St. Mary's, Scilly Isles. At 7.20 on the evening of the 31st October, 1961, a Post Office official informed the honorary secretary that a local boat being used by their linesmen, who were engaged in repairing a telephone cable between St. Mary's and Tresco, had not returned before darkness, as she usually did, and that this was causing anxiety.

A fresh south-westerly wind was blow- ing with a slight sea. The tide was flooding. At 7.35 the life-boat Guy and Clare Hunter was launched. The posi- tion in which the repair work was being carried out was known, and on reaching the spot the life-boat found the boat was just weighing anchor to return to St.Mary's. The engineers had been trying to complete their work after dark. The life-boat escorted the boat back to harbour..