Two Redcar fishermen, Mr. Cecil Picknett and Mr. Frederick Stamp, have received framed letters of appreciation signed by the Chairman of the R.N.L.I.

for rescuing two people after a coble had capsized on 8th December, 1969. The coble, Peter Lynne, was returning from sea at a dangerous state of the tide when the swell was breaking heavily on a sandbank about 80 yards out from the beach.

Coastguards and the life-boat coxswain watched the coble approach the beach from the coastguard lookout. They saw her fill and then capsize, and then ran to the beach with a floating gun line to help.

At the same time Mr. Picknett and Mr. Stamp dragged a 15-foot double- ended fishing boat from the esplanade and launched her into the sea. They found a man floating away from the coble, and although they had to work in broken water they managed to pull him alongside their own boat and bring him ashore, where he was grabbed by other helpers.

The two men then made for another man who had been clinging to the keel of the coble. This man managed to swim from the coble to the boat manned by Mr. Picknett and Mr. Stamp, who succeeded in bringing him ashore too..