Yarmouth, Isle of Wight - At 4.30 a.m. on 2nd October, 1966, red flares had been sighted in the vicinity of the Hurst Narrows. The life-boat Charles Cooper Henderson, on temporary duty at the station, slipped her moorings at 5.10 in a strong southerly wind and a moderate sea. The tide was ebbing. She found the steam yacht Medea, of Southampton, lying at anchor in the main shipping channel near the Warden ledge buoy.

There had been an explosion in the yacht's engine room, followed by a fire.

As there was a danger of the fuel tanks exploding, the passengers and some of the crew were instructed to abandon ship.

Thirteen people were taken off by the life-boat and landed at Yarmouth where a doctor and ambulance were waiting to take the Medea's second engineer, who had been injured and was suffering from burns, to hospital. The life-boat returned to the yacht. The yacht's anchor cable was cut, and she was towed to Yarmouth Roads and made fast to a mooring buoy.

The life-boat returned to her station at 10.20..