SEPT. l5TH. - WEYMOUTH, DORSET.

At 7.20 P . M . the coastguards telephoned that four boats were adrift near the Shambles Lightship with the crew of a Belgian steamer on board. The weather was fine. The motor life-boat William and Clara Ryland was launched at 7.40 P.M., and found that the steamer was the Alex Van Opstal, of Antwerp, and that she had been sunk by a British mine. Her crew had got away in the ship’s boats, and the life-boat found them in tow of a Greek steamer. She stood by the steamer until she reached a safe anchorage in Weymouth Bay, and then returned to her station arriving at 11.45 P.M. - Rewards, £8 15s..