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Darlwin (1)

Falmouth, Coverack, Fowey, Cornwall and Salcombe Devon - At 5.37 a.m. on ist August, 1966, the Coastguard requested the Falmouth coxswain to launch the life-boat to search for the motor cruiser Darlwin which had been reported overdue. The life-boat Crawford and Constance Conybeare left her moorings at 5.50 and, aided by an R.A.F. Shackleton aircraft, searched the area seaward of Dodman Point. At 6.8 the Fowey lifeboat Deneys Reitz left her station to help in the search and recovered some wreckage.

At 3.15 p.m. the Crawford and Constance Conybeare transferred the Darlwin's dinghy, which had been found by the tanker £550 Caernarvon, to an R.A.F.

launch. The search was abandoned shortly after 9 o'clock by both life-boats which returned to their stations. The next morning the Salcombe life-boat The Baltic Exchange searched from 11.46 to 4.55 and again from 6.20 to 9.37. The Coverack life-boat William Taylor of Oldham searched from 3.58 in the afternoon to 11.45 but without success. On 4th August the Crawford and Constance Conybeare proceeded from Falmouth at 6.58 a.m. after a report had been received that wreckage had been sighted four miles east of Dodman Point. After a search in conjunction with a helicopter the life-boat found two bodies. The Fowey life-boat Deneys Reitz, which had been launched at 7.05 in the morning, also recovered two bodies, one of which was transferred to the Falmouth boat. After the bodies were landed both life-boats continued the search throughout the day but nothing further was found. The sea was calm.

The life-boats returned to their respective stations at about 10.15. The next day areport was received that an aircraft had seen some wreckage and the Fowey lifeboat was launched at 10.25 a-m- The life-boat searched until 4.40, when she returned to her station, arriving at 6 o'clock..