Port St. Mary, and Port Erin, Isle of Man. At 11.10 on the morning of the 23rd of December, 1960, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary at Port St. Mary that fire had broken out on the lighthouse on Chickens Rock. It had been confirmed by Cregneash radio beacon that the three lighthouse keepers were in great danger. The weather was cloudy with showers, and there was a fresh south-westerly wind with a rough sea. The Port St. Mary life-boat R. A. Colby Cubbin No. 2 was launched at 11.40, when the tide was half flood.

When she approached the lighthouse the base was seen to be awash with the rising tide. The keepers had taken refuge on the lower deck of the light- house, after having slid down a rope from the upper balcony. It was impossible for the life-boat to come within a hundred yards of the lighthouse, and it was decided to take the keepers off by breeches buoy. This was somewhat difficult, as there was no landing over which the line could be fired. The coxswain therefore told the keepers to stream a line with a board attached, and the rocket line was fired over this. In this way the block was rigged to an iron ladder of the light- house.

The first man was then hauled off, but a heavy sea caused the breeches buoy to capsize, probably because the rocket line fouled the buoy. With some difficulty the man was hauled aboard the life-boat suffering badly from shock and exposure. A combination of tide and sea over the base of the lighthouse made it unwise to attempt a further rescue by breeches buoy, and it was decided to land the one man at Port Erin, which was reached at 1.45.

The Port St. Mary coxswain requested that the Port Erin life-boat Matthew Simpson should be launched to stand by the lighthouse in case the remaining two men needed help immediately, for there was the added danger of a possible explosion of the oil fuel tanks. The Port St. Mary life-boat returned to the lighthouse about 3.6 to join the Port Erin life-boat, and both life-boats stood by until 6.14. By then the weather had moderated and the tide had receded sufficiently to allow the Port St. Mary life-boat to go alongside the lighthouse landing and take the two remaining men off. Both men were very exhausted, and suffering from burns. The life-boats then returned to their stations, the Port St. Mary boat arriving at 7.10 and the Port Erin boat at 7.20..