FROM EAST GERMANY Runswick, Yorkshire. At 7.48 a.m.

on 4th September, 1964, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that a ship was aground about two miles northwest of Staithes. There was a calm sea with light airs from the east and thickening fog. At 8.30 the life-boat The Elliott Gill was launched and searched the coastline with the Redcar life-boat. The Elliott Gill later moved farther south where the East German trawler Siegfried Raedel was found aground and flooded on the south side of Kettleness Point. The Whitby life-boat was launched in response to a call from the Runswick lifeboat and brought pumps with her but the trawler refused her assistance. The lifeboat The Elliott Gill stood by until another East German vessel put pumps aboard and prepared to tow the Siegfried Raedel to Hartlepool. The life-boat returned to her station at 6 p.m..