ing at 7.30 that morning.—Rewards, £13 Is..