Margate, Kent. At 2.22 on the after- noon of the 9th October, 1961, thecoastguard informed the honorary sec- retary that two men in a rowing boat were being blown out to sea a mile and a half off Epple Bay and were waving a towel attached to an oar to attract attention. At 2.30 the life-boat North Foreland (Civil Service No. 11) was launched in a fresh south-westerly wind and a choppy sea. It was an hour and a quarter after high water. As the life- boat was making for the position a helicopter flew over and the crew of the helicopter asked the coxswain by very high frequency R/T if they could be of any help. The nature of the life-boat's mission was explained, and the heli- copter flew towards the rowing boat.

When the life-boat reached the rowing boat Corgi II of Birchington, the two men aboard had been hauled into the helicopter. The life-boat towed the rowing boat to Margate, arriving at 3.45, and the two men in the helicopter were landed at Westgate..