MR. ERNEST MARPLES, Minister of Transport, has awarded the shield for the best wreck service for the year 1959/60 jointly to the Rattray Head and Fraserburgh life-saving appliance companies of H.M. Coastguard for the rescue of the crew of eighteen of the Finnish cargo steamer Anna off the Aberdeenshire coast in December 1959.

The rescue took place in a gale of extreme violence. The Anna, after drifting helplessly along the coast, ran aground off St. Combs about 7.40 on the evening of the 7th of December.

The two life-saving teams, as they tried to make contact with the Anna, which was lying battered and broken 350 yards offshore, had to work knee deep and sometimes up to their waists in water. The lines fired to the vessel were fouled by baulks of timber, which had snapped off. For three hours efforts were made to keep the lines clear, and only when both electric generators had been clogged by flying sand was it decided to suspend opera- tions until daylight. The next day the whole crew were taken off.

Unfortunately the man who directed the operation, Mr. E. J. Clout, the district officer, Peterhead, was taken ill and died a few weeks after the rescue..