LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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Rivergate

Skegness, Lincolnshire. At five o'clock on the morning of the 29th of July, 1959, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that four survivors of the motor vessel Rivergate of Hull were on board the Inner Dowsing light- vessel and asked for the life-boat to bring them ashore. The Rivergate, which had been on passage to Goole with a cargo of scrap iron, had groun- ded on the night of the 27th of June off Lowestoft, but had refloated without assistance later. She had then been found to be leaking, and at eleven o'clock on the night of the 28th of July she had capsized. Her crew had taken to an inflatable dinghy and an hour later had managed to reach the light- vessel. At 5.30 the life-boat The Cuttle was launched in a calm sea with a light north-north-easterly breeze blowing and an ebb tide. She embarked the survivors and landed them at Skegness, reaching her station at 9.30. Rewards to the crew, £12 16s. ; rewards to the helpers on shore, £4 18s..