AUGUST 23RD. - WICK, CAITHNESSSHIRE.

At 10.10 P .M. a message was received from the coastguard that gun-fire and an explosion, followed by tracer bullets, had been observed 9 miles S.E. of Wick.

A further message was received that a vessel was on fire about ten miles away in the same direction A moderate N.N.W. wind was blowing, and the sea was choppy, with a cross swell, At 10.50 P.M. the motor life-boat City of Edinburgh was launched. Two vessels could be seen to be on fire. The life-boat found the nearer vessel to be the S.S. Beacon Grange, of London. She was on fire aft, and the life-boat accompanied her, while she steamed towards the land, until the fire was under control. The captain of the Beacon Grange then told the coxswain that two boats had been lowered from another vessel about twelve miles to the S.E. The life-boat put back on a southerly course so as to intercept these boats, but although she searched until well after daylight, and passed through a lot of wreckage, she found no trace of the boats.

It was thought probable that they had been picked up by other vessels. The life-boat returned to her station at 9 A.M. on the 24th August. - Rewards, £13 11s. 6d..