At 5.34 p.m. on 29th August, 1966, it was reported that a fishing boat, one mile off shore, had burned an orange smoke signal. The life-boat Edian Courtauld left her moorings at 5.50 and proceeded in an east north easterly breeze and a choppy sea. It was nearly low water. The life-boat towed the m.f.v. Nil Desperandum, whose engine had failed, to the Walton river and returned to her moorings at 8.22..