AS reported in the January issue of THE LIFEBOAT, the R.N.L.I., following an urgent appeal from the British Red Cross, sent staff and inshore rescue boats to aid victims of the flood disaster in East Pakistan. The cargo of inflatable boats —20 in all—was air-lifted from Stansted, Essex, to Dacca on 21st November and the expedition returned to this country on 8th December.

The expedition, which carried spares, was led by Lieutenant David Stogdon, Staff Inspector (inshore rescue boats). He was accompanied by Mr. Michael Brinton, a mechanic, from East Cowes. They were later joined by two men from the Littlehampton 'Blue Peter' IRB crew, Mr. C. R. Cole and Mr. C. J. Pelham.

The R.N.L.I, team were part of the international Red Cross relief force which moved in from various parts of the world for work in the south east sector of Bhola Island.

Clive King, who accompanied the expedition, reported: 'On either side of this coastal strip operations were being conducted by the British Royal Navy and the American armed forces respectively, with all the resources of aircraft carriers, landing craft, helicopters, etc. Our expedition received something of a shock on boarding the mv. Bilkis late on 28th November, to find that this vessel was an antiquated river launch with two totally enclosed decks, six cabins and one latrine, but all 57 of us accepted the conditions philosophically.

'The boats were stowed on the roof (being quite devoid of davits or any such refinements it did not deserve the name of boat deck). Some of the party used them as sleeping cabins, the rest fitted in wherever we could. The other shock was to find the total complement was as high as 57, and doubts began to arise about whether the food and water would last. The water supply was assured, thanks to the Daccafire brigade, who pumped water into our tanks with great efficiency, and then we sailed.

'Some confusion was caused at first light on Sunday when we found ourselves moving northwards up the coast of what we were assured was Bhola Island, instead of south, but this was only because we had overshot the pilot point in the dark.

'After the landing party had returned, we moved south. The coast seemed largely deserted (it is probable that the inhabitants had at that moment moved inland towards distribution areas already set up). We saw increasing signs of breached seawalls, devastated coastal villages, large vessels carried inland, and dead cattle.

Unburied human bodies in this area were few.

We arrived at our first base near Tazumuddin and awaited the support vessel.

'At anchor that night we had our first experience of the difficulties of these tidal waters.

We dragged anchor for about three-quarters of a mile and were in serious danger of grounding.

This kind of thing was to happen every night of the expedition, due to the inadequate weight of the anchor. . . . The leaders of the expedition were never to have the benefit of an undisturbed night.

'We lowered some of the boats and took three of them away on a reconnaissance to the south, looking for navigable channels. Despite the extremely shallow draft of the speedboats we went aground several times, and we began to appreciate further difficulties to come. This was an essential hydrographic reconnaissance, and left little time to assess relief requirements.

Again the coast seemed largely deserted, but the large herds of water-buffalo and cows that we sighted suggested that the inhabitants were not in dire need.

lAt the mouth of the Betua river we found grim enough evidence of the disaster. Bodies of men, cows, women, goats and children were piled together close to the shore. They had presumably been washed down the river with the receding storm wave and deposited there. Several village mounds had been swept bare.

We landed and met survivors. They were all men, and it was clear that no women or children had survived from that village. They were in a state of mental shock still, but were clothed, healthy and not visibly starving (this was already a fortnight after the cyclone].Three R.N.L.I, inshore rescue boats towing an Army pontoon barge laden with relief supplies during the East Pakistan operations. Successful drops were made up the rivers by this means, but it proved too clumsy for use in a tideway.

'We returned up the coast to Tazumuddin (finding that driving the IRBs at full throttle into a choppy sea was an ordeal that called for considerable muscular endurance). On our return we found a state of near mutiny. The weather was unseasonably overcast—evidence of another depression—and it would not have been impossible that another cyclone was on the way. However, with the aid of the additional district commissioner and the master of his launch which was also at anchor there, our serang was persuaded to stay. The supply barge, however, had still not arrived. . . .

'By 1st December the weather was clearing....

We landed doctors, the nurse, and some suppliesbylRBand continued crewtrainingnearthe ship.

