Dover, Kent. At 1.10 on the after- noon of the 20th of October, 1957, a message was received that an open boat appeared to be in difficulties two miles outside the western entrance to Dover harbour. At 1.28 the life-boat South- ern Africa put out, with the second coxswain in command, in a moderate sea. The editor of the Life-boat was on board. A gentle westerly breeze was blowing, and the tide was ebbing.

Guided by a helicopter of the Royal Navy, the life-boat found the dinghy with a man on board. He was violently sea-sick and was taken on board the life-boat. He was dressed somewhat unusually in a cloth cap and sun-glasses and had some three day's growth of beard. When asked to explain what he was trying to do in a wholly unsuitable boat in an open sea, he answered that he " only wanted to have a look at the French coast." The acting coxswain answered that he could " do that through a telescope for a tanner," and there the conversa- tion ended. The life-boat towed the boat which the man had been rowing, and which he had hired in Dover harbour, back to her station, which was reached at three o'clock. Re- wards to the crew, £8 15s..