JANUARY 16TH. - MARGATE, RAMSGATE.

AND WALMER. KENT. At 9.30 P.M. a message was received at Margate from the Margate coastguard that an Italian steamer was sinking close to the North Goodwin Light-vessel. A strong N.E. wind was blowing, with heavy snow storms. The sea was very rough. At 9.50 P.M. the motor life-boat The Lord Southborough (Civil Service No. 1) was launched. and although the lightvessel was showing no light, she succeeded in finding her in the darkness. The master of the light-vessel told the life-boat that nothing had been seen of the steamer and that the Ramsgate coastguard had sent a message to him that no further news of her had been received The life-boat searched all night over a wide area, and went to several ships which were at anchor, but none of them was in distress. At daybreak she again went to the light-vessel, and this time was told that a vessel was aground on the Goodwin Sands. The light-vessel gave her position.

There the life-boat arrived at 8.38 in the morning of the 17th and found the S.S.

Premuda, of Genoa, of 4,000 tons. She was hard aground half a mile S.E. of the North- West Goodwin Buoy and the seas were breaking over her.

The Margate life-boat reached the Premuda to find that the Ramsgate and Walmer boats had arrived shorty before. The reserve motor life-boat .John and Mary Meiklam of Gladswood, on temporary service at Ramsgate, had been out the previous evening to the help of the Brake Light-vessel, with which another Italian steamer had collided, as described in the previous account. On returning to Ramsgate at 9.45 A.M. she learned that, while she was out, the coastguard had reported that the Premuda was in distress near the North Goodwin Buoy, and that the Margate life-boat had gone out to her. A further message from the coastguard came shortly after two in the morning of the 17th that the Premuda was in urgent need of help and that there was no sign of the Margate life-boat, so at 3.35 A.M. the Ramsgate boat left her moorings. The gale had increased and the sea was very rough, breaking so heavily in the harbour entrance that the life-boat was compelled to wait under the shelter of the quay. She was able to get out of the harbour at 6.20. She was the first, to reach the Premuda, and found that the crew were in no hurry to abandon their ship. As she could see the Margate life-boat, near the North Goodwin Light-vessel and the Walmer motor life-boat Charles Dibdin (Civil Service No. 2) approaching, she left the Premuda to them and went on to take off some more survivors of the Brake Light-vessel who had been rescued by H.M.S. Holdfast.

The Walmer station had received at 5.25 in the morning a message that a vessel was ashore near the North Goodwin Buoy, and that the Ramsgate life-boat could not get out to her help. The work of launching the life-boat, which is off skids on the open beach, was greatly hindered by the fact that the beach was frozen and covered with snow, but at 6.30 the life-boat gotaway, and at eight o’clock she reached the Premuda.

The Margate life-boat arrived eight minutes later, and both life-boats went alongside the steamer. Margate rescued eight of her crew and Walmer 24, including the Trinity House pilot. The Walmer lifeboat arrived back at her station at 9.45 in the morning. The Margate life-boat made for Ramsgate, where she arrived at 10.10..

In the heavy seas running it would have been impossible to get the life-boat back into her house at Margate, so her crew left her at Ramsgate until the next day, when they brought her back to her station, arriving at noon. - Rewards : Margate, £34 7s. ; Walmer, £21 18s. 9d. ; Ramsgate, included in the rewards for the service to the Brake Light-vessel..