FEBRUARY 20TH. - TYNEMOUTH, AND CULLERCOATS, NORTHUMBERLAND.

At 8.13 in the morning the honorary secretary at Tynemouth had a telephone call from the Port War Signal Station that one of H.M. trawlers had struck a mine about half a mile east of the north pier and needed immediate help. She was the Marjory Hastie.

A strong wind was blowing, the sea was rough and it was snowing heavily. The honorary secretary replied to the message that he would launch immediately, but when he tried to telephone to the coxswain he found it was impossible. The storm had brought down the telephone wires. He was also told that the roads between Tynemouth and Cullercoats were impassable, blocked by ice and heavy snow. He passed on this information to the Port War Signal Station and said he would try to collect a crew from North Shields. There he got together a scratch crew. The bowman took command of the motor life-boat John Pyemont, and the honorary secretary, Mr. E. Selby Davidson, went with the boat. She was launched at 9.5, went to the position given and searched in the blinding snow. She found nothing and went down the coast. There she found the trawler ashore and her crew already rescued by the coastguard life-saving apparatus.

She returned to her station at 11 A.M., and was moored, as it was impossible to get her back into the boathouse.

Meanwhile at 8.30 in the morning two army officers from the Tynemouth garrison had arrived at the Cullercoats life-boat station with the same information which had been telephoned to Tynemouth a quarter of an hour before, that a trawler had been mined half a mile east of Tynemouth piers. It had already been arranged with the Cullercoats station and the Tynemouth coastguard that, as the telephone service had been put out of action by the heavy snow fall, signals to launch would be sent by a motor despatch rider. The crew were assembled at once, and at 8.45 the life-boat Westmorland was launched. The two army officers who brought the message set a fine example.

They took part in the launch, which was very difficult, going out up to the waist in the breaking seas, and one of them was knocked over. Like the Tynemouth lifeboat, the Cullercoats boat went to the position given, found nothing, searched down the coast, and found the trawler ashore at Marsden. She was in a position where it was impossible for the life-boat to get alongside.

The life-boat made for the Tyne, as it was impossible to return to Cullercoats, arriving at 11.15 A.M. - Rewards : Tynemouth, £12 3s. ; Cullercoats, £18 11s. 6d.