Capsized tug PILOT CUTTER COXSWAIN Michael Knott was in Lowestoft Bridge Control station when, at 0825 on Monday, August 16, 1976, a radio message was heard on Channel 16 VHP that the harbour tug Barkis had overturned.

Knowing that the tug had left harbour to attend the cargo vessel Jupiter, Michael Knott ran across the harbour bridge to his cutter; on the south quay, by the lifeboat crew room, he passed his father, Thomas Knott, Lowestoft lifeboat station coxswain/mechanic. Although Thomas Knott did not hear the full message shouted by his son, he realised that there was an emergency and joined him as crew member aboard the cutter. He had spoken with his second coxswain and two lifeboat crew members only minutes earlier and knew that if the maroons were fired enough men were available to crew the lifeboat; the immediate and most urgent task was to get the 16 knot pilot cutter to sea and try to effect a rescue.

Clearing the moorings at about 0830 Michael Knott called Jupiter and was told that she was near Ness Buoy, one mile north east of the harbour, and that the four members of the tug's crew were in the water.

The wind was north east, force 2 to 3, with a slight sea and swell; it was the last hour of the ebb.

At about 0840 the pilot cutter reached the first survivor (a member of the lifeboat crew) and he was hauled aboard in an exhausted state. Within a minute asecond survivor was sighted, face down in the water and, as Michael Knott manoeuvred the cutter alongside, his father entered the water, turned the man over and supported him to the cutter's port side. Never having been to sea in this particular boat before, Thomas Knott's knowledge of gear stowage was limited to what was readily in view; consequently he had been unable to find a lifejacket or even a piece of line with which to attach himself to the boat before going over the side.

After one unsuccessful attempt to lift the second survivor over the three foot freeboard of the cutter, Michael Knott passed a line to his father but, lying on the side deck, was unable to reach low enough to help secure it, and his father could only partly lift the survivor.

Another attempt was made but Thomas Knott was weakening and the survivor was covered in oil; after a third attempt he slipped from Thomas Knott's grasp and sank under the cutter's quarter. Michael Knott then realised his father's condition and heaved him aboard, where he lay on deck regaining strength.

A third survivor, in a stronger condition, was then approached and taken aboard before the cutter moved towards the upturned tug hull where a fourth man was clinging. Thomas Knott cast a line to him with a lifejacket secured to it, and though the man slipped from the hull as he grasped it, he managed to put on the lifejacket in a manner which allowed him to be dragged to the cutter and brought aboard.

The three survivors were adjudged to be recovering sufficiently to allow the pilot cutter to resume her search for the missing man. Twenty minutes later, at about 0920, the cutter returned to harbour as Lowestoft lifeboat, Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Atlantic 21 and an RAF helicopter arrived on the scene. The survivors were landed at the harbour wall and Thomas Knott remained on shore until the lifeboat returned at 1230. He then took her to sea again, continuing the search until 1830, but no trace of the missing man was found.

For this service a bar to his bronze medal for gallantry has been awarded to Coxswain/Mechanic Thomas V. Knott and a framed letter of thanks signed by the Chairman of the Institution, Major General Ralph Farrant, has been presented to Michael Knott..