Aloma (1)
Portrush, Co. Antrim; Campbeltown, Argyllshire; and Donaghadee, Co. Down.
—On the morning of the 12th of July, 1952, a man, together with his wife and two sons, were cruising off the coast of County Antrim in the twenty-eight feet motor boat Aloma, of Belfast, when her engine failed and she started to drift. The woman and one son got ashore in a rubber dinghy while the man and the other son remained with the boat. The coastguard were in- formed, and a search for the disabled boat was organized. At 9.26 the coastguard telephoned the Portrush life-boat station, and at 9.35 the life- boat Lady Scott, Civil Service No. 4, was launched in a moderately rough sea, with a north-westerly breeze blowing. At 1.27 in the afternoon the Campbeltown life-boat City of Glasgow was asked to join in the search, and she left at 1.42. At 3.45 the Donagha- dee life-boat station was warned.
Later information stated that a boat was in distress off The Maidens, and the life-boat Sir Samuel Kelly put out at 5.20. The life-boats carried out a search over a wide area, and at eight o'clock in the evening the coastguard advised them to proceed towards The Maidens. Shortly afterwards the Campbeltown life-boat found the miss- ing boat with the man and boy aboard.
They were taken aboard the life-boat, which then towed the Aloma to Larne.
The Donaghadee life-boat reached her station again at 11.30 the same night; the Campbeltown life-boat got back at 4.10 in the morning after fourteen and a half hours at sea; and the Port- rush life-boat, after her crew had had a meal at Carnlough, arrived home atfive in the morning after over nineteen hours absence. The owner expressed his gratitude for all that had been done and made a donation to the funds of the Institution.—Rewards, Portrush, £38 7s.; Campbeltown, £25 3s. Qd.; Donaghadee, £13 Is..