BURRAFIRTH, LERWICK, SHETLANDS. At 1.52 P.M. on the 20th October, 1939, the coastguard asked the Lighthouse Shore Station at Burrafirth to send its boat to pick up the crew of the S.S. Sea Venture, of London, which had been sunk by enemy action fifteen to twenty miles east of Flugga. A light S.W.

wind was blowing with a smooth sea. At 3 P.M. the motor boat was launched with a crew of seven, and searched unsuccessfully for several hours and returned when the Lerwick motor life-boat took up the search.

In the end the life-boat found the crew of the S.S. Sea Venture, who had landed on the beach at the Island of Skaw. (The life-boat’s service was reported in the issue of The Lifeboat for April, 1939.) - Rewards, £4 7s. 6d. WICKLOW. At 8 A.M. on the 31st October, 1939, the look-out at Wicklow Head informed the Wicklow life-boat station that a raft, believed to have three men on board, was about two miles N.E. of the Head, drifting.

As the life-boat was under survey, five men put out in a 24-feet rowing boat. A strong E.N.E. wind was blowing with a rough sea.

The men found that the raft was, in fact, a fisherman’s "dan," three buoys with a mast and light attached. They took it in tow and brought it into harbour. - Rewards, £3 15s.

LLANDUDNO, CAERNARVONSHIRE. At about 5 P.M. on the 5th November, 1939, three small rowing boats, which had been out fishing, were in difficulties about a mile off the pier. A hard S.S.E. wind was blowing, with a moderate sea. Three men who had just returned in their motor fishing boat Swallow watched two of the rowing boats reach the pier, and then put out again in the growing darkness to help the remaining boat.

They found her in danger of being carried on to a rocky precipitous lee shore and towed her in. - Rewards, £2 5s., and 5s. for fuel used.

SOUTHWOLD, SUFFOLK. At 11 A.M. on the 6th November, 1939, the motor fishing boat Boy Dinks, with a crew of three, was in difficulties two miles north of Southwold.

The exhaust pipe was flooded and the engine could not be started. There was a moderate sea running with a W.S.W. breeze. The men signalled for help and another motor fishing boat took them in tow, but, after she had towed them about half a mile, the tow rope broke and the Boy Dinks sank. Her crew were taken into the rescuers’ boat. - Rewards, £1 12s. 6d., and 2s. for fuel used.

LOWESTOFT, SUFFOLK. When returning home at about 11 A.M. on the 6th November, 1939, two fishermen, on board the motor sprat boat Mica, saw a hand above the water near the Newcombe Bank. They turned their boat and found two men clinging to the corks of their floating nets with their heads just above water. They were the crew of the motor fishing boat Harvest Moon, of Yarmouth, a new boat, on her first trip.

She had taken aboard nets from another boat in addition to her own, become overloaded, and sank. Four attempts had to be made before the men could be picked up, for a strong S.S.W. wind was blowing, the sea was rough, and the rescuers were in danger from the risk of their propeller being fouled by floating nets. - Rewards, £1 18s., and 2s. for fuel used.

CULLEN, BANFFSHIRE. At about 7.30 P.M. on the 6th November, 1939, distress signals were seen from a R.A.F. bomber and a few minutes later the bomber was forced to come down in Cullen Bay. Four men at once put out to the rescue in the motor boat Quest. A light S.W. wind was blowing, with a slight swell, but the bomber was near the rocks and the rescuers ran great risk of having their boat washed on to them. The work of rescue was made still more dangerous by the fact that the bomber was carrying live bombs, but the four men were successful in rescuing the bomber’s crew of four without mishap. - Rewards, £5 5s., and 3s. for fuel used.

NORTH RONALDSHAY, ORKNEYS. Soon after 8 A.M. on the 7th November, 1939, the S.S. Hansi, of Bergen, stranded on Reef Dyke, and her crew of sixteen left her in two ship’s life-boats. A local boat with a crew of five went out and piloted the boats for two miles to a safe landing. Wind and sea were moderate.

The coastguard life-saving apparatus had been called out and helped the crew ashore.

The Stromness motor life-boat had also been launched, but the men had already been landed when she arrived. - Rewards, £2 10s.

MARGATE, KENT. About 9 A.M. on the 13th November, 1939, the destroyer HMS.

Blanche, which had been damaged by enemy action, was being towed by a Ramsgate tug. The weather was clear with a N.N.W.

wind blowing, and the sea choppy. At the request of another destroyer, the motor boat Golden Spray, with a crew of two, which was trawling, went to stand by the Blanche. She was then one mile E. of the North-East Margate Buoy. Shortly afterwards the Blanche turned over on her side, throwing those on board into the sea, and the two men on the Golden Spray picked up 70 of them and transferred them to a tug. It was a fine rescue and the two men ran a great risk, for the men of the destroyer were covered with oil ; it was very difficult to get them aboard the boat, and their weight nearly sank her. - Rewards, £10, with £5 for damaged clothes and 16s. 8d. for fuel used.

MARGATE, KENT. On the 20th November 1939, the motor boat Golden Spray followed the motor life-boat when she went out to the help of the minesweeper Mastiff which had been sunk by enemy action.

(For a full account, see Margate “ Accounts of Services by Life-boats,” page 66.) - Rewards, £1 18s., and 16s. 8d. for fuel used.

FILEY, YORKSHIRE. On the afternoon of the 24th November, 1939, the local fishing boat Joan and Mary, with a crew of three, broke down off Filey. A S.E. wind was freshening with a moderate sea and an ebbing tide. The life-boat coxswain launched his motor coble, and with another man towed the Joan and Mary to shore. - Rewards, 15s.

with 7s. 6d. for use of boat and fuel.

ARKLOW, Co. WICKLOW. At 6 P.M. on the 29th November, 1939, the life-boat coxswain and three other men were out in the Arklow motor fishing boat Noamh Fiacra.

The weather was rough with a westerly gale, bad sea and rain. When in Courtown Bay the men saw flares about two miles away and found a small open fishing boat from Courtown drifting with her engine broken down.

she was about six miles east of Courtown Harbour into which she was towed at 8 P.M.- Rewards. £4, with 10s. for use of boat and 10s. for fuel..