Dover, Kent.—At 5.12 on the morning of the 10th of June, 1954, the Sandgate coastguard rang up to say that the Dutch tug Loire had wirelessed that she had been towing the hopper Novia Magum, which had two men on board, but that the hopper had broken adrift four miles south-east of Dover.

At 5.35 the life-boat Southern Africa put out in a very rough sea with a fresh south-westerly gale blowing.

She found the hopper six miles to the east drifting very quickly. The life- boat stood by her all day until a position fifty miles from Dover was reached, and passed soup to the two men on board. The life-boat had been asked not to take the men off unless they were in danger, but to remain with the hopper until the tug Rumania arrived. The tug reached the hopper at 8.15 thirty miles east-by-north of North Foreland and took her in tow.

The life-boat then returned to her station, arriving at 2.50 on the llth, having been at sea for over twenty-one hours. A gift was received by the life-boatmen.—Rewards, £31 15s..