AT 4.40 on the afternoon of the 26th of November, 1954, the honorary secretary of the Newhaven (Sussex) lifeboat station, Mr. R. K. Sayer, was told by the coastguard that the Danish auxiliary schooner Vega was making water and might need help. The schooner was then 25 miles southsouth- west of Beachy Head.

The honorary secretary immediately gave orders for the crew to assemble, but further reports then came in from other ships in the neighbourhood and from the Vega which indicated that the life-boat might not be needed.

At 9.30 in the evening this view was confirmed when the Vega signalled that she was no longer in distress.

The Dutch tug Humber was standing by her, while the destroyer Vigo and the ships Rangitito and Mosoil were also near at hand. The life-boat crew were then dismissed.

Situation Changed By 4.30 the next morning the situation had changed. A message was then received from H.M.S. Vigo, which ran: "We think a life-boat will be necessary. We cannot turn round to approach the Vega." The Newhaven life-boat Cecil and Lilian Philpott was launched at 4.50.

A whole gale was blowing from the south-south-west, and conditions in the harbour entrance were extremely bad. Steep seas were breaking right across, and there were violent squalls of wind and rain. The tide, which was five hours ebb, was running strongly against the wind.

Coxswain William Harvey safely negotiated the harbour entrance, and once the life-boat was clear of the broken water he set a course to the south-east towards the last reported position of the Vega. This course brought the sea nearly on the beam.

A message was sent to the tug Humber asking her to show a flare, and at 7.25 the life-boat reached the position indicated.

List to Port The Vega was lying in the trough of the tremendous seas which were running.

Her head was to the southeast, she had a list to port of 20-30 degrees, and she was rolling her lee rails under.

She was rigged as a three-masted schooner, and her booms were swinging wildly with the motion of the ship.

Her deck cargo of timber was adrift.

Coxswain Harvey circled round the Vega twice and then approached her from the lee quarter. He tried to bring the life-boat close enough for the crew of the Vega to jump aboard, but the angle of the list, the deck cargo and the motion of the schooner made this impossible.

He decided that all the life-boat crew could do would be to pass a line and take the crew off the Vega by breeches buoy. As he brought the life-boat into position, a member of the crew of the Vega jumped into the sea with a line round his waist. He was hauled aboard, using the scrambling net, and the breeches buoy was bent on the line.

Eight Men Rescued Coxswain Harvey manoeuvred the life-boat carefully up to the Vega's port quarter. The Vega's crew climbed into the buoy and were hauled into the life-boat one after another.

Some barely touched the water at all, the scrambling net being- of the greatest help. The rescue operations were completed in .twenty minutes, eight men in all being taken aboard.

The return to Newhaven, which lasted more than three and a half hours in heavy seas and a flood tide, was a most arduous one. The lifeboat returned at reduced speed and only with difficulty negotiated the high breaking seas at the harbour entrance. One particularly heavy sea broke across not more than a boat's length astern. The life-boat reached her station at 12.40 in the afternoon.

All the survivors were suffering from exposure, and some were slightly injured.

They were given hot drinks on board the life-boat, and when they reached shore the local agent of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society arranged for them to be provided with food and clothing.For this service the Institution awarded the silver medal to Coxswain William Harvey.

Vellums for Grew It also awarded the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum to each of the other six members of the crew: Second Coxswain Edgar Moore, Motor Mechanic Alexander Fletcher, Bowman Harold Moore, R/T Operator, Harold Hills, Life-boatman Albert Mockford, Life-boat man Jack Shinn.

Letters of thanks were sent to the Danish seaman who jumped into the j sea and whose name was Jespersen.

| and to another member of the crew of the Vega, Karl Bylow.

Scale rewards to the Newhaven crew and helpers, £25 17s. Additional rewards to the crew, £21. Total rewards.

£46 17,9..