RADIO MESSAGE Valentia, Co. Kerry. At 1.35 a.m. on 2 ist December, 1963, the honorary secretary received a message via Valentia Radio that the motor vessel Wellpark, of Glasgow, had a crewman on board suffering from acute appendicitis. The vessel was due at the Skelligs at five o'clock and asked the life-boat to pilot her into Dingle Bay and land the sick man. There was a moderate easterly breeze with a slight sea.

The tide was ebbing. The life-boat Rowland Watts put out at 2.10 and embarked a doctor and nurse at Valentia Quay. The life-boat arrived off the Skelligs at 3.20 and reached the Wellpark five miles west of the Skelligs at 5.15. The sick man was transferred to the life-boat which went to Reenard, where the man was landed and taken to hospital by a waiting ambulance. The life-boat arrived back at her station at 8.30. It was learnt later that the sick man was a member of the Barra Island life-boat crew before joining the Wellpark..