AT 7.85 on the evening of the 10th of November, 1955, Mr. J. B. McClean, the son of the caretaker of Murlough House, noticed flares at sea at the entrance to the Dundrum river. He immediately went to the shore and saw a fishing vessel in difficulties.

He then telephoned the police at Dundrum.

Twenty minutes later the police passed the information to the honorary secretary of the Newcastle, Co. Down, station. Mr. J. F. McCartan. Maroons were fired five minutes later, and at 8.10 the life-boat William and Laura was launched.

The sea was rough, there was a fresh south-south-west wind, and it was half an hour before high water.

Military Unit Assembles The life-boat made for the entrance to the river, some three miles from her station, and reached the Outer Channel buoy at 8.36. The buoy was unlighted but the life-boat was able to pick it up with the help of her searchlight.

A military unit had assembled on the eastern shore and were preparing to illuminate the sea with star shell.

Mr. McClean and a group of other men, including a local pilot, were on the western shore. Mr. McClean had tried to swim to the fishing vessel with a line but had not been able to reach her through the breaking seas.

Coxswain Patrick McClelland con- tinued up river and approached the western shore to ask for information from the group gathered there. The pilot gave him the position of the casualty, but suggested it might be too dangerous to take the life-boat in.

Hundred Yards from Shore The vessel which was aground was the fishing boat Georgina Huiton, of Belfast. She was little more than a hundred yards from the shore on a sandy beach, which is still covered •with wooden posts as defences against invasion.

She had a crew of four, with a French skipper. Her engine had failed, and she had struck one of the posts, after which she had sunk. She now lay in some six or eight feet of water with her head to the westward and her stern on the bottom, listing to star- board.

Her crew had gathered on the fore- deck and were holding on to the fore- stav. To seaward there was a triangle of anti-invasion posts about ten yards apart and covered by four feet of water.

Anchored Inside Obstructions The wind was blowing up river and seas were breaking on the shoals and over the fishing boat. The tide was ebbing, and it was cloudy and dark.

Coxswain McfleMand anchored the life-boat inside the obstructions and some fifty yards to seaward of the Georgina Huiton. Using his engines, he then veered down to within a few feet of the boat. Lines were thrown to the crew, and after six attempts they were all hauled into the life-boat.

As she went in the life-boat struck one of the posts and she later struck another, but the damage was super- ficial. She came out stern first and then made for Dundrum, where the survivors were landed at ten orclock.

She returned to her station the next day.

French Consul Expresses Thanks For this service the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum have been accorded to Coxswain Patrick McClelland. Coxswain McClelland was awarded the bronze medal for gallantry in 1942.

The French Consul in Belfast ex- pressed thanks on his own behalf and on behalf of the French Government.

Additional monetary rewards were paid to the crew. Total rewards to the crew, £21 5s.; rewards to the helpers on shore, etc., £17 9s. 6d..