St. Abbs life-boat station still holds the record for the longest service by one of the Institution's life-boats. This was achieved by the previous life-boat W. Ross Macanhur of Glasgow when she stood by the Swiss cargo ship Nyon for 11 days and nights in November, 1958.

How and when was the life-boat station first established at this exposed point on the Berwickshire coast ? ONLY A DOG SURVIVED For evidence of this we must go back to 1907 - to the stormy, foggy night of 17th October. A few hundred yards off shore - it looks for all the world like a porpoise at play - a rock can be seen at high tide. It was on to this rock - the highest of the group called Ebb Carrs - that the Danish s.s. Alfred Erlandsen ran with disastrous results for all her crew. But successive generations of mariners were to benefit. For the disaster -17 men perished - led the late Miss Jane Hay, a native of Leith, who resided at St. Abbs for many years and was keenly interested in the welfare of the fisherfolk of the area, to raise in 1908 the question of a life-boat being placed at St. Abbs. It was largely through her appeals and efforts that the Institution sent a motor life-boat there in 1911.

At the inaugural ceremony the only survivor from the wrecked Alfred Erlandsen - the captain's Great Dane called Karo - was present and helped to collect donations for the life-boat cause. The dog by then was the property of Sir George Douglas, of Springwood Park, Kelso. It was strongly thought locally that the dog 'came ashore to the north of St. Abbs close to a body'. Certainly it was first seen wandering the hills to the north of the village.

But Miss Hay - the present life-boat was named after her in April, 1965, by Lady Morgan, niece - knew St. Abbs long before 1907. She was particularly interested in sea rescue work and organised a rocket life saving brigade, complete with miniature gear, for the children of the village. They took part in weekly exercises and doubtless some of them went to sea with an early knowledge of how to save lives.

In 1911 Miss Hay was appointed joint secretary honorary life-boat with Mr.

W. Bertram, of Dunbar, which work she carried out until her death in 1914 when, as a token of their high regard for her services, life-boatmen were among the chief mourners at her funeral at nearby Coldingham.

To find out more about the St. Abbs life-boat I visited Mr. Alex Nisbet, now 70, who has been 26 years honorary secretary. He was disabled on the Somme in the Great War, and for the past two years has been confined to his room - in fact, he has not so far been able to see the new life-boat Jane Hay.

Some of the tenacity shown by Mr. Nisbet in overcoming his physical disability, to the extent of being able to do something really worthwhile from his armchair, probably stems from a personal desire to come to terms with the sea. Apparently his grandfather was drowned in the great disaster of 1881 when '129 men from the neighbouring town of Eyemouth lost their lives in one terrible day - a day when it was dark at noon, and the violence of the storm wrecked 47 boats.' Mr. and Mrs. Nisbet recalled with pleasure the occasion in May, 1965, when Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, who is president of the Institution, made an unofficial visit to Cliff Cottage, their home, from a ceremony at Eyemouth.

Princess Marina, before stopping about 20 minutes at the cottage, had the St.

Abbs life-boat crew presented to her by Cmdr. D. M. Marshall, O.B.E., R.N.

(retd), chairman of the branch.

MR. NISBET REMEMBERS . . .

Asked about fund raising endeavours, Mr. Nisbet recalled that in 1965 they raised £420 - a remarkable sum for such a small community.

A good illustration of how much Mr. Nisbet's work is appreciated was demonstrated last year by the Rev. George Mcgregor, of Wormit, Fife.

He said: 'I had thought that when I came to celebrate my jubilee as a minister, some three and a half years hence, I might do something to help the life-boat which imparted to me its interest when among you. I have been thinking, however, that instead of waiting, I might do something now, not merely to help the life-boat but to mark your own fine work for the committee through these long years.' Mr. McGregor's donation was for £50.

Mr. Nisbet, who was about 12 when the Alfred Erlandsen was wrecked, told me that he was on the scene from minutes after the vessel struck - that was at about 8.30 p.m. - until 2.30 next morning.

He recalls: 'The fog cleared and in bright moonlight the vessel was seen with huge waves breaking over her. Eyemouth and Skateraw life-boats stood by but could not approach the ship owing to the sea round her being thick with pit props from the ship's cargo. Eyemouth life-saving brigade made a number of unsuccessful attempts to fire a rocket line over the ship but she was too far from the shore. Next morning only the bridge remained above water.' HELM RECALLS SINKING When I told Mr. Nisbet - incidentally, his brother, Mr. R. Nesbit, who with his son runs the village store at St. Abbs, is a keen amateur photographer and has captured the stormy sea in many pictures - that I had seen among the crab pots and nets an old iron ship's helm and, mounted on a rock, a massive old workshop vice, he could not account for the first but said that the vice was part of the divers' salvage equipment when they worked on the Alfred Erlandsen in 1908.

Coxswain Jim Wilson, when asked about the helm, said that this was a relic from the Danish ship and had been 'landed' by skin divers 'fairly recently.' Now the helm is being mounted in the life-boat house as an additional harbour attraction.

For more information on the Alfred Erlandsen Mr. Nisbet sent me to see Mr.

George Colven, the shore attendant. Mr. Colven, I was interested to learn, was six when the Danish vessel went down off St. Abbs in 1907. He took me to the cliff top and pointed out the group of rocks known as Ebb Carrs.

WAS CUT IN TWO The salvage of the Nyon., which stranded on ifth November, 1958, led to the local life-boat, as I have said, making Institution history by being launched 16 times during the next n days. During this time she conveyed the vessel's crew of 30 and their belongings to St. Abbs.

Attempts to refloat the Nyon were, however, unsuccessful. She was eventually cut in two by the salvage firm, and the stern portion was refloated by four tugs and towed to North Shields. The bow, which was wedged high on the rocks as the photograph on page 218 shows, was abandoned and later broke up. Some years later the salvaged portion, which formed part of the new Nyon, was in collision with another ship in dense fog and went down off Beachy Head. Once again the crew got away without casualties.

Coxswain Wilson, who first joined the St. Abbs life-boat in 1947, has the following crew: Willie Mills (second coxswain), Ian Aitchison (bowman), Fred Hardwick (mechanic), Mirek Wanko (assistant mechanic), Jake Nisbet, Sandy Crowe, Henry Coates, Jimmy Gibson, Jim Wanko and Billy Aitchison (deck hands). Ian Wilson is the winchman.

Jake Nisbet is a veteran whaler and got the B.E.M. for services to the whaling industry. During the war his ship was torpedoed and he spent 'many hours clinging to a barrel in the Irish Sea'. On the same ship, too, was Sandy Crowe.

Coxswain Wilson was also torpedoed in the last war, this time on the way to Tobruk, and spent several hours swimming in oil. Mirek and Jim Wanko are father and son respectively. Those lucky survivors of the war years who now form the core of the St. Abbs life-boat crew do know, therefore, what it means to be in distress.

Since the formation of the St. Abbs life-boat station in 1911 her lifeboats - there have been five to date - have launched about 100 times and have saved at least 127 people. In the 1830*5, in the space of five years, St.

Abbs coastguards won four silver medals for rescue work.

A DIFFICULT LAUNCH When I made my visit to St. Abbs the weather was calm and, with rudder hard to starboard to clear the inner pier end, then hard to port to clear the outer pier end, getting down the life-boat slip and out of the harbour looked feasible.

But quite clearly, from the pictures I was shown, getting out of the harbour in a storm must require consummate seamanship. The reason for the slip not pointing directly at the harbour mouth is because fishing boats, driving in in a storm, might be damaged on the slip..