Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, Norfolk. At 12.12 on the afternoon of the 8th of March, 1959, the coast- guard told the honorary secretary that a yacht was in difficulties to the east of the harbour entrance. Five minutes later the life-boat Louise Stephens was launched in a moderate sea, with a strong easterly breeze blowing and an ebb tide. The life-boat found the yacht Daisy of Maldon, whose crew of five Cambridge under- graduates were baling with buckets.

The yacht had been bought by a group of undergraduates for an expedition to West Africa to carry out underwater surveys and geological work. Repairs had been carried out to the yacht, and on the morning of the 6th of March she had left Walton on passage for Yarmouth. When she was east of the Barnard Sands early on the morning of the 8th of March the wind had freshened and the sea had increased, causing the yacht to pound heavily.

She had begun to make water, and her crew signalled a collier, the s.s. Henfield, which took the yacht in tow.

After towing for fourteen miles the master of the collier, realising that the weather was deteriorating and the yacht's condition worsening, signalled Gorleston coastguards for help. The five men, on being rescued by the life- boat, asked the coxswain if anything could be done to salvage the Daisy as she was not insured and all their personal belongings were on board.

The second coxswain boarded the yacht and a tow line was passed to the life- boat, but as soon as towing began the boat took a sheer and began to sink.

The second coxswain immediately slipped the tow rope and hanging on to it jumped overboard. He was hauled aboard the life-boat, which reached her station at 1.20. Rewardsto the crew, £14 10s. ; rewards to the helpers on shore, £4 5s..