Whitby, Yorkshire. At 6.20 on the morning of the 3rd of September, 1959, the coastguard told the honorary secretary that the s.s. Valga of Lenin- grad had asked for the life-boat to take a doctor out to attend to a seaman who had fallen down a hold and sustained head injuries. Her position was twenty- one miles east of Whitby. At 7.10 the life-boat Mary Ann Hepworth put out with a doctor on board in a calm sea.

There was a light south-westerly wind and it was two hours after high water.

After three-quarters of an hour visibility became much worse, and at eight o'clock the coxswain asked for the position of the steamer. This was given as thirteen miles east of Whitby, and shortly afterwards the steamer's siren was heard. The life-boat closed her at 8.45 and the doctor was transferred.

The life-boat then escorted the Valga to Whitby roads, where the injured man and the doctor were taken off. They were landed at 10.30, and after the seaman had been treated in hospital the life-boat took him back to his ship. The life-boat reached her station at one o'clock. Rewards to the crew, £9 Is. ; rewards to the helpers on shore, £8 16s..