MIDNIGHT SEARCH FOR MISSING ROWING BOATS Weymouth, Dorset. At 10.50 on the night of the 23rd April, 1962, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that the owner of several rowing boats on the sea front had repotted that two of his boats, with five people in all on board, had been missing since 5.30.

After the honorary secretary had talked to the local police superintendent the life-boat Frank Spiller Locke left her moorings at midnight to carry out a search from Bowleaze to Ringstead.

The names of the missing boats were Mercury and Blue Peter. There were light easterly airs and a smooth sea, and it was two hours after high water.

The life-boat found one boat waterlogged fifty yards off the beach in Redcliife Bay. This was baled out and used to recover the second boat, which was high and dry on the beach. Both boats had been abandoned by their occupants, and the life-boat took them in tow to Weymouth harbour. The lifeboat finally reached her moorings at 1.35..