CAVE SNATCH NEWS was received at 7.50 p.m. on 22nd September, 1971, that a small boat had been sighted floating close to the cliffs near Bempton.

It appeared to be unmanned. The maroons were fired five minutes later, and at 8.5 p.m.

the Flamborough, Yorkshire, life-boat Friendly Forester was launched.

The weather was hazy with poor visibility, the wind being east south east force 2 or 3. A moderate swell was running. Coxswain George Pockley took the life-boat northward along the tide line in case there was a possibility of survivorsin the water. Meanwhile the Coastguard mobile vehicle had gone to the cliff top and illuminated the area with parachute flares.

At 8.20 p.m. the crew of the life-boat sighted a flashing light under the cliff at Stapple Nook.

The life-boat closed the shore and, using the loud-hailer, told the people ashore to wave their torch if they required help. This they did.

An oar was seen in the water and was picked up by the life-boat.

The coastguards then radioed that three men and a dog had set out from Filey in a boat powered by an outboard motor and towing a small pram dinghy. Two of the men had attempted to land under the cliffs in the pram dinghy but had been thrown out of the boat by the breakers under the cliff, their boat being washed away. The man remaining in the boat powered by the outboard, realising that he could not possibly get them off, returned to Filey and raised the alarm.

The coxswain, realising that the only other way of rescuing the two people and their dog from under the cliff was from the cliff top, and as the cliff was overhanging, 300ft or more high, and the edge at the top of the cliff was soft and crumbly, he told the coastguards that he was attempting to rescue these men from seaward.

He swung the life-boat to seaward and dropped anchor, veering back in a westerly direction into a narrow channel between submerged rocks. The ebb tide had now begun to run and it was difficult to hold the boat in the channel with the tide running from south to north across it. The coxswain then veered the life-boat to the southward, and the grapnel line was hove into the rocky shallows on the south side of the channel. It was held and was used to keep the boat up into the tide.

As the life-boat rose and fell in the broken water, the echo sounder showed a zero reading.

There was a swell of more than 10 feet. When the life-boat veered back as far as the shoal water would allow, the crew fired lines ashore to the two men who were sheltering in a cave entrance. The first two lines were lost, the marooned men being unable to find them in the dark. Then the crew fired the third line straight into the cave mouth. As there was no point ashore to make a block fast, a veering line was passed ashore with a breeches buoy made fast to the end, with a further veering line on the other side of the breeches buoy.

Owing to the broken water between the shore and the boat, crewman Alwyn Emmerson went ashore in the breeches buoy taking a lifejacket with him. The first survivor wearing the life-jacket was hauled out to the life-boat in the breeches buoy, the buoy and the life-jacket being then hauled ashore by Mr. Emmerson.

The second man was fitted with the life-jacket,put in the breeches buoy clasping his dog, and hauled out to the life-boat. Mr. Emmerson was then returned to the life-boat.

When all were aboard, the boat was eased ahead through the broken water, and the grapnel line let go. The boat returned to her station at 10.10 p.m.

The Committee of Management has awarded the bronze medal of the Institution for gallantry to Coxswain Pockley and accorded the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum to Mr.

Emmerson. The other members of the crew, Second Coxswain James Major, Acting Motor Mechanic Robert Major, and crew members James Cory, John Crossland and John Major, will be presented with medal service certificates..