Margate, Kent. At 5.15 on the afternoon of the 3rd of January, 1959, the watchman of the local pilot cutter informed the honorary secretary that a radio message had been received from the s.s. Seaford of London, asking for a doctor, as the master was seriously ill.

She was near the Kentish Knock lightvessel, eighteen miles north-east of Margate. As the distance was too great for the pilot cutter to go and as no other boats were available, the life-boat North Foreland (Civil Service No. 11) was launched at 5.38 with a doctor on board. The sea was rough, and there was a strong north-westerly wind and a flood tide. The life-boat met the Seaford seven and a half miles from Margate at 6.35, and the doctor was put aboard her. He found that the master had died, and his body was brought ashore and landed at Margate at 8.45. Rewards to the crew, £12 5s. ; rewards to the helpers on shore, £4 4s..