At 2.30 on the morning of the 4th of February, 1959, the honorary secretary of the Longhope, Orkneys, life-boat station, Dr. S. Peace, received a message from the coastguard at Broughness that the trawler Strathcoe was ashore in the Pentland Firth. It was an anticipatory message and there was no request for the life-boat to be launched immediately. The Thurso life-boat station was also alerted.

At 3.5. Dr. Peace was told that the trawler was ashore on the west coast of Hoy between Sneuk Head and Rackwick.

He ordered the maroons to be fired, and the 45-feet 6-inches Watson cabin life-boat Thomas McCunn put out at 3.27.

Second Life-boat Launched The honorary secretary of the Stromness life-boat station, Mr. T. S. Harvey, who had also been told of the position of the Strathcoe, ordered the 52-feet Barnettlik-boat Archibald and Alexander M. Paterson to be launched. She put out at 3.30. The position of the Strathcoe was eight miles from Longhope and eleven miles from Stromness.

There was a light north-easterly breeze with a heavy ground sea breaking on the face of the cliffs. The flood tide was setting to the south-east. It was cloudy, and fog patches and spray from the breaking seas made visibility poor at times. Where the trawler was aground it would be high water soon after six o'clock.

The Longhope life-boat followed a course close to the coastline. A searchlight from the seine-netter Triton indicated an object which seemed to be a wreck, and a parachute flare was fired from the life-boat. This showed that the object was not the trawler, and the life-boat continued on a northerly course. A second parachute flare was fired, and the trawler was seen to be lying in a small cleft in the cliff known locally as the Geo of the Lame. The Strathcoe, whose nett registered tonnage was 93, was 117 feet long. Her draft aft was 14 feet. She had been homeward bound for Aberdeen from the fishing grounds.

When the Longhope life-boat reached her she was hard ashore, heading eastsouth- east with a list to starboard of 45°. The cliffs on either side of the small gully were five hundred feet high, and the bottom round the stern of the wreck was rocky with a number of large and dangerous boulders. The depth of the water by the trawler's wheelhouse was about 20 feet, but the ground sea, estimated at 15 feet in height, was breaking over the funnel, and the trawler's radio, lights and distress flares had all been made useless. Her trawl gear was lying in a tangled mass over her starboard side.

At 4.50 the Stromness life-boat also reached the scene, and it was decided that she should stand by to seaward and act as a radio-telephone link with the shore station. Ten minutes later the coxswain of the Longhope life-boat, Daniel Kirkpatrick, approached the port quarter of the trawler, but he found that the surge of the ground sea in the shallow water made it impossible to manoeuvre the life-boat with any safety, and he brought her out stern first. He then anchored in ten fathoms of water on a rocky bottom and veered down on to the starboard quarter of the wreck with the object of trying to take the trawler's crew off by breeches buoy.

Three lines were fired to the trawler, and the trawler's crew retrieved the third line, hauled the tail block across and secured it inside the wheelhouse.

In order to keep the life-boat's head to sea and to minimize yawing a securing rope was rigged from the life-boat's quarter leading to the starboard quarter of the trawler.

Washed out of Buoy At first light the task of taking the trawler's crew off was begun. The first man, when being taken off by breeches-buoy, grabbed at the securing rope on his way across and as a result was washed out of the buoy. He managed to haul himself along the rope and reached the scrambling-net rigged over the life-boat's side.

It was now about 6.20, and Coxswain Kirkpatrick decided that it would be too dangerous to continue in his present position and that he must wait for the beginning of the ebb, when conditions might be expected to improve.

Judgment Proved Right His judgment was proved right, and at 7.45, when conditions were somewhat easier, the tail block was secured to the mizzen boom of the trawler. From this position the remaining thirteen members of the crew were taken aboard the Longhope life-boat by breeches-buoy.

Throughout the rescue operations the second-coxswain, John Norquoy, gave Coxswain Kirkpatrick invaluable support, particularly in his handling of the securing rope. The two mechanics, Robert Johnston and Robert Rattray Johnston, handled the engines faultlessly and Mechanic Robert Johnston succeeded in carrying out a minor repair to the radio-telephone equipment.

The Longhope life-boat left the area of the trawler at 8.9 and reached her station at 10.22. The Stromness lifeboat reached her station at 9.45.

For this service the silver medal for gallantry was awarded to Coxswain Daniel Kirkpatrick.

The thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were accorded to : Second-Coxswain John Norquoy ; Bowman James Johnston ; Mechanic Robert Johnston ; Assistant Mechanic Robert Rattray Johnston.

Medal service certificates were accorded to the other three members of the crew: James Nicholson, Daniel Raymond Kirkpatrick and Robert Johnston.

A letter of appreciation was sent to the Stromness honorary secretary.

Rewards to the crew, £18 5s.; rewards to the helpers on shore, £1 16s..