Walmer, Kent. At 2.16 on the after- noon of the 31st of March, 1961, the coastguard informed the honorary sec- retary that a motor boat had the ketch Gratitude, of 70 tons, in tow and that the two boats were drifting towards the Goodwin Sands. At 2.47, when the life- boat Charles Dibdin (Civil Service No.

32) was launched, there was a moderate south-south-westerly wind with a choppy sea. The tide was half ebb. The life-boat reached the scene at 3.21 and found that the tow rope from the motor boat to the ketch had carried away. Three of the life-boat's crew jumped aboard the Gratitude and made fast another line.

The ketch was then successfully towed to Dover by the motor boat with the life-boat escorting them. The life-boat returned to her station at 8.1..