RESERVE LIFE-BOAT TAKEN IN TOW Lowestoft, Suffolk. At 11.16 on the morning of the 12th May, 1963, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that he had received a request from the reserve life-boat George and Elizabeth Gow for assistance as she had broken down. The life-boat was on passage from Lowestoft to Aldeburgh after undergoing a recent engine overhaul.

There was a fresh south-south-westerly breeze with a choppy sea. The life-boat Michael Stephens was launched at 11.27 on a flooding tide. She located the George and Elizabeth Gow, under sail, off Southwold. The reserve life-boat was towed by the Lowestoft life-boat to Oulton Broad, and the Michael Stephens then returned to her station, arriving at three o'clock..