Ballycotton, Co. Cork. At 3.15 on the afternoon of the 21st August, 1961, the coxswain received a message from Ballycotton lighthouse that a motor fishing vessel had broken down and was drifting about a mile and a half east-by- north of the lighthouse, The life-boat Ethel Mary left her moorings at 3.30 in a north-westerly wind of near gale force. There was a rough sea, and the tide was ebbing. The life-boat found the local fishing boat St. Mary, which had a crew of six, with engine trouble and took her in tow to Ballycotton, arriving at 4.30..