Skilful ILB Rescue off Southwold SHORTLY before 10 a.m. on 6th February, 1972, Mr. Patrick Pile, a member of the Southwold inshore life-boat crew, walked to the end of the harbour mouth. The wind was east south east, force 6, and gusting beyond. Visibility was four to five miles. The weather was overcast with rain squalls, and it was two hours after low water. As he walked back from the harbour pier, Mr. Pile saw a small fibre-glass dingy, driven by an outboard motor, heading out of the harbour with four or five people on board.

Having seen the heavy seas breaking across the southern end of the shoal over which he knew they must pass, Mr. Pile decided at once that they were heading for trouble. He returnedquickly to his car and drove to the ILB house a quarter of a mile away to prepare to launch.

On arrival he saw another member of the ILB crew, Mr. Martin Helmer, and told him he thought the inshore life-boat was going to be needed. Mr. Helmer immediately joined him and started to dress for the anticipated launch, while Mr. Pile telephoned the coastguard.

Even as he did so, however, he saw a car approaching at high speed from the direction of the harbour mouth, and, by the time the driver had wound down his window and shouted 'They've turned over', Mr. Pile and Mr. Helmer were launching the ILB. The time was 10.13 a.m.

As they left the river and headed into the sea, Mr. Hclmer stood up in the bows, holding on to the bridle, and searched for the upturned dingy.

He sighted it about 300 yards south east of the harbour and about 300 yards off Walberswick beach. As Mr. Pile steered the ILB in the direction indicated, a body was seen floating face downwards.

He took the ILB alongside and held her head to the sea while Mr. Helmer, with what must have been a super-human effort, managed to heave the unconscious 18-year-old man on board.

As he did so, Mr. Pile, who is a qualified firstaider, leaned forward and punched the victim in the stomach in an effort to induce vomiting.

This appeared to succeed to some extent, but the man remained unconcious in the bottom of the boat as it headed towards the next survivor, who was seen to be floating face upwards 50 yards away. This body, like the first, was apparentlybeing held afloat by air trapped in the anoraktype jacket.

Before they reached him, Mr. Helmer spotted another body lying face down, and so course was altered to recover this one first. Mr. Pile had to leave the tiller to help Mr. Helmer with hauling him in and the boat was left at the mercy of the breaking seas. She turned broadside on to the waves as the two men struggled to get the 16- year-old boy aboard. The ILB shipped much water as they tried to make the boy vomit and start him breathing. As with the first man, some water was emitted but no further sign of life could be produced. The two lay in the bottom of the boat with their faces blue black, to all appearances dead.

Then further attention to the first two had to be abandoned while they turned the ILB back to the casualty who was face upwards in the water. He was pulled in with waves breaking high over the ILB. He was a 13-year-old boy who appeared to be still conscious but unable to speak.

Mr. Pile was not sure how many had been aboard the dinghy although he felt sure it was more than three. He was on the point of deciding to head for the beach to try to save those he had, when another body was sighted 50 yards away, face downwards. He turned the ILB towards it, but a sea broke over the body and it disappeared when the boat still had 15 yards to go. As the ILB turned again for the beach another sea broke and the man's body re-appeared. This man was subsequently estimated to have weighed nearly 18 stone but, in spite of their exhausted condition, Mr. Helmer and Mr. Pile managed to get him aboard.

The boat was now filled to the gunwales with water and it was hardly possible to keep the faces of the victims out of it. In this condition the boat was also sluggish and Mr. Pile was faced with the choice of attempting the comparatively long return to harbour, where help would be plentiful, or of making a run for the nearest beach which he knew meant a delay in the arrival of an ambulance or professional help.

Looking ashore he saw two local fishermen on Walberswick beach and a further glance at the four bodies in the bottom of the ILB confirmed his opinion that this was their only chance. He drove the swamped ILB as fast as she would go for the shore, and she grounded some 12 yards off.

The two Walberswick fishermen, Mr. Dinks Cooper and Mr. Fred Eades, hurried to the assistance of the exhausted ILB crew. They and Mr. Helmer started carrying all four inert bodies through the surf and up the beach, while Mr.

Pile stayed with the boat until the last body was landed. After he left the ILB to climb the beach and start the artificial respiration efforts, the boat was capsized by a heavy breaking sea.Mr. Cooper \vas asked to go for more help and the ambulance, while Mr. Eade helped the crew in their attempts to restore life to the victims, all four of whom were still blue black in the face and only one of whom was thought to be still alive.

Neither Mr. Pile nor Mr. Helrner had time to don their full protective clothing, and Mr.

Helmer had at times been working with his head and shoulders under water when recovering the bodies. Both men were thoroughly wet and were now feeling extremely cold in the high wind. Although completely exhausted the pair drove themselves with sheer determination to do all in their power to restore life before they themselves collapsed.

Mr. Pile said he used the Holgcr-Neilsen method to pump the water out of the victims first, as neither had enough breath to give mouth to mouth resuscitation.

The youngest boy responded fairly quickly and the 16-year-old was revived a few minutes later. Mr. Helmer and Mr. Eades followed up Mr. Pile's resuscitation with massage of the extremities to restore circulation. Then Mr.

Eades and Mr. Cooper, who had now returned, carried them up the beach behind the dunes to give them some protection from the wind.

The 18-year-old man was in an even worse condition and repeatedly stopped breathing after he had apparently been restored. The rescuers tore the door off a nearby shed to make a stretcher to carry him up the beach and behind the shelter of the dunes, where they continued their efforts, including cardiac massage. After a half-hour of almost continuous artificial respiration and massage regular breathing was at last resumed. The remaining man, who was the 42-year-old father of the two youngest boys, could not be revived.

The ambulance arrived just as the ILB crew succeeded in restoring regular breathing to the 18-year-old. The crew of the Coltishall R.A.F.

helicopter, which landed on the beach moments later, were told that they could not be sure everyone had been picked up. The helicopter carried out a thorough search but without result.

The four from the dinghy were given oxygen in the ambulance, but the older man was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. There proved to have been five people in the dinghy when it was upset.

None of those recovered was wearing a life-jacket, although some life-jackets were eventually washed ashore with the boat. According to one witness, the survivors attempted to climb on to the upturned hull at first but were quickly swept off by the seas. It is believed, too, that the drowned 42-year-old father spent sometime holding his youngest son afloat before he himself succumbed.

The bronze medal of the R.N.L.I, was awarded to Mr. Pile and Mr. Helmer for their gallantry. Framed letters of thanks signed by the Chairman, Cmdr. F. R. H. Swann, have been sent to Mr. Cooper and Mr. Eades for their part in the rescue..