A SERVICE carried out in a northeasterly gale and lasting 17 hours has led to the unusual award of the collective thanks of the Institution on vellum to the coxswain and crew of the Arranmore life-boat. The service was to the yacht Espanola of Ramsgate on 18th August, 1964, and resulted in the rescuing of five lives.

COXSWAIN'S REPORT The honorary secretary of the Arranmore station, Mr. Bernard Gallagher, first learnt that a yacht was in distress by a report he received from the coxswain, Philip Byrne, at 2.50 p.m. The yacht Espanola was anchored in Arran roads and was flying a distress signal.

Ten minutes later the maroons were fired. The north-easterly gale caused a very rough sea, and there was considerable broken water in the roads.

The weather was overcast, but visibility was good. It was half an hour after high water.

TOWED BY TRACTOR Conditions were so bad that it was impossible to launch the life-boat boarding boat from Leabgarrow pier.

The boat was therefore put on a trailer, which had been borrowed, and towed by a local tractor to a point about three quarters of a mile north of the life-boat's berth.

The crew put out in a boarding boat at 3.20 and rowed under doublebanked oars through broken water to the life-boat, which was about three quarters of a mile away. They then boarded the life-boat W. M. Tihon, which is one of the 46-foor p-inch Watson cabin type.

The life-boat reached the Espanola at 3.40 about a quarter of a mile south of Calf Island, just as the crew were preparing to abandon the yacht. The yacht's samson post had broken, and the fairlead through which the cable was rigged had come adrift. As a result the chain cable was cutting badly into the stem.

TOWED THE YACHT Coxswain Byrne brought the lifeboat alongside and passed a line to the yacht. The life-boat towed her to an anchorage in the lee of the west end of Calf Island, for it was thought unwise to make for Burtonport in the prevailing conditions.

The life-boat anchored and held the yacht throughout the night. By 6.30 a.m. the conditions had moderated and the life-boat towed the yacht to Burtonport which was reached at 8 a.m. The life-boat returned to her station at 8.45.

COLLECTIVE THANKS The members of the crew to whom the collective thanks were accorded are: Coxswain Philip Byrne, Second Coxswain Philip Boyle, Bowman Eddie Gallagher, Mechanic Charles Boyle, Assistant Mechanic Neil Byrne, Reserve Mechanic Peter Meredith, and crew members Gerard Rodgers, Phil Boyle and Brian Byrne..