Lowestoft, Suffolk. At four o'clock on the afternoon of the 2nd July, 1961, the coastguard learnt that a dinghy had capsized about a mile off shore at Gorton and that her crew were clinging to her. A moderate northerly breeze was blowing and the sea was choppy.

At 4.13 the life-boat Michael Stephens was launched on an ebbing tide. She was joined in the search for the dinghy by a helicopter. Both the life-boat and the helicopter had difficulty in finding the casualty, but after being guided by the coastguard they found the sailing dinghy Sunya. The helicopter rescued a woman and the life-boat two men. The life-boat towed the Sunya to Gorleston, where the two men were landed in an exhausted condition. They were then taken by ambulance to the caravan site where they were staying. The life-boat reached her station at 6.55..