UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH Margate, Kent. At 3.41 p.m. on ist April, 1964, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that two men had been lost overboard from the survey ship H.M.S. Echo in the Edinburgh Channel off the North East Shingles buoy. There was a north-easterly gale with a very rough sea, and it was high water. The life-boat North Foreland (Civil Service No. 11} launched at 3.51, and on reaching the H.M.S. Echo the coxswain was told by the ship's coxswain that the two men had been swept out of a small boat while taking soundings on the Shingles sands.

The life-boat searched extensively with other vessels but without success. The captain of H.M.S. Enterprise called off the search at 6.30 but the life-boat continued to search until dusk when she returned to her station. Weather conditions off Margate were too severe for the life-boat to rehouse, so the coxswain decided to proceed to Ramsgate for the night. The life-boat was rehoused at 8.30 p.m. the next day after an exercise with the district engineer..