Coverack, Cornwall. At 2.15 on the afternoon of the 26th November, 1961, the coxswain received a message from a resident of St. Keverne that a motor boat appeared to be in distress off the Manacles. The life-boat William Taylor of Oldham was launched at 2.30 in a light north-by-easterly breeze and a calm sea. It was an hour and a half after low water. The life-boat found the motor launch Mermaid, with a small punt tied astern, drifting with her engine broken down two and a half miles east of Coverack. The two people on board the Mermaid were taken on board the life-boat, which then towed the launch and the punt to Gillian. The life-boat reached her station at five o'clock..