PATIENT TO KIRKWALL The honorary secretary was notified at 2.20 a.m. on 4th June, 1965, that a patient on North Ronaldsay required urgent hospital treatment at Kirkwall for appendicitis. As there was no other suitable boat available the life-boat The John Gellatly Hyndman went out at 3 a.m. in a moderate southerly breeze and a choppy sea. The tide was ebbing. She reached North Ronaldsay at 5 a.m. and left for Kirkwall twenty-five minutes later with the patient, arriving at 9.20.

The life-boat returned to her station at 1.40 p.m..