Stromness, Orkneys.—At 8.55 on the evening of the 19th of September, 1956, a message was received that a man had heard on his wireless that the' motor vessel Achieve needed help as she was ashore in Hoy Sound. At 9.20 the life-boat Archibald & Alex- ander M. Paterson was launched.

There was a heavy ground swell and a light south-easterly breeze. The tide was ebbing. The life-boat made for Hoy Sound in dense fog and found the Achieve, with a crew of seven, two hundred yards from Oxan, Graemsay.

As the sea was too shallow for the life-boat to go alongside, a local motor boat put out and took the coxswain to the grounded vessel. She was lying on her beam ends in a dangerous posi- tion. The crew were transferred to the motor boat, ferried to the life-boat and then taken to Stromness. It was decided to return to the Achieve early next morning, and at 7.20 the crew were taken back to their vessel. A tow rope was put aboard, but an attempt to refloat the Achieve half an hour before high water failed, and the crew were again landed, this time at Graemsay, by means of the motor boat which was in the area by arrange- ment. The life-boat returned to her station, arriving at 11.30. A further attempt to refloat the Achieve on the next high tide was decided upon, and the life-boat put out once more at 9.22 in the evening. On arriving at the position, she picked up the tow, and with the help of a seine-net fishing boat commenced the opera- tion. This again proved unsuccessful, and the Jife-boat returned to her station, arriving at eleven o'clock.— Rewards to the crew, £21 5s.; rewards to the helpers on shore, £4 125..