MATERNITY NEEDS At 11 p.m. on 28th December, 1963, the local doctor informed the honorary secretary that a maternity patient needed to be taken to hospital on the mainland.

There was a strong south-easterly breeze with a rough sea. The tide was flooding.

The patient and a nurse were embarked and the life-boat Mabel Marion Thompson left at 11.30. The patient was landed at Rossaveel and the life-boat returned to her station at 3.30 a.m..