HOPPER AND TUG COLLIDED Southend-on-Sea, Essex. At 8.10 a.m. on 28th September, 1965, the coastguard reported that a collision had taken place near the South Oaze buoy and that there were people in the water. The lifeboat Greater London II (Civil Service No.

30) launched at 8.28 in a light easterly breeze and a calm sea. There was dense fog and it was an hour and a half to low water. The life-boat found that the hopper Sir Joseph Rawlinson had capsized in nine fathoms of water after colliding with the tug Danube 8. Ten of the hopper's crew of nineteen had been rescued. The life-boat carried out a search for the other nine men without success. She was then informed that a fishing vessel had found a body and the life-boat picked it up and returned to her station, arriving at 5.45 p.m. The hopper eventually sank. Helicopters also took part in the search for survivors..