Lerwick, Shetlands. At 9.42 on the evening of the 16th of April, 1959, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that a man living in Lerwick had heard on his radio a Norwegian motor fishing vessel asking for help as she was ashore on the rocks near Lerwick. The life-boat Claude Cecil Staniforth left her moorings at 10.6 in a heavy swell, a Norwegian, who now lives in Lerwick, volunteering to go out in her. There was a gentle breeze and an ebb tide. Visibility was reduced to thirty to fifty yards because of fog. The life-boat began to search the southern entrance to Lerwick on the Bressay shore as far as the Kirkabister Ness lighthouse.

At 10.26 another Norwegian fishing vessel lying at the quay side intercepted a message that the casualty was ashore at the Isle of Mousa. The life-boat was informed and made at full speed for this position, the coxswain having set a course with the assistance of the life- boat's direction-finding equipment. The casualty, which was the motor fishing vessel Dyrhaug, was found north of Mousa light. The life-boat went along- side, and the skipper of the fishing vessel asked for a tow. Several attempts were made to refloat the Dyrhaug, but they were unsuccessful and it was decided to await the flood tide. By 2.30 in the morning the position had deteriorated. The vessel was leaking badly where she had been holed, and her crew dismantled the radio transmitter and receiver and all the fishing equipment and transferred them to the life-boat together with other stores. A request was made to the fishing vessel Froystern, which was in direct contact with the life-boat by radio-telephone, to bring a pump out, and the Froystern left harbour at 3.49.

The Dyrhaug's crew of eight eventually abandoned their vessel at 4.42 and were taken on board the life-boat, which returned to Lerwick, arriving at 6.30.

The Norwegian who had gone out in the life-boat was of great assistance in speaking to the casualty's crew and passing messages on the radio-telephone.

Rewards to the crew, £17 9s. ; rewards to the helpers on shore, £2 8s..