Stornoway, Outer Hebrides. At 7.5 on the evening of the 28th October, 1961, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that a small boat with two people on board had been seen burning flares about a mile south of Arnish light.

Contact with the fishing coble Brenda, which was lying close by in Branahuic Bay, could not be established, and the coastguard had lost sight of the small boat. A fresh north-north-westerly wind was blowing, and the sea was choppy.

At 7.30 the life-boat The James and Margaret Boyd put to sea on the flood tide. She found the small open boat with her engine broken down and drifting seawards. She took the boat in tow to Stornoway harHour and reached her station at 8.30..