At 3.25 a.m. on igth June, 1966, the coastguard informed the coxswain that a red flare had been sighted some five miles from the coastguard lookout. The life-boat Edian Courtauld was launched at 3.52 in a gentle westerly wind and amoderate sea. It was three hours after high water. At 4.40 another flare was sighted, and soon afterwards the lifeboat found a small speedboat with two occupants from the Dutch m.v. Cheetah II, a wireless transmitting station anchored off Walton. The customs officer requested that the two men be taken to the pierhead for customs clearance before they were returned to their ship. The life-boat took the two men on board and the speedboat in tow. When the men had been cleared by customs, the life-boat took them back to the Cheetah II. She then went alongside Radio London and took off four students from a rubber dinghy which was moored alongside the wireless transmitting station and landed them at 9.10..