Plymouth, Devon. At one o'clock on the afternoon of the 17th September, 1961, the coastguard told the cox- swain's wife that a small dinghy had capsized about a hundred yards off Gara Point and that a man was in the water. The life-boat Thomas Forehead and Mary Rowse left her moorings at 1.16 with the second coxswain in com- mand, as the coxswain was sick. There was a moderate north-westerly wind and a choppy sea, and the tide was half ebb. A Royal Air Force air-sea rescue launch also put out and succeeded in picking up the man, who was uncon- scious. The second coxswain offered assistance in applying artificial respira- tion, and the two boats closed one another. A member of the life-boat's crew qualified in first aid jumped aboard the R.A.F. launch and gave mouth-to- mouth resuscitation until the man was landed at Millbay docks, where he was transferred to a waiting ambulance.

The man did not regain consciousness.

The life-boat finally reached her station at three o'clock..