MARCH MEETING NORTH SUNDERLAND, NORTHUMBERLAND.

Shortly before eight in the morning of the 23rd January, 1940, three motor fishing boats, each with three men on board, saw the British steamer Baltanglia and the Norwegian steamer Pluto strike mines and sink.

The sea was smooth, but the tide was running very strongly and the weather was very cold. The crews of the two steamers took to their boats and the three fishing boats went at once to their help, running a great risk of being damaged by the floating wreckage. They brought them ashore with 49 men on board. It is doubtful if the ships’ boats would have got ashore without help.

One of the fishing boats had shot her lines before she went to the rescue and had secured a catch of fish, but the two other boats lost a day’s fishing. - Rewards, £9, with £12 for loss of fishing, and 15s. for fuel used.

(See North Sunderland, “Accounts of Services by Life-boats,” page 34.) coast of the Island of Lewis. A northeasterly gale was blowing, with a rough sea.

The naval officer in charge was consulted, and it was decided to send out the Admiralty trawler Barbara Robb. which was faster than STORNOWAY, AND BERNERA, ISLE OF LEWIS. About 3 in the afternoon of the 24th January, 1940, information was received at Stornoway that a ship’s boat was drifting S.W. of the Flannan Islands, off the west the life-boat. Many of the trawler’s crew were on leave, and the life-boat coxswain and three life-boatmen went to make up the crew. Leaving at 4.20 the trawler made a wide search, and did not return until 8 the following evening. She had covered approximately 150 miles in the 28 hours that she was at sea, but she had not found the drifting boat.

On the night of the 24th January a light was seen out at sea from Crothar, Bernera Island, in Loch Roag. A naval reservist on leave and two other men put out in a rowing boat at 10 o’clock, but failed to find anything and returned. Later a light was seen on the opposite shore, two miles away, and the same men put off again. This time they found eleven survivors of the S.S.

Gothia, which had been torpedoed; the men had got away in the ship’s boat, but they were completely exhausted, and only two had been able to leave the boat in order to light a fire on shore to attract attention.

With great difficulty the three rescuers brought the survivors to their village, where the villagers cared for them until they could be handed over to the hospital at Stornoway and the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society. The rescuers had been out for about five hours, and they had run great risk in the gale and darkness.

Three other men also put out in a motor boat from Bernera. She had been hauled up for the winter, but they succeeded in launching and got away at 1 in the morning.

They searched but found nothing, and arrived back at four in the afternoon, having been out for fifteen hours. - Rewards, £34, and £2 10s. for fuel used.ST. DAVID’S, PEMBROKESHIRE. At about 12.10 in the afternoon of the 26th February, 1940, the coastguard reported a small boat approaching. A light southerly wind was blowing, with a slight sea. The life-boat coxswain had seen the boat at the south entrance of Ramsey Sound about half an hour earlier, and had immediately put off in his motor boat with the life-boat mechanic and another man. They found four exhausted men in the boat, the crew of the Dutch motor vessel Ida, which they had abandoned when she was wrecked on some submerged object. The rescuers towed the boat ashore. - Rewards, £1 10s.

REDCAR, YORKSHIRE. On the 2nd and 3rd March, 1940, two motor fishing boats helped the life-boat when H.M. tug Fairplay II stranded. - Rewards, £12 17s. 6d.

(See Redcar, “ Accounts of Services by Life-boats,” page 54.).