FEBRUARY 16TH. - NORTH SUNDERLAND, AND HOLY ISLAND, NORTHUMBERLAND.

At 8.10 in the morning the coastguard reported to the North Sunderland life-boat station that a ship was ashore on the Farne Islands. She was the S.S. Coryton, of Cardiff, of nearly 3,000 tons, and she was loaded with grain. She was bound for Hull from New Brunswick, and carried a crew of forty. The North Sunderland life-boat W.R.A. was launched at 8.30.

A light southerly wind was blowing, but the sea was heavy. The life-boat went to the Longstone lighthouse, on the Farne Islands, but did not find the steamer there. Then, at nine o’clock, a message came to the Holy Island life-boat station that a ship was ashore in Budle Bay on the mainland, and at 9.30 the motor life-boat Milburn put out.

She found the Coryton, which came ashore after striking a rock. The Milburn brought her captain ashore so that he could communicate with his owners, and when she took him out to the Coryton again found the North Sunderland life-boat standing by. The two life-boats then laid out an anchor, and as the steamer’s crew did not wish to abandon her, and as the weather was moderate, both life-boats left at 1.30 P.M. and put into Holy Island. Before they left, however, the captain asked them to take any orders which might have come for him from his owners and, in any case, to come out again to the steamer at five in the afternoon. The sea was making and he was afraid that he would have to abandon ship. Both life-boats put out again at 4.45, and reached the Coryton half an hour later. By this time a heavy sea was running, and the life-boats took off her whole crew, 27 being rescued by the Holy Island boat and 12 by the North Sunderland boat. The captain himself would not leave his ship, although the Holy Island coxswain strongly advised him to do so and told him he was in a very dangerous position. As he could not be persuaded the life-boats returned to Holy Island without him, arriving at 6.30 that evening. The next day the body of the Coryton’s captain was found on Ross Sands.

He had evidently been washed overboard in the night. Owing to the heavy weather the North Sunderland life-boat remained at Holy Island for two days and then returned to her own station on February 18th. - Rewards : North Sunderland, £25 8s. 3d. ; Holy Island, £13 1s. 9d.