Stromness, Orkney.—On the afternoon of the 31st of January, 1957, a severe gale sprang up and anxiety was felt for the safety of the local fishing boat Alice, which had not returned from the lobster fishing grounds off Hoy Head.

At 3.56 the life-boat Archibald and Alexander M. Paterson was launched.

There was a heavy sea and a strong south-easterly gale. It was low water.

The life-boat met the fishing boat, with a crew of two, off Bow Rock in the Hoy Sound. In the rough condi- tions the Alice was making little head- way, so the coxswain manoeuvred the life-boat to make as much shelter for the boat as possible. In this way she escorted the Alice to Stromness, arriv- ing there at 5.20.—Rewards to the crew, £8 15s.; rewards to the helpers on shore, £4 11s..