At 9.20 p.m. on loth May, 1967, a red flare was reported to have been seen half a mile off Pakefield rifle range. The lifeboat Frederick Edward Crick slipped her moorings at 9.30 in a fresh easterly wind and a choppy sea. The tide was flooding.

She reached the casualty, the local longshore boat Success, carrying a crew of two at 9.50. A herring net had fouled her propeller. The life-boat towed her to Lowestoft and returned to her moorings at 10.40..