AT 12.45 on the afternoon of the 17th of September, 1952 the coastguard telephoned the life-boat station at Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides that the crew of a local motor boat, the Mayflower, were marooned on rocks.

The Mayflower had gone to Sula Sgeir, thirty-five miles north-north-east of the Butt of Lewis and sixty-five miles from Stornoway, to collect young gannets for salting. Their boat had sunk with the back-wash of the cliffs, and the men were left on the rocks in bad weather.

The fishery cruiser Minna reached Sula Sgeir on the 18th of September and signalled in the afternoon that she was resuming her normal fishing patrol. It was too rough to try and land where the men were marooned before the next morning. She added that if the seas moderated during the night it might be possible for the Stornoway life-boat to close the south- eastern corner of the rock face and for the men to jump on board her.

Sixty-five Mile Passage At eleven o'clock on the night of the 18th the Stornoway life-boat William and Harriot left her moorings, and after a sixty-five mile passage in a heavy swell, with a moderate north- north-west wind blowing, reached Sula Sgeir at 7.30 on the morning of the 19th. The coxswain hailed the four men on the rocks and suggested they should climb down 120 feet from the top of a cliff to a ledge sixty feet above the sea, where the breeches buoy could be used. The men declined to do this. They knew that if the breeches buoy apparatus should fail they would be unable to regain the cliff top. Instead, they pointed out a cove where it might be possible to get them off through the surf. At the time the water in the cove was all broken surf, so the coxswain anchored close to the cliffs on the south side of the island, both to save fuel and to -wait for better conditions.

Soon after noon the weather moder- ated. It was slack water at low tide, the swell had gone down and the coxswain decided to attempt the entrance of the cove. Neither he nor any of his crew had ever been to Sula Sgeir before, the cove was not marked on the chart, and the coxswain had nothing but the rise and fall of the seas to show him any sunken rocks. On that he relied, but he knew the risk. If the surge had caused the boat to come down on a ledge of rock, the crew might well have been thrown into the water and have had great difficulty in getting ashore in the swell.

Danger from Rocks He entered the cove and there he anchored in 16 feet of water, and veered astern towards the shore, but the holding for the anchor was poor, and he had to keep using his engines to prevent the boat's stern from strik- ing the rocks. He passed a line ashore and this was made fast to hold the life-boat steady. The four men—two of whom could not swim—were then hauled with veering lines, one by one, through the surf to the life-boat.

Twenty minutes after entering the cove the life-boat left it again. It was then 1.20 in the afternoon. At 8.15 in the evening the life-boat arrived back to Stornoway. She had been on service for twenty-two hours and had left in her tanks only enough fuel for three hours.

In recognition of his cool and able handling of the boat, in those confined and unknown waters of the cove, and his excellent navigation, the Institu- tion awarded to COXSWAIN MALCOLM MACDONALD its bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum and fram- ed.

The Institution also made to him and each member of his crew a special reward of £1 in addition to the reward of £4 15$. on the ordin- ary scale. Scale rewards, £36 5*.; special rewards, £8. Total rewards, £44 5s..