FOR a rescue from a cabin cruiser, which led to the saving of five lives, including that of an elderly lady who was trapped in a cabin, Mr. Robert Jefford, helmsman, and Mr. Lionel Fisher, crewman, both of Lyme Regis, have been accorded the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum.

At 4.8 in the afternoon of Sunday, 25th June, 1967, a telephone call was put through to the home of the honorary secretary of the Lyme Regis IRB station, Wing Commander F. A. Buckingham, R.A.F. (Retd.). His wife took the call and learnt that a cabin cruiser had capsized at the eastward end of Lyme Regis Bay. She immediately sounded the telephone klaxon alarm to the boathouse, and three minutes later the IRB manned by Mr. Jefford and Mr. Fisher put out.

There was a southerly wind of force 4 to 5 with a choppy sea. It was low water.

The IRB made for the cabin cruiser at full speed and found her capsized and low in the water. One man was being rescued by a rowing boat, a woman was clinging to the bottom of the cruiser, and two boys were hanging on to the bows.

Another man was the water. The IRB crew threw the rescue ring and line to the man in the water, and he was successfully pulled aboard. The woman and the two boys were taken aboard shortly afterwards.

TRAPPED IN CABIN The IRB was about to return to her station, when the rescued man said that there was an elderly lady trapped in a cabin of the casualty. It was thought that she had been under water for some time and had probably drowned.

Mr. Jefford and Mr. Fisher tried to right the cabin cruiser and managed to turn her on her side. Mr. Fisher then held her in position while Mr. Jefford tried to open the cabin door. To do so he had to pull the door off its hinges.

Mr. Jefford groped around in the cabin, and the inrush of water washed the woman out. She was dragged aboard the IRB, where Mr. Fisher applied mouthto- mouth resuscitation, while Mr. Jefford drove the IRB back to Lyme Regis at full speed.

A local doctor was standing by when the IRB returned. He gave medical assistance to the woman who had been trapped in the cabin and also to the survivor who had been landed by the rowing boat. All five people taken out of the water survived..