OCTOBER 18TH. - FLEETWOOD, AND BARROW, LANCASHIRE. At 4.15 P.M.

the naval authorities asked the Fleetwood life-boat to go to the help of a vessel aground about one hundred yards W. by N. of Shell Wharf Buoy, and the motor life-boat Ann Letitia Russell was launched at 4.40 P.M.

A strong N.W. wind was blowing and the sea was very rough. The life-boat found that the vessel was the ex-Belgian tanker Laurent Meeus, of Ghent, of 6,429 tons, loaded with oil, bound from the U.S.A. to Heysham.Her master asked the life-boat to stand by, and one of the life-boatmen, who was also a pilot, was put on board her. As the tide rose the Laurent Meeus got off under her own steam and was brought to a safe anchorage off the Wyre Light. The Barrow station had received the call a quarter of an hour after Fleetwood, and the motor life-boat N.T.

was launched at 4.45 P.M. She reached the Laurent Meeus at 6.15 P.M., a few minutes after the Fleetwood boat, and after standing by for a time returned to her station. Both life-boats reached their stations again at 8.45 P.M. - Rewards : Fleetwood, £18 17s. : Barrow, £19 7s..