Penlee, Cornwall. On the 27th December, 1961, news was received at the life-boat station that the s.s. Okeanis of Piraeus, which was bound for Lon- don, had a sick man on board who needed a doctor. At 6.10 the life-boat Solomon Browne was launched in a light easterly breeze and a moderate sea.

The tide was flooding. She embarked a doctor and an ambulance crew at New- lyn and then made for the ship, which had reached a position three miles south of Penzance. The doctor and ambulance men went aboard and found that the patient was suffering from peritonitis.

The life-boat took him on board and landed him at Newlyn at 10.10. He was taken to hospital, but he did not recover.

Because of the weather the life-boat remained at Newlyn until the next morning..