ALL-NIGHT SEARCH FOR DRIFTING CANOE Fleetwood, Lancashire. At 7.50 on the evening of the 2nd June, 1963, the Fleetwood coastguard informed the honorary secretary that a man and an eleven-year-old girl in a canoe had drifted out of sight off Cleveleys. Two speed boats were sent to search, but after twenty minutes they returned without finding the canoe. The honorary secretary then decided to call out the life-boat, Ann Letitia Russell. She was launched at 8.36 with the bowman in command in a moderate to fresh easterly wind and a moderate sea. It was one hour after high water. The life-boat searched with the help of an aircraft for some time without success, and at 12.15 another aircraft, a Shackleton, joined the search and dropped flares. At 5.27 this aircraft reported seeing an overturned boat twelve and a half miles north of Blackpool tower.

The life-boat went to this position and found an outboard motor boat adrift with no one on board. The boat could not be lifted into the life-boat, but the outboard motor was salved, and the life-boat returned to her station to refuel, arriving at 9.30. At 9.50 a helicopter landed on the beach near the life-boat house, and the crews of the life-boat and helicopter agreed between them the areas of search. The life-boat's bowman was of the opinion that the canoe must have sunk in the seas then prevailing, and it was agreed that the life-boat would stand by while the helicopter carried out a further search. This search was unsuccessful, and the lifeboat was finally rehoused at 6.30. The Blackpool life-boat was also launched..