Southend-on-Sea, Essex - At 6.14 p.m. on 7th April, 1966, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that a message had been received from the tanker Metco advising him that two men were drifting past her in lifejackets. A further message was received from a Medway launch that the tanker Emsadler, anchored south of Mid Shoebury buoy, had reported losing several men and had launched one of her own boats to search.

At 6.37 the life-boat Greater London II (Civil Service No. 30) was launched in a choppy sea and a gentle breeze from the north-west. The tide was ebbing. It was reported later that only two men had been lost overboard from the Emsadler and that both men had been picked up. The lifeboat towed the boat back to the tanker, and on her return to the station found a small cabin cruiser Pandora anchored with nobody on board. A woman then reported that her husband and another man had been fishing in a boat which she thought was named Pandora but had not returned home. The life-boat searched but found nothing, and returned to the station with the cabin cruiser, arriving at 11.30 p.m.

A helicopter from Mansion also searched..