North Sunderland, Co. Durham. At 5.53 on the evening of the 30th of December, 1959, the honorary secretary was informed by the local Trinity House depot that a man had been taken ill in the Longstone lighthouse. As the sea was too rough for the Trinity House tender to put out, the life-boat Grace Darling was launched at 6.12 with thehonorary medical adviser on board.

There was a strong south-westerly wind and the tide was half ebb. The life- boat reached the lighthouse, but con- ditions were such that she could not use the landing stage, and members of the life-boat crew had to be landed at Sunderland Hole, where they reached the lighthouse by a narrow path, The sick man was carried to the life-boat, which then returned to North Sunder- land, arriving at 8.13. Rewards to the crew, £12 ; rewards to the helpers on shore £12 4s..