Following your news item about the exercise with a passenger vessel as described in the spring LIFEBOAT magazine, I thought you may be interested in the enclosed action shot.

Harwich lifeboat was launched on service to the aid of a passenger with a suspected heart attack on the passenger ship Dana Anglia. The call was received at about 1800 hours from Harwich Harbour Port Control on Saturday April 5. The message stated that Dana Anglia was returning to harbour at full speed and requested a rendezvous with Harwich lifeboat in the harbour approaches. The patient, Mr Torben Andersen, from Odense in Denmark was successfully transferred to the lifeboat and was landed at Harwich to a waiting ambulance.

The photograph highlights the problems of transferring people in stretchers.

The pilot door was the lowest position on the ship. Fortunately the ship's master made a good lee but in any sea conditions the transfer can be hazardous and requires good co-ordination between the ship's master and the lifeboat coxswain.

—CAPT RODERICK SHAW, Honorary Secretary and PRO, Harwich and Dovercourt branch..