MAN RESCUED FROM YACHT AGROUND Walton and Frinton, Essex. At 2.4 on the morning of the 19th May, 1963, Walton coastguard informed the honorary secretary that the Sunk pilot cutter had reported that a small craft a quarter of a mile south of West Sunk buoy was flashing the international distress signal at the Norwegian tanker Polyeagle. The tanker was unable to close the craft because of the shallow water. The honorary secretary instructed the coastguards to fire the maroons, and at 2.35 the life-boat Elizabeth Elson, on temporary duty at the station, was launched. There was a fresh northwesterly wind and a moderate sea. It was the last hour of the ebb tide.

The life-boat reached the casualty, which was the auxiliary sloop Lizette of Heybridge, at 4.7, and found that she was aground half a mile south-southeast of West Sunk buoy. She had drifted there without engines and with a broken tiller. The Lizette had been damaged on grounding, and when the tide turned to the flood she became submerged. The sole occupant, who was the owner, was standing on the cabin roof up to his knees in broken water. The coxswain beached the life-boat within ten yards of the yacht, and a line was passed to the man, who secured it around his waist.

He was then dragged through the surf into the life-boat. The rescued man was landed at Walton pier, where he was treated by the station honorary medical adviser. The life-boat reached her station at 6.55..