THE Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Mr. Harold Watkinson, has awarded the shield for the best wreck service during the past year to the Blyth Coast Life-Saving Company. As a result of their efforts nine members of the crew of the s.s. Holderness were rescued on the llth of March, 1959.

The other four members of the crew were rescued by the Blyth life-boat in a service for which the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were accorded to Coxswain Thomas Fawcus.

An account of this service appeared in the June 1959 number of the Life-boat on page 224.

The Holderness was lying broadside to wind and sea, hard aground and pounding badly. The life-saving company had to work from an exposed position in cramped surroundings among projecting beams of the pier, with insecure footholds on wet planking..