Hastings, Sussex. At 3.12 on the morning of the 16th May, 1961, the coastguard informed the honorary sec- retary that red flares had been observed between four and five miles south-east of Fairlight. At 3.35, when the life-boat Lucy Lavers, on temporary duty at the station, was launched, there was a moderate east-north-easterly wind and a choppy sea. The tide was half ebb.

The life-boat found that the fishing boat Dorothy Melinda had broken down.

She towed her to Hastings, arriving at 5.50..