Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire.—At 10.15 on the morning of the 31st of January, 1953, the life-boat coxswain reported that two men were in diffi- culties in a rowing boat. They had anchored two miles east of Lytham pier and were flying a distress signal from an oar. The life-boat Sarah Townsend Porritt was launched at 10.50 in a heavy sea with a north- westerly wind of hurricane force blow- ing. She found the rowing boat two miles east-by-south of the pier. The men. who had been on a shooting expedition, were exhausted. The life- boat rescued them, took their boat in tow, and returned to her station, arriving at one o'clock in the after- noon.—Rewards, £13 13s..