AT 6.15 on the morning of the 27th of October, 1959, the honorary secretary of the Mallaig, Inverness-shire, life- boat station, Mr. R. Watt, was told by the coastguard that a German ship was ashore on the island of Rhum fourteen miles away. She was th» Hinrich Sieghold, of Bremerhaven. Her gross registered tonnage was 914, and she was bound from Manchester for Sweden.

A whole gale was blowing from the north and there were frequent fierce rain squalls. The sea was very rough with a heavy swell. The Mallaig life- boat lies at moorings in the harbour, the crew normally reaching her by a boarding boat 15 feet in length. The seas in the harbour were such that the boarding boat had sunk at her moorings during the night.

Manhandled Dinghy Coxswain Ian Bruce Watt decided to launch his own 14-feet dinghy from the beach some seventy yards from the boarding steps. The life-boat crew manhandled the coxswain's dinghy to the water's edge, where the seas break- ing on the beach were five feet in height.

They rigged a rope from her bow to the quay, by which she was hauled through the surf to the jetty steps. Here five members of the life-boat crew manned the dinghy with considerable difficulty because of the ground sea in the harbour, and rowed off to the life- boat. They got the life-boat under way, and the other three members of the crew were embarked in the inner harbour.

The Mallaig life-boat E.M.M. Gordon Cubbin, which is one of the 52-feet Barnett class, put out from the harbour at 7.15. It was then rather more than an hour and a quarter before low water. She reached the position of the German vessel at nine o'clock and found her ashore with her bow to the west-south-west on the eastern side of the island.

Coxswain Watt anchored to wind- ward of her in five fathoms of water on a bottom of mud and shell. He veered some sixty fathoms of cable in order to close the vessel, and a rope was then made fast from the port quarter of the life-boat to the starboard quarter of the casualty. This rope was taken to the life-boat's capstan, and the life-boat hove to between six and ten feet from the vessel's starboard quarter. Al- though there was some protection from the northerly gale the life-boat was ris- ing and falling about six feet and occasionally shipping water because of the surge of the sea between her stern and the German vessel.

Master Decides to Remain The crew of the German vessel lashed two rope ladders together and lowered them into the after cockpit of the life-boat, a distance ranging between twenty and twenty-eight feet. Five of the life-boat's crew held on to the bottom of the ladder, and nine men, each with a life-line secured round his waist, were taken off the vessel. The master and his four officers decided at that stage to remain on board and the life-boat made for Rhum pier, which was a mile away. She landed the nine men there at 10.20 and then returned to stand by the Hinrich Sieghold.

At 3.11 in the afternoon Coxswain Watt received a message from the coast- guard at Stornoway recommending him to take off the remaining five men before dark as the weather prospects were bad. The coxswain told the master of this, and after some discus- sion the master decided to abandon ship. Coxswain Watt anchored in nearly the same position as before.

The life-boat again veered down on to the starboard quarter of the vessel, and this time three securing ropes were needed to hold her in position as con- ditions had grown worse. Again using the rope ladder the master and the four other officers were taken on board.

The life-boat weighed anchor at 4.50, landed the five men at Rhum pier and arrived back at her station at 6.45.

For this service the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum have been accorded to Coxswain Ian Bruce Watt.

The other members of the crew, Bow- man John Douglas, Motor Mechanic D. McMinn, Assistant Motor Mechanic G. Lawrie, and G. Christie, D. Hall, I. Campbell and E. Campbell are being issued with vellum service certificates.

Among letters of appreciation re- ceived was one from the Consul of the Federal German Republic in Edin- burgh.

Scale rewards to the crew, £28 5s.

Additional rewards to the crew, £24..