50 Years Ago From the pages of THE I.IFF.BOAT, April 1938: Rescue in a Hurricane A Silver-Medal Service at Tenby.

ABOUT 4.30 in the morning of 15th January, 1938, the coastguard at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, reported that a small steamer was in distress. She was the Fermanagh, of Belfast, bound light for Llanelly. A gale was blowing from the south-west, with frequent gusts at hurricane force. The sea was very rough, and was breaking right over the fort off St. Catherine's Point. Rain and driving spray made visibility very poor.

At 5.15 the motor life-boat John R. Webb was launched. The coxswain was away from the station and the second coxswain took command. When she reached the Fermanagh, the life-boat found her aground on the Woolhouse Rocks and lying on an even keel. She was not showing any signals of distress. The life-boat went round her, ready to pick up anything that might be seen floating.

Some time after this (the exact time is not known) the life-boat saw that the Fermanagh had come off the rocks. She was drifting before the gale, her stern sinking, her bows in the air, her decks awash two-thirds of the way to the after funnel. The life-boat crew could see men aboard her.

The second coxswain at once took the life-boat alongside, handling her with great skill in the heavy seas. She was there only a few seconds. In that time the eight men of the Fermanagh's crew had jumped aboard her. Her master was not among them. Before the life-boat arrived he had launched the ship's boat, and had got aboard her to fend her off, while the crew followed, but he had been swept away. The life-boat had already searched round the Fermanagh as she lay on the rocks and had seen nothing of the master or his boat: the rescued men were exhausted; and the life-boat made at once for Tenby, arriving at 8.30.

After landing the rescued men. she put out again to search for the master, but could find no trace of him.

She returned again at 10.45 a.m. She had then been out for five and a half hours and her crew had been severely shaken in the heavy seas. They had been in continual danger of being washed overboard and two of them were nearly lost when the life-boat dropped into a deep trough.

The weather was so bad that the life-boat could not be rehoused until 4.15 in the afternoon The Institution has made the following awards: To SECOND COXSWAIN (ACTING COXSWAIN) JOHN REKS, the silver medal for gallantry, and a copy of the vote of the medal inscribed on vellum and framed; To ALFRED Con AM, the motor mechanic, the bronze medal for gallantry, and a copy of the vote of the medal inscribed on vellum and framed; To each of the seven members of the crew, FRED HARRIES, THOMAS E LEWIS, FRANK HOOPER.

ALEXANDER HARRIES, BERTIE LEWIS, HENRY THOMAS and JAMES N CROCKEORD, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum..