Dover, Kent.—At 7.37 oil the night of the 21st of March, 1952, the Sandgate coastguard telephoned that two ships had been in collision in a fog four miles south-east of Dover. They were the S.S. Benwyvis, of Leith, and the S.S.

Guecho, of Bilbao. The Guecho had been badly damaged and the Bemvyvis was standing by her. The life-boat- men assembled. The Guecho wire- lessed for a tug. The German tug Wotan took her in tow, and as the life-boat was not needed the life- boatmen were dismissed. At 2.34 next morning, the 22nd, the Guecho, now one mile north-north-east of the South Goodwin Lightvessel, again wirelessed.

This time she asked for the life-boat.

At 2.47 the coastguard telephoned the life-boat station, and at 3.30 the life- boat Southern Africa left her moorings, with the second coxswain in charge.

A rough sea was running, with a fresh south-westerly breeze blowing. The life-boat found the Guecho, a vessel of 3,372 tons laden with potash, about four miles east of Dover. Her port bow had been stove in. She was in danger of sinking, and the pilot aboard her asked the life-boat to stay along- side in case her forward bulkhead should give way. The Wotan still had her in tow and a tug from Dover had also made fast to her. The tow con- tinued, and once the wire rope from the Wotan swept across the life-boat and damaged her, but without injuring anyone. At 6.10 that morning the Guecho anchored in the Downs. The life-boat took the pilot and two officers from her to the Wotan, then took them and the tug-master back to the Guecho, and finally put them all aboard the Dover tug. Later she took the master of the Dover tug to the Guecho and then to the Wotan.

At 3.20 that afternoon the tugs towed the Guecho into Dover, escorted by the life-boat, which reached her station again at 5.45 that evening.—Rewards, £25 10s..