BRONZE MEDAL SERVICE AT NEWCASTLE JANUARY 28TH, 30TH and 31ST.- NEWCASTLE, CO. DOWN. At 12.30 in the afternoon of the 28th, the motor life-boat L. P. and St. Helen was launched to the help of the motor vessel Sandhill, of Newcastle- on-Tyne, which had been badly damaged the day before, off the English coast, by a mine. It had exploded near her stern and had put everything out of action. None of the machinery was working ; the main engine had been lifted from its bed ; and the oil fuel had over-run the engine-room. A south-easterly gale was blowing, with a very rough sea, and it had carried the disabled ship across the Irish Sea.

The seas were breaking right into the harbour, and it was a hard business for the life-boat to get out, but she succeeded, and found the Sandhill at anchor four miles south of Newcastle and a mile and a half off the land. She was in a very dangerous position, on a lee shore, but her anchors were holding. The life-boat stood by her for an hour, and then returned to her station after arranging with the captain to put out again at once if he sent up a flare. She got back to her station at 3.30 in the afternoon.

Next day in the evening it was arranged by signal that, if the gale did not moderate, the life-boat should go out again on the following day, the 30th. So far from moderating the gale increased, and at 9.30 in the morning the life-boat put out. She found the Sandhill still with her anchors down, but they were dragging and she was now within a mile of the rocks.

It was both difficult and dangerous to go alongside her in the very heavy seas, for she was sheering wildly and rolling heavily. Added to this, she had an eighteen-inch belting round her, which would smash the life-boat unless she were very carefully handled.

In spite of these difficulties, the coxswain brought the life-boat alongside and took off the captain and three of the crew. She returned to harbour with them, and then put out again at once, as a message had been received that nine soldiers were adrift in a collapsible boat in Dundrum Bay. She searched for them for two hours, but could find nothing and returned to harbour. It was now 2.45 in the afternoon and the gale had been increasing all day. The life-boat at once put out again to go to the help of the ten men still aboard the Sandhill, which had now drifted still closer to the rocks. Again the life-boat went alongside the sheering, rolling ship.

Her fenders were almost cut to pieces by the ship’s belting, and the life-boat herself was damaged, but she succeeded in rescuing the ten men. For over a mile on her way home she was plunging through very heavy breakers, and had to use her drogue all the way. She arrived at her station at six in the evening.

The next day the gale was moderating, and though the Sandhill had dragged her anchors nearer to the rocks she was still afloat. A tug had arrived, and the Sandhill’s crew decided to return to her. The lifeboat took them out again, put them aboard, and then helped the tug to get the ship in tow. When she returned, she had been out for over fifteen hours during the three days of that gale.

It was a difficult service carried out very skilfully in severe weather, and the Institution made the following awards : To COXSWAIN PATRICK MURPHY, a clasp to the bronze medal for gallantry, which he had won eleven days before, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To ROBERT AGNEW, the motormechanic, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To each of the other five members of the crew, WILLIAM MURPHY, secondcoxswain, WILLIAM J. LENAGHAN, bowman, THOMAS MCCLELLAND, assistant motor-mechanic, PATRICK MCCLELLAND and PATRICK ROONEY, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum ; To the coxswain and each member of the crew a special reward of £1 in addition to the rewards on the ordinary scale of 19s. for the launch on the 28th, £1 8s. 6d. for the launch on the 30th, when the crew werelanded, and 19s. for the launch on the 31st when the crew were put back on the Sandhill, making a total reward to each man of £4 6s. 6d.

Standard rewards to crew and launchers : for the first launch, £23 6s. 6d. ; for the second, £32 12s. 8d. ; for the third launch, £21 9s. 9d. ; additional rewards to crew, £7 ; total rewards, £84 8s. 11d..