SILVER MEDAL SERVICE AT WHITBY FEBRUARY 3RD. - WHITBY, AND SCARBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE.

At nine o’clock at night the coastguard telephoned to the life-boat station at Whitby that a vessel was ashore near Saltwick. The tide was at half flood. A gale was blowing from the south-east with a rough sea.

There was mist and rain. By all accounts it was the darkest night in Whitby for many years. The lifeboat’slifeboat’s searchlight could not pierce it for more than a boat’s length.

The motor life-boat Mary Ann Hepworth was launched at 9.20. It was so dark that the coxswain never realised that he had put out one man short of his crew.

Under the 200-feet cliffs the darkness was like pitch. There nothing whatever could be seen. Then the lights of the coastguard life-saving apparatus appeared on the shore under the cliffs. They gave the life-boat the approximate position. The wreck was on Saltwick Nab, at the very spot where the hospital ship Rohilla was wrecked in October 1914, and the Whitby life-boats took part in the outstanding life-boat service of the last war.

The coxswain had with him as second-coxswain an old and very experienced fisherman and life-boatman, John Dryden, who had returned to the life-boat to relieve a younger man for war service. Dryden was in the after cockpit behind the coxswain, giving him the help of his greater experience of the coast. Was there enough water for the life-boat to get close to the wreck? Dryden was certain that there was, if they approached from the westward. Together the coxswain and second coxswain took the life-boat in towards Saltwick Nab, until they could see the stern of the wreck projecting beyond the darkness of the cliffs.

The crew of the life-saving apparatus on the shore could now see what the life-boat was attempting. One of the crew was an ex-coxswain of the lifeboat.

He was certain that she would be wrecked. He shouted - the whole crew of the life-saving apparatus shouted - to the life-boat to keep out ; but in the gale their shouts were not heard.

Two MENOVERBOARD The life-boat was feeling her way through the darkness, beam on to the seas, when suddenly a sea rose at her out of nowhere. As it broke it hit the life-boat on the port side and threw her over on her beam ends.. It threw the coxswain over the starboard side. The starboard rail was under water and hesaw the port rail right above him. He expected the life-boat to turn clean but they could not convince him. He was determined to go. He was mad over on top of him, but she righted to go. The motor-mechanic, while herself. Though he had been flung overboard he had kept his grip of the still looking after his engines, had to wheel with his left hand, and as the hold him in the boat by force.

life-boat. righted herself he dragged THE COXSWAIN INJURED himself aboard again. At that moment he felt her touch bottom All this time the coxswain, who had wrenched his left arm when he went forward. He knew then that he was right among the “ hummock ” rocks overboard, could not understand why which at low water stand ten feet high, the water from his sou’-wester kept and at high water are covered by the running into his eyes. Not until one of the crew came after to the compass sea. His one thought was to get the life-boat out from among them. He knew she was in extreme peril. Then she touched again. He must bring her out at once Not until he was in deeper water did he look round. The second-coxswain who had been behind him in the cockpit was no longer there.

The coxswain shouted for him. There was no answer He called the muster of the crew. The second-coxswain was gone. So too was the acting bowman, Christopher Wale. He, like John Dryden, was an old life-boatman who had returned to the boat to relieve a younger man. He had taken the place of his own son who was serving in the navy. Both had gone overboard in the darkness, unseen and unheard.

Wale had been standing on the port side of the after shelter getting a rope ready. On the starboard side another was it discovered that it was not water, but his own blood, which was running down his face from a deep cut at the top of his nose. He was half-blinded ; covered with blood ; his left arm hurt. But he had brought the lifeboat out of a place where it was little less than a miracle that she had not been lost with all her crew.

The coxswain felt that there was nothing more that he could do, and he took the life-boat back to Whitby.

There he found that the third man whom he had believed lost was alive.

He himself was treated by the doctor who sent him straight to bed. It was then about 10.30.

Meanwhile the life-saving apparatus had been at work. Its crew had climbed down to the shore at the foot of the cliffs of Saltwick Nab ; had fired a rocket to the wreck, the Belgian steamer Charles, of Bruges, with a crew of ten ; and had rescued four of them. The life-saving apparatus crew were then driven off the shore by the rising tide. man was standing with the searchlight in his hand. He too had gone overboard, between the rails, but he had kept his grip of the searchlight.

It had jammed against a stanchion and held him half in half out of the boat until another member of the crew had hauled him aboard again. Wale must have been thrown right over the shelter, and right over this man, who was clinging to the searchlight, into the sea. The coxswain believed that yet a third man was lost. It was not until he returned ashore that he found that, in the darkness, he had gone out one man short The assistant motor-mechanic was John Dryden’s son. As soon as he heard that his father had gone overboard, he wanted to go after him. The others knew that nothing could be done, They knew that if the son went overboard it would be to his death, A SECOND ATTEMPT Whitby men are not easily defeated.

One of the crew of the life-saving apparatus was John Robert Storr, a fisherman. When he returned to Whitby he went to the coxswain’s house to ask if he might get together another crew and make another attempt with the life-boat. The coxswain told him that it was impossible until daybreak. At daybreak, he suggested, the pulling and sailing lifeboat should be taken overland until she was opposite the wreck and she could then approach it from inshore.

