Ilfracombe, and Appledore, Devon; and Minehead, Somerset.—At 5.24 on the afternoon of the 17th of January, 1954, the Admiralty tanker Wave Victor, which had fifty-five people on board, wirelessed that fire had broken out in her engine-room fuel unit and asked for help. She gave her position as nine miles north of Bull Point. Five minutes later she reported that her crew were abandoning her. The sea was choppy and a fresh breeze was blowing from the north-west.

At 5.53 the Ilfracombe coastguard rang up the Ilfracombe life-boat station, and at 6.17 the life-boat Robert and Phemia Brown was launched. The Westward Ho! coast- guard informed the Appledore life-boat station at 6.10, and at 6.25 the life-boat Violet Armstrong was launched. At 6.10 the Ilfracombe coastguard also telephoned the Minehead life-boat station, and the life-boat B.H.M.H.

was launched at 6.35. The Ilfra- combe life-boat readied the tanker first, at 7.15, and found that boats from ships near by were rescuing her crew. The life-boat went alongside and rescued ten, and then laid off while the captain decided if the tanker should be completely abandoned. At 8.30 the Appledore life-boat reached the scene, and the Ilfracombe life-boat landed the men rescued, one of whom had been injured, and reached her station again at ten o'clock.

In the meantime the Appledore life-boat had rescued the remaining twenty-four men, including the cap- tain, and at his request stood by the vessel until fire-fighting tugs arrived.

The life-boat wirelessed this news to the Ilfracombe life-boat, which remained in readiness ashore. Tugs had the blaze under control by 3.30 early on the 18th, and the Appledore life-boat put the twenty-four men aboard their ship again. A tug towed her to Swansea and the life-boat returned to her station, arriving at 4.30. The Minehead life-boat was not needed and arrived back at her station at 2.45.—Rewards: Ilfracombe, £27 8s. 6d.; Appledore, £23 17s.; Minehead, £23 17s. The Lords Com- missioners of the Admiralty expressed their thanks..