Walton and Frinton, Essex.—At 7.35 on the morning of the llth of February, 1956, the motor mechanic heard a distress message on his wireless set from the tug Rumania. The tug said that she was aground on the Long Sand and needed help. At 7.46 the Walton-on-the-Naze coastguard re- ported that the Rumania was on the North Long Sand, and at 8.15 the life-boat Edian Courtauld put out. The sea was very rough, a gale was blowing from the east, and the tide was half flood. There were snow showers. A helicopter took off from Martlesham, and an R.A.F. rescue launch put out from Felixstowe. The life-boat made for the position given, but a later message stated that the Rumania was between two and three miles south of the S.S. Loide-Honduras, of Rio de Janeiro, which had run ashore on the north-east end of the Long Sand the day before.

When the life-boat was about one mile from the Rumania, the helicopter rescued eight of the tug's crew of ten.

At this time a snow storm reduced visibility to fifty feet and blotted out the wreck from the view of the life- boat. A fixed wing aircraft was circ- ling the Rumania at 600 feet, and another helicopter took off and rescued the other two men. At 10.51 the coastguard reported that all the tug- men had been rescued. The life-boat then went to the Loide-Honduras, but the steamer did not need help, and the life-boat returned to her station, arriving at 2.14. The next day the Walton and Frinton life-boat was again called out, as it was thought she might be needed to help refloat the Loide-Honduras, but when she arrived she found that two Dutch tugs already had the steamer in tow.—Rewards for the two services, £55 8s..