APRIL 2ND. - EYEMOUTH AND ST.

ABBS, BERWICKSHIRE. At 2.20 in the afternoon a message was received at Eyemouth that a patrol vessel had been attacked and sunk by enemy aeroplanes about three miles out, and at 2.35 the motor life-boat Frank and William Oates was launched. The fishing boat Good Hope also put out to help in the search for survivors. A strong E.S.E.

wind was blowing, and the sea was heavy and confused. At St. Abbs the attack had been seen by a number of fishermen, including the coxswain of the life-boat, and the St. Abbs motor life-boat Annie Ronald and Isabella Forrest was launched at 2.40 The patrol vessel was the Cramond Island.

She had a crew of fifteen men. The aeroplanes had made a direct hit on her, killing one of her crew, and another was drowned.

The other thirteen men got away, eleven of them in the ship’s boat and two on a raft.

The ship’s boat was making for the shore, but though she could now be seen from Eyemouth she was invisible to the Eyemouth life-boat.

The St. Abbs life-boat, however, found her at 3.10 in the afternoon. She was waterlogged.

The life-boat took on board the eleven men, two of whom were badly burned, and as one of them was clambering into the life-boat, he unfastened and pulled overboard the breeches buoy on the port side. Unfortunately this was not noticed by any of the crew, and when the life-boat was on her way to pick up the two men on the raft the line fouled the propeller and her engine stopped. She got out her oars, and then made sail and hoisted a red flag. Her signal was seen from St. Abbs by the honorary secretary, who telephoned to Eyemouth asking that a fishing boat should be sent to her help, and the S p e s B o n a put out and towed her into Eyemouth. There the rescued men were landed and the life-boat’s propeller was cleared.

The Spes Bona put out again at once to search for the two men on the raft. Another boat, the Milky Way, had put out shortly before, and the two boats searched Coldingham Bay. A government trawler was also searching. In the end the Milky Way found the raft, rescued the two men and brought them to Eyemouth.The Eyemouth life-boat returned to her station at 6.30. The St. Abbs life-boat had already left Eyemouth and she too arrived back at her station at 5.30. - Rewards : Eyemouth, £10 10s. 6d. ; St. Abbs, £7 6s. 6d.

The crews of the three fishing boats did not wish to be rewarded.

(See Eyemouth, ” Services by Shore-boats,” page 95)..