Poole, Dorset - At 12.50 p.m. on 6th December, 1969, the life-boat mechanic received a report from the coastguard that the German training ship Ruhr had asked for help in landing a seriously ill man. A rendezvous was arranged five miles south of Bournemouth pier. The lifeboat George Elmy, on temporary duty at the station, slipped her moorings at 1 o'clock in a fresh north easterly wind with a choppy sea. It was ebb tide. At 1.45 p.m.

the life-boat came up with the Ruhr and embarked the sick man with the ship's doctor and landedthem at the pier. The life-boat took the doctor back to his ship, and returned to her station at 6 o'clock..