GOLD MEDAL SERVICE AT ARRANMORE DECEMBER 7TH. - ARRANMORE, CO. DONEGAL. In the early morning a message was received at the lifeboat station on Arranmore Island, off the north-west coast of Ireland, that a vessel, in convoy, had gone on a reef of rocks to the east of Tory Island, 24 miles north of Arranmore Island. For three days the wind had been blowing hard from the north-north-west. It was now at hurricane force, with fierce squalls, accompanied by snow and sleet. The seas were mountainous.

It was just half an hour after midnight when the message came, and the life-boat crew assembled at once, but the gale was so fierce, the night so dark, and the visibility, in the gusts of snow and sleet, so poor, that it was decided to wait for dawn.

With the first light, at 6.30 in the morning, the motor life-boat K.T.J.S. put out. Even then, in the snow squalls, her crew could not see more than fifty yards. The exact position of the wreck was not known, but the coxswain set a course to get to windward of Tory Island. The seas were so heavy that when the life-boat was barely a mile from Arranmore it was impossible to see her from the top of the island, 700 feet above the sea, and the lookout on Bloody Foreland had only fleeting glimpses of her as she passed.

As soon as she was round Bloody Foreland, the coxswain saw the masts of the wreck. She was on a reef to the west of Inishbeg, about three miles to the south of Tory Island. There Stolwijk, of 3,500 tons, with a crew of 28 men. A destroyer had attempted she was exposed to the full fury of the a rescue, but in that gale she could do nothing, and she lost four of her crew, gale and of the seas coming in from including the captain, who died later in hospital. Ten of the Stolwijk's crew the Atlantic. They were breaking had attempted during, the night to get away in one of the ship’s, boats, but heavily over her. the boat had been smashed and the ten men had been drowned. The vessel was the Dutch steamer HAULED THROUGH THE BREAKING SEAS The life-boat reached the steamer at noon, and the coxswain anchored to windward and veered down until he was near enough to fire a line. The ebb tide, which runs through Tory Sound at five miles an hour, was setting to the westward and was swirling fiercely round the reef where the steamer lay. The seas were, so heavy that at times they lifted the life-boat to the height of the steamer’s masts.

The steamer’s crew were huddled together near the stern. The seas were breaking over them, and it was a miracle that they were not all washed away. But when the life-boat fired her line, they were able to seize it, haul the tail-block on board, and make it fast, so that the life-boat’s crew could work the breeches buoy.

The coxswain had to keep the lifeboat at the full length of the veering line which was working the buoy, for nearer than that it was too dangerous to go, and one by one the men of the steamer were hauled in the buoy through the breaking seas. Each man was in them for upwards of five minutes.It was a terrible journey for the port on the mainland, but before he steamer’s crew ; and for the lifeboatmen it was a very hard task - as could reach the smooth water between the rocks one terrific sea crashed over the life-boat plunged and swung on the life-boat’s stern.

her cable in those mountainous seas - to haul the men in. They found that It was then 10.30 at night. The life-boat had been out for sixteen their oilskins hampered them, so they took them off, in spite of the bitter hours. It was twenty-two hours since wind and snow, and soon they were her crew had assembled. They were as soaked as the rescued men themso exhausted that they could not get out of the life-boat themselves. When selves. the survivors had been landed, the crew Five men had been hauled in this way into the life-boat, half drowned, had to be helped out. Even then they could not rest. There was no way of but still alive, when the veering line parted. It had been chafing against mooring the boat. They had to remain the steamer and rubbed right through. in her on watch all night, going ashore in turns for food. By next morning the The line, besides working the breeches buoy, had helped to keep the life-boat sea had gone down a little, and the lifeboat returned to her station about in position. The coxswain had to nine o’clock. heave up anchor ; manoeuvre the life-boat into position again ; anchor THE REWARDS once more : and fire a second line.

With the help of the steamer’s men, still on board her, the breeches buoy was rigged a second time, and the work of rescue went on.

It was a rescue of great daring, gallantry and endurance, carried out in weather of exceptional severity, and the Institution made the following awards ; THE LIFE-BOAT IN GREAT DANGER Ten more men were safely hauled through the seas. Then a second time the veering line, rubbing against a jagged plate on the steamer, was chafed through. This time the lifeboat swung almost under the bow of the wreck. She was in great danger, but her coxswain handled her superbly.

He brought her safely out, and for the third time it had all to be done from the beginning. Again a line was fired.

It was fired with the last cartridge on board the life-boat. Then the last three men on the wreck were hauled into her. The rescue of the eighteen men had taken over four hours.

To COXSWAIN JOHN BOYLE, the gold medal, which is given only for conspicuous gallantry, and a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To TEAGUE WARD, the motormechanic, the silver medal for gallantry, and a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To PHILIP BOYLE, acting secondcoxswain, PHILIP BYRNE, acting bowman, NEIL BYRNE, assistant motormechanic, PATRICK O'DONNELL, JOSEPH RODGERS and BRYAN GALLAGHER, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum; To the coxswain and each member of the crew a reward of £5 in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £3 15s. 6d., making a total reward to each man of £8 15s. 6d. Standard rewards to crew and launchers, £33 18s. 6d. ; additional rewards to crew, £40 ; total rewards, £73 18s. 6d.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands awarded the Dutch gold medal for gallantry in saving life to Coxswain It was now getting on for five in the afternoon. The outward journey had taken six hours. The homeward, journey took nearly as long, and all the time the life-boat was shipping heavy seas. The coxswain thought it too dangerous to go by the main channel, so he went between Calf Island and Arranmore, but when he reached the station he found it Boyle, the silver medal to the motor impossible to land. Waiting for his mechanic, Teague Ward, and the opportunity under the lee of Calf medal to each of the six other Island, he drove the boat as hard as he members of the crew. Each medal could across the channel to Burton- was accompanied by a copy of the decree making the award, in which the Queen said the medal had been rewarded for “ exceptionally outstand- ing courage, unselfishness and devotion to duty.” The owners of the Stolwijk, the Netherlands Shipping and Trading Company, gave £20 to be divided among the crew.