Fenit, and Valentia, Co. Kerry.—At 2.15 on the afternoon of the 3rd of May,1956, the Dingle Civic Guard tele- phoned the Fenit life-boat station to sav that two men were stranded on a high ledge of a cliff under the old tower at Ballydavid Head and were shouting for help. The life-boat Peter and Sarah Blake was launched at 2.35 in a moderate swell. There was a moder- ate westerly breeze and the tide was ebbing. It was learnt later that a French fishing boat, the Notre Dame des Victoires, of Lorient, which had a crew of eight, had struck a rock and sunk at the entrance to Smerwick harbour. The life-boat made a search and found a dinghy with a body in it off Brandon Head. She picked up the dinghy and then took on board a fisherman from Ballydavid to help in a further search. At 8.5 the Fenit honorary secretary rang up the Valen- tia life-boat station and asked if that life-boat would search as well, and at 8.25 the life-boat A.E.D. put to sea.

Both life-boats searched widely, but neither found any survivors and they returned to their stations, Fenit .ar- riving at 12.30 early the next morning and Valentia at 4.15.

At eleven o'clock on the 4th the Dingle Civic Guard asked if the Fenit life-boat would renew the search, so at 11.30 the Peter and Sarah Blake put to sea again. The weather had de- teriorated. The sea was now rough, there was thick drizzle, and a strong wind was blowing from the west- south-west. At noon the Fenit hon- orary secretary told the Valentia life- boat station that three of the missing Frenchmen were believed to be on a raft, so at 12.10 the A.E.D. also put out. The Peter and Sarah Blake reached Ballydavid at three o'clock, and at the request of the Civic Guard landed a body. She then searched as far as Smerwick and Brandon Head, and the A.E.D., acting on a message from the Valentia radio station, found wreckage of the Notre Dame des Victoires about twenty miles north- north-east of Tearaght Light. A gale was now blowing from west-south- west, and when no hope remained of finding any survivors, the life-boats returned to their stations, the Peter and Sarah Blake reaching Fenit at 9.15 that evening and the A.E.D.

reaching Valentia at 9.45. One of the fishing boat's crew was rescued by local men in a curragh from Bally- david and another was hauled up the cliff. The six other men lost their lives.—Rewards: Fenit 1st service, rewards to the crew, £21 13s.; rewards to the helpers on shore etc., £5 19s.; 2nd service, rewards to the crew, £19 11s.; rewards to the helpers on shore, 16s. Valentia 1st service, re- wards to the crew, £15 17s.; reward to the helper on shore, 19s.; 2nd service, rewards to the crew, £16 9s.; reward to the helper on shore, £1 Is..