TWO LIFE-BOATS OUT TO LEBANESE STEAMER Eastbourne, and Hastings, Sussex. At 2.53 on the afternoon of the 30th April, 1963, the coastguard informed the Eastbourne honorary secretary that a ship had been reported on fire four miles south of Pevensey Bay. There was a gentle westerly breeze with a slight sea.

At 3.5 the lifeboat Beryl Tollemache put out on a flooding tide. At 3.7 the coastguard informed the Hastings motor mechanic, in the absence of the honorary secretary, of the casualty, and the lifeboat M.T.C. was launched at 3.20. At 3.35 the Eastbourne life-boat came up with the s.s. Aghios Georgios II of Beirut. The steamer's crew and the captain's wife had already been taken off, and they were transferred to the life-boat from a fishing vessel, a small ship's boat and a tanker. Meanwhile the Hastings life-boat arrived, and she stood by in case any further help might be needed. As one of the steamer's crew was suffering badly from shock the Beryl Tollemache returned to Eastbourne, which she reached at 4.30. She was met by a doctor, an ambulance, police and local representatives of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. Two of the crew were taken to hospital and the remaining fourteen were looked after at the Civil Defence headquarters. At 5.28, after it was seen that the casualty was aground, the M.T.C. returned to Hastings, arriving at 6.20. Two helicopters also took off but were not required..