OCTOBER 11TH. - SKEGNESS, LINCOLNSHIRE.

At 9.55 in the morning a message came from the coastguard that a rubber dinghy, with two men on board, was in the sea eleven miles E.S.E. of Skegness. A strong northerly wind was blowing, with a rough sea, and squalls of rain. The coastguard said that a naval patrol boat had been sent out and, for that reason, the life-boat was not launched. Ten minutes later another call came from the coastguard asking that the life-boat should go at once. The patrol boat had not sufficiently powerful engines to face the tide and strong wind. At 10.40 the motor life-boat Anne Allen was launched.

Aeroplanes guided her towards the dinghy, and she found it, 11 miles away, at 11.35.

There were five men on board. They were the crew of a Whitley bomber which had come down in the sea on her way back from Germany. The life-boat brought back the dinghy as well as the men and reached her station again at 12.40 P.M. The rescued men thanked their rescuers, who also received a telegram of congratulation from the Royal Air Force, and letters of thanks were received by the Institution from the officer commanding No. 58 Squadron, the Air Counciland the Director-General of aircraft safety.

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