At 2.52 p.m. on I2th October, 1966, a fishing vessel had broken down about one mile off the coastguard lookout hut at Foreness point and one of the five occupants was waving an oar with a white shirt attached. The life-boat Elizabeth Elson, on temporary duty at the station, was launched at 3.5. It was four hours after high water. She came up with the motor fishing vessel The Spray at3.30 and towed her to Broadstairs, arriving at 3.56. The life-boat returned to her station at 5.15..