But Storr wanted to make an attempt at once with the motor life-boat. Hequickly assembled a crew. It was a new crew except for the motor mechanic, who had been out on the first service. The mechanic went again, without question, although he had been badly shaken.

The life-boat set off at 2.30 next morning.

As she was turning in the river she hit the fishing boat Easter Morn. Both were damaged, but the life-boat went on. The darkness was still intense.

Nothing under the cliffs could be seen.

There were now not even the lights of the rocket apparatus as a guide. Storr realised that the coxswain was right.

Until daybreak any attempt at rescue was impossible. He put back to harbour to wait. It was now 4.30.

A THIRD ATTEMPT At 7.30, with the same crew, he set out for the third attempt, but before he set out some information had been got from one of the rescued Belgian sailors who could speak a little English.

He said that some of the crew were on a raft. The life-boat made first for the wreck. She could see no sign of life on board. She then searched the coast for the raft. While she was carrying out this search the Scarborough motor life-boat Herbert Joy II arrived at Whitby. Just after midnight the Scarborough station had heard that the Whitby boat had been unable to get to the wreck and that two lifeboatmen had been washed overboard.

The Scarborough life-boat had been launched at quarter to one in the morning, but when she reached the neighbourhood of Saltwick Nab, it was so dark that she decided to wait until day break. Then she  found the steamer. The seas were smashing her up. It was impossible to go alongside her, but the life-boat could see from the lines which had been run across her that the life-saving apparatus had been at work. The life-boat then made for Whitby.

The Whitby motor life-boat had now searched the coast, but had found no raft. It seems probable that the Belgian had been misunderstood, that what he had said was not that men were “ on a raft “, but that they were “ aft “, for it was the after end of the steamer which had been pounded by the seas, and when, later, several bodies were found they were close to the wreck.

The Whitby life-boat got back for the third time at 9.15 in the morning of the 4th, just twelve hours after she had first set out. Shortly afterwards the Scarborough life-boat left for her station and arrived just after mid-day. She too had been out nearly twelve hours.

The story does not end there. The gallantry of that dark night was not confined to the men who manned the life-boat. After she had returned for the first time, two men, John Robert Dryden, home on leave from the Navy (he was no relation of John Dryden, the acting-second-coxswain), and Norman Russell, got a rope ladder from the life-saving apparatus and, shortly before midnight, went down the 200-feet of cliff on Saltwick Nab in search of the two men who had been washed out of the life-boat. The cliff face was covered with ice and snow.

To descend it on a pitch black night was most hazardous. They found the body of Christopher Wale on the shore and helped to bring it up the cliff.

Then they kept watch until five in the morning when they saw another body on the rocks. They went down again and brought up John Dryden. .

So ended this gallant attempt to rescue the crew of the Charles. Two lives had been lost. No lives had been rescued by the life-boat, but the attempt had shown the splendid spirit of the men of Whitby. “ While there are men in Whitby able to stand up,” said John Storr to the district, inspector of life-boats afterwards, “ the life-boat will never be short of a crew.” The attempt recalls memorable services of the past. The position of the wreck recalls the great service to the Rohilla twenty-six years before. The name of John Storr recalls that heroic and tragic day at Whitby, the 8th of February, 1861, when all but one of the life-boat crew - going out for the seventh time in the one day - were drowned, and when - yet another vessel being in distress - another crew at once came forward. It recalls that day, for the first name on the memorialin the parish church to the twelve men who lost their lives is “ John Storr, incoxswain".

JOHN DRYDEN and CHRISTOPHER WALE were the first life-boatmen to lose their lives in the war. The Institution paid their funeral expenses and pensioned their widows, who were their only dependent relatives, as if the men had been sailors, soldiers or airmen killed in action.

THE REWARDS The Institution also made the following awards : To JAMES PHILPOT, the motormechanic, who took part in all three launches, the silver medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum, and £5 ; To the late JOHN R. DRYDEN, acting-second-coxswain, a clasp to his bronze medal, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To each of the other five men who took part in the first launch, the bronze medal for gallantry and a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum, COXSWAIN JAMES MURFIELD, the late CHRISTOPHER WALE, acting bowman, W. DRYDEN, assistant motor-mechanic, MATTHEW WINSPEAR and JOHN WALKER To the coxswain and each of the five members of the crew, except the motor-mechanic, who took part in the first launch, a reward of £3 in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £1 17s. 6d. ; To JOHN R. STORR, acting-coxswain, who took part in the second and third launches, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum, binoculars, and a money. reward on the ordinary scale of £2 16s. 6d. ; l To JOHN R. STORR and each of the six men, not including the motormechanic, who went out with him on the second and third launches, a reward on the ordinary scale of £2 16s. 6d.

Rewards to Whitby on the ordinary scale, £32 16s. ; additional rewards, £23 : total rewards. £55 16s. Rewards to Scarborough, £53 1s. 6d.

In addition the Institution paid for the cost of repairs to the Easter Morn, £15.Total cost to the Institution, inccluding the funeral expenses, but with- out the pensions and the repairs of the motor life-boat, £166 2s. 6d.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Trustees awarded certificates and £15 each to John Robert Dryden and Norman Russell. Dryden, who had saved over twenty people from drowning, holds the medal of the Royal Humane Society.