OCTOBER 30TH. - PETERHEAD, AND FRASERBURGH, ABERDEENSHIRE.

At 6.30 in the morning a message was received at Peterhead from the coastguard that a vessel was ashore on the rocks a mile east of Rattray Head, which is about ten miles north of the station. A southerly gale was blowing, with a very heavy sea. At 6.55 the motor life-boat Julia Park Barry of Glasgow was launched and at eight o’clock, as the day was breaking, she reached Rattray Head and found the steamer Lisburn, of Liverpool.

Heavy seas were breaking right across the Lisburn, and her deck cargo had already been washed overboard. With a southerly gale blowing, and a flood tide, it was not easy for the life-boat to get near, but the coxswain brought her down from the north and, after some manoeuvring, succeeded in passing a line to the steamer., got alongside and took off the crew of thirty men. The life-boat drew clear and then saw another steamer, the Simonburn, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, ashore half a mile to the north-west. When the life-boat reached her, her captain asked that part of his crew should be taken off, as the steamer was making water, and that, when she had landed them, the lifeboat should return and stand by. She took off 23 of the 30 men of the steamer’s crew. She had now 53 men on board, and as it was impossible with that number, and with the very heavy sea running, to return to Peterhead against the gale, she made for Fraserburgh, some ten miles to the north-west of the scene of the wrecks. She had only gone a mile when she saw another stranded steamer, the Baronminto, of Ardrossan. She told her that when she had landed the rescued men she would return to her help. Then, another mile further on to the north-west, she passedanother vessel ashore, with the Fraserburgh life-boat standing by her.

PETERHEAD’S SECOND AND THIRD JOURNEYS The life-boat reached Fraserburgh at ten in the morning, landed the 53 men, and at eleven o’clock left Fraserburgh again to go to the help, as promised. of the Baronminto.

When she arrived back on the scene she saw that the remaining sixteen men of the Simonburn had abandoned their vessel as they thought it was filling with water, and were in the ship’s boat. The life-boat picked them up, returned to the Baronminto, and took off the remaining 24 men of her crew (the other 31 had already been rescued by the Fraserburgh life-boat). While she was rescuing them one of her own crew fell into the sea, with one of the Baronminto’s men, between the life-boat and the steamer, but both were got aboard the life-boat uninjured.

Then the life-boat made once more for Fraserburgh and at 2.15 in the afternoon landed the forty rescued men.

She had now rescued 93 men during the day, but her work was not yet finished. The Fraserburgh life-boat had not yet returned, and half an hour after the Peterhead lifeboat had landed the men, the senior naval officer asked the coxswain if he would go north-west from Kinnairds Head to the S.S. Patia, of Liverpool, to take off the Commodore and staff, and bring them back to Fraserburgh. The life-boat found the Patia three miles away and returned with the Commodore and staff to Fraserburgh at four in the afternoon. She had now been out for 9 1/2 hours. As she could not get back the twenty miles to Peterhead before nightfall, and as the information from there was that the entrance to the bay was dangerous, it was decided to moor the life-boat at Fraserburgh for the night, and the crew returned to Peterhead by car. The following morning they went back to Fraserburgh to bring home the life-boat and, at the request of the senior naval officer at Fraserburgh, took with them in the life-boat an officer to survey the stranded steamers. The life-boat left Fraserburgh at eleven in the morning and reached Peterhead at 12.35 P.M. on October 31st.

FRASERBURGH’S TWO JOURNEYS The Fraserburgh motor life-boat, John and Charles Kennedy, had also had a very busy day on October 30th. At 6.47 in the morning news had been received from the coastguard that a vessel was showing a red flare from 4 to 5 miles north-west of Rattray Head. At 7.25 the life-boat put out. She reached Rattray Head at ten past eight and found four or five vessels ashore, with a patrol vessel standing by. She made first for the S.S. Clumber Hall, of West Hartlepool, but her captain advised the life-boat to go first to the S.S. Alcora, of Glasgow, which he thought was in immediate danger. The captain of the Alcora asked the life-boat to stand by, which she did for two hours, mooredto the stern of the steamer by a rope. Then the S.S. Baronminto, of Ardrossan, to which the Peterhead life-boat had promised to return when she came back from Fraserburgh, sent out an S.O.S. call. She was ashore a mile to the south of the Alcora, and the Fraserburgh life-boat went at once to her help, took off 31 of her crew of 55, and made for Fraserburgh where she arrived at ten minutes to twelve. Half an hour later she put out again, and again went to the Alcora to ask her captain if he wished to abandon ship, but he said he still intended to remain aboard her. It was now one in the afternoon, the tide was ebbing, the sea was rising. The patrol vessel had left, and the life-boat stood by. Meanwhile, as already described, the Peterhead life-boat had returned from Fraserburgh, rescued the remaining sixteen men of the Simonburn and the remaining 24 of the Baronminto and had put back to Fraserburgh again. The Fraserburgh life-boat continued to stand by, and at three in the afternoon she again signalled the Alcora saying that her position was getting more dangerous and that the life-boat would come and take off her crew if the captain wished. He replied that he was waiting for a tug, and he asked the life-boat still to stand by him. Half an hour later the coastguard life-saving apparatus from Rattray Head was able, with the falling tide, to get a line to the Alcora and the whole of her crew were rescued from the shore by breeches buoy. The wind and sea had considerably increased, and the life-boat continued to stand by. When the rescue was finished she made again for Fraserburgh and arrived there at 4.20 in the afternoon. She had then been out for nine hours and had rescued 31 lives. - Rewards : Peterhead, £23 19s. 6d. ; Fraserburgh, £20 10s. 1d..