AT 9.30 on the evening of the igth January, 1966, the Walton coastguard reported that the motor vessel Mi Amiga, from which Radio Caroline broadcasts were transmitted, appeared to be dragging her anchor. Weather conditions were extremely bad, but the coastguard told the honorary secretary of the Walton and Frinton life-boat station, Mr. R. Oxley, that no distress signal had been received. Mr. Oxley asked the coastguard to keep him informed of any developments. At 10.8 he decided to muster the crew, and two minutes later the maroons were fired.

The crew mustered at the life-boat store while Mr. Oxley and Coxswain Frank Bloom kept the Mi Amiga under observation. At 10.40 she seemed to be dragging towards the shore, and the life-boat crew went to the launching stage.

Mr. Oxley joined the crew at 11.10 to assess the situation. Conditions were such that boarding was thought to be impossible. Long breaking seas running through the staging of the pier were causing the boarding boat to range between 25 and 30 feet on the outhaul. A 46-foot Watson type reserve life-boat, Edward and Isabella Irwin, formerly stationed at Sunderland, was on duty at the station. She was rolling and pitching heavily at the main moorings, and soon after Mr. Oxley had reached the scene she was hit by a breaking sea which caused her to roll on her beam ends. Her keel and both her propellers were seen illuminated by the launching lights. Mr. Oxley therefore gave instructions that the crew were not to attempt to board the life-boat unless distress signals were seen or the weather improved considerably.

REQUEST FOR HELP FROM COASTGUARD Mr. Oxley then returned to the storehouse and 17 minutes after midnight the first request for help from the casualty was received through the Walton coastguard. Mr. Oxley hurried to the pier, and found, much to his relief, that the crew had succeeded in boarding the life-boat. Conditions had become slightly less bad but were still very dangerous. When the boarding boat was launched a gale was blowing from the south-east, there was a very rough sea in the shallow water off the pier, and it was an hour and a half after high water.

The District Inspector, Lieut-Commander D. B. Cairns, R.N.R., stated in his report: "The coxswain and his crew showed courage, determination and skill in boarding the life-boat in conditions of wind, sea and bitter cold which were the worst known for many years at this most exposed station".

The thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were accorded to the ten members of the crew: Coxswain Frank Bloom, Dennis Finch, Second Coxswain, Robert Kemp, Bowman, Antony Warnock, Reserve Mechanic, Ronald Wyatt, Assistant Mechanic, Ken Haggis, Assistant Mechanic Signalman, and crew members Brian Oxley, Arthur Cole, Keith Richardson and Jack Barratt..