At 10.17 on the morning of the llth of March, 1959, the honorary secretary of the Blyth, Northumberland, station, Captain H. Rowe, learnt from the coastguard that a vessel was in difficulties a hundred yards east of Blyth east pier lighthouse. A quarter of an hour later the 46-feet 9-inches Watson cabin life-boat Winston Churchill (Civil Service No. 8) was launched.

A fresh breeze was blowing from the south-east. The sea was rough with a moderate swell from the east-southeast.

There were rain showers and some sea mist, which reduced visibility to five hundred yards. It was low water, and the tidal stream outside the harbour was setting northward.

The vessel in distress was the s.s.

Holderness of Hull, which was 207 feet in length, with a beam of 33 feet and a draught aft of 12 feet 9 inches. She had been outward bound to Ireland with a cargo of coal and had gone ashore on Seaton rocks immediately after clearing the harbour entrance.

The life-boat reached her eighteen minutes after launching and found her lying in about twelve feet of water heading a little north of east. Her stern was within eighty feet of the east pier.

Steamer Aground Aft Coxswain Thomas Fawcus saw that she was aground aft, but that her bow was lifting to the sea. He decided that with the wind and sea before the starboard beam it would be impossible to rescue her crew from the weather or seaward side.

There was a danger that she would pivot on the rocks which were holding her aft and that her bow would swing to the north and ground on the rocks, which were a hundred feet inshore of her. Realising this, Coxswain Fawcus decided to take the life-boat through the gap between the stern of the steamer and the pier, which was no more than eighty feet, and to go along her lee side.

He took the life-boat at full speed through the narrow channel. The cockpit filled several times, and the back-surge from the pier threw the life-boat against the stern of the Holderness, but she suffered only superficial damage.

It was only when he had successfully manoeuvred the life-boat around the stern of the Holderness that any shelter was to be had.

Four Jumped Aboard As soon as the life-boat came alongside four of the crew of the steamer, who numbered thirteen in all, jumped aboard. Second Coxswain Samuel Crawford then boarded the steamer to find out if the master intended to abandon ship. He remained aboard fifteen minutes, while seas continually broke over the steamer on to the lifeboat.

The securing ropes had to be constantly hauled and veered because of the rise and fall of the sea, and at times there were no more than two feet of water under the keel of the lifeboat.

The master decided to remain on board with eight of his crew in the hope that a tug would be able to pull the steamer off. Second Coxswain Crawford therefore re-boarded the life-boat, which after passing round the bows of the Holderness returned to harbour and landed the four survivors.

Later the life-boat returned to the wreck as it seemed likely that the other nine men would have to be taken off. By then the gap between the steamer and the pier had lessened ; conditions had grown worse ; and the coastguard hauled the nine men ashore by breeches-buoy whife the Jife-boat stood by.

For this service the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum have been accorded to Coxswain Thomas Fawcus.

Scale rewards to the crew, £10 10s. ; rewards to the helpers on shore £2 8s.

Additional rewards to the crew, £20..