Plymouth, Devon. At 1.53 early on the morning of the 5th December. 1961, the coastguard informed the honorary sec- retary that a ship had drifted danger- ously close to the rocks near the Mount Batten look-out. The assembly signal was made at 1.59, and just as the crew were boarding the life-boat a message was received that the vessel was moving away from the rocks. The crew stood by until 2.50, when a further report was received that the vessel appeared to be at a safe anchorage. Forty minutes later the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that two more vessels were close inshore off Mount Batten, and at 3.55 the life-boat Thomas Forehead and Mary Rowse left her moorings in a strong west-south-westerly gale. There was a rough sea and it was high water.

Arriving in Jennycliff Bay, the life-boat found both vessels steaming towards the centre of Plymouth Sound, where eventually they anchored under the guidance of a pilot cutter and escorted by the life-boat. The master of one of the vessels, the Nimrod, thanked the coxswain for his help, and the life-boat returned to Millbay docks at 5.30.

Because of the weather she could not reach her moorings until 7.45..