At 1600 hours the supply vessel Reka arrived; her loading had been held up by celebrations of the religious festival in Dacca. No food suitable to the expedition was among the cargo, neither had additional water been included, but we were relieved to find a drum of kerosene on board, which we had been assured was among the petrol drums loaded on to Bilkis in Dacca, but wasn't. Absence of cooking facilities had added to our worries.'On 2nd December everything suddenly began to make sense. Each boat now had a trained coxswain and crew member; a routine was evolved for loading them alongside with tins of foods, biscuits, blankets and lengths of cloth so that each boat had a mixed cargo; the issue of petrol mixture for the outboard engines was controlled, and each was assured of a spare tank; strict instructions were given that boats were to work in pairs so as to help each other in emergencies; a boat recall signal was established.

'Red Cross organisers were landed with the first boats to line up the villagers in the larger distribution groups, which soon reached the figure of a thousand people in each. For the smaller groups, the boat coxswains devised their own distribution schemes. The doctors were landed independently and left to their inoculation programmes, which often continued so late into the hours of darkness that we had difficulty in retrieving them. On one occasion we were alarmed by a strange craft bearing down on us on a strong tide accompanied by wild cries.

We thought it might be pirates and, in any case, feared for our fragile boats moored alongside, but it was only the doctors returning in a country boat.'Our only potentially dangerous accident was due to the decision of the master of the Bilkis to get under way at short notice, while scouts were in the boats alongside. One capsized and a scout was thrown into the water, but rescue operations were effective and there was no loss or damage. It was, however, an early lesson in the need for strict discipline and coordination on an untried operation such as this.

'We borrowed from the Army some heavy steel pontoon barges and experimented with loading these and towing them with the IRBs.

Successful drops were made up the rivers by this means, but it proved too clumsy for use in a tideway.

'On this first day of real work one boat made as many as 16 landings, and others did as well in proportion to the distance they had to travel.

Before dark a sounding party took the serang of the Bilkis southward and convinced him that it was possible to move the ship in that direction.

We anchored south of Char Lakshmi and had another night disturbed by dragging anchor.

'On 3rd December we organised a more ambitious long-distance expedition for the boats.

Eight experienced crews were chosen and sent off in flotillas of four down to the Betua River, a distance of 11 miles, or 22 for the round trip, which was just about the limit for the two petrol tanks we could issue to each boat. It is impossible to over-emphasise the necessity for this kind of strict organisation in tidal waters. . . . Distributions in this most remote and afflicted area were satisfactorily completed, all boats returned, and a similar expedition sent away almost immediately.

'Meanwhile the parent ships Bilkis and Reka at Char Lakshmi were having a difficult time.

A crowd of some 500 had gathered on the shore at a distance of about 50 yards and a number of country boats began to cluster alongside the vessels. The Red Cross leader decided against issuing anything to this crowd, on the grounds that they were the same people who had received a generous distribution the day before, and that any hand-out now would only increase their importunity. Only a few scouts and volunteers, the nurse and one expatriate (a World War II sailor) were on board, and when it came to "repelling boarders" by violence it it was decided to weigh anchor and move slowly north, although all boats were still away. Fortunately the boat expedition and the doctors were able to catch up.

'Our holds were cleared, our own food supplies nearly exhausted, and all hands had put in a week of physical labour. We considered our mission completed, got the boats inboard and deflated them, bade farewell to Tazumuddin, headed north and grounded on a mudbank.

W'hile waiting for the tide to lift us off the m.v.Urbashi hove in sight, with another stock of relief goods. We were told of riots and deaths in Dacca, which could hardly fail to confirm the resolution of the married volunteers to get back.

Possibly if sanitary and feeding conditions had been adequate during the previous week there would have been volunteers to stay on, but in any case the expedition leaders felt very strongly that the phase of high-speed immediate relief expeditions had passed.

'Another unanimous decision was that in the light of the week's experience of tides, winds, shoals, featureless shore, breakdowns, groundings, capsizings, collisions, those of us with nautical knowledge could not take the moral responsibility of handing over to the young scouts these fairly sophisticated pieces of machinery.'.