Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. At 5 p.m.

on 29th August, 1965, the acting second coxswain heard a distress message being passed to Niton radio station from the yacht Dream of Holland saying that a capsized dinghy with two people clinging to her was drifting towards the Shingle Bank near the Needles. The life-boat The Earl and Countess Howe set out at 5.10 hi a strong south-westerly wind and a moderate to rough sea. The tide was ebbing. The life-boat found the sailing dinghy Imp about a mile and half north of the Needles lighthouse. Her crew could not be seen and a search was carried out with the co-operation of a helicopter but nothing was found. The life-boat returned to her station with the Imp in tow, arriving at 8.20 p.m..