SILVER AND BRONZE MEDAL SERVICES AT CROMER AND GREAT YARMOUTH AND GORLESTON OCTOBER 26TH - 27TH. - CROMER, AND GREAT YARMOUTH AND GORLESTON, NORFOLK. About eight in the morning a message came from the Cromer coastguard that the Yarmouth naval base had asked for the life-boat to go to a vessel ashore on Hammond Knoll about 22 miles east of Cromer, and the Cromer No. 1 life-boat H. F. Bailey was launched at 8.15. A full gale was blowing from the north-north-east, with heavy squalls of rain, hail and sleet. The sea was very rough, the weather very cold.

The life-boat reached Hammond Knoll at 11.35, and found that the vessel was the S.S. English Trader, ofLondon, with 44 men on board. Five others had been swept overboard and drowned before the life-boat arrived.

The steamer was lying on the sands with her hull nearly under water, and the seas, the coxswain said afterwards, presented him with the most appalling problem that he had ever had to face.

They were not true-running seas. One would run along the weather side from forward, and another from aft, and when they met they would go up nearly mast high and then crash down on the steamer. At times the only parts of her visible were the tops of her masts, the lee side of the chart room, where the crew were huddled, and the funnel.

On the lee side the sea was nothing like as bad as on the weather side, but it was still very heavy, very confused and running in all directions.

The fore derricks had broken loose and were swinging about with every sea, the hatch covers were off, and the sea was covered with cargo washed out of the hold. It was clear that it would be impossible to go alongside at present, and the life-boat went as close as possible and signalled that she would make her attempt at slack water which would be about four in the afternoon. However, about 1.15 the coxswain thought that there was a chance. He succeeded in getting fairly close to the lee side of the steamer, but very heavy seas, coming round both her bow and stern, piling up, and bursting amidships, made it impossible to go alongside.

The life-boat fired a line, but it had to be aimed at a high angle, if it was to reach the crew on the bridge, and it was blown back.

FIVE LIFE-BOATMEN OVERBOARD The life-boat pulled out again, and about 2.15 made a second attempt. She was forced to approach broadside to the sea, and what happened next is best described in the coxswain’s own words : “ We were trying to approach about half speed, and when still about 100 yards away a huge wall of water suddenly rose up on our port side, a shout of ‘ look out ‘, and before I could even give a half turn of the wheel I was lifted out of the boat just as though I had been a bit of cork. We were simply overwhelmed by the sheer weight of water. How the boat righted herself I shall never understand.

It must indeed have been the hand of Providence. The boat must have been hit hardest abaft the fore cockpit. Had she been hit as hard along her whole length there would be no life-boat crew in Cromer today.” The captain of the English Trader said afterwards that he saw her keel come right out of the water.

The second coxswain and three other members of the crew were thrown clean overboard with the coxswain, two others were thrown out of the boat,, but managed to grab the guard rails and haul themselves aboard again, and the rest were flung here and there, knocked about and winded.

As the boat righted herself the second-coxswain’s son sprang to the wheel, brought the boat under control again, and steered to where his father and the coxswain were floating.

They were hauled on board, and the coxswain at once took command again.

The life-boat then went to pick up the other three men, but the crew had great difficulty in getting them on board. They were so waterlogged that it took five minutes to haul in each man. The signalman of the boat,, W. E. Allen, the last to be rescued, had then been 25 minutes in the water.

He was unconscious. The crew succeeded in reviving him. He sat up, spoke a few words, then suddenly collapsed and died.

It was now about three in the afternoon, nearly seven hours since the life-boat had left Cromer, and her crew were all pretty well exhausted.

Various small ropes had been washed overboard. These had got round the propellers, reducing the boat’s speed and making it more difficult to manoeuvre her. The coxswain decided to make at once for Great Yarmouth.

On her way she tried to speak to the Yarmouth naval base by radio telephone to ask that a doctor and an ambulance might be waiting for her when she came in. She could not get through to the base, but her message was picked up by the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston life-boat and she relayed it to Yarmouth.When she got this message the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston life-boat Louise Stephens was already at sea on the way to help the English Trader.

About 11.40 in the morning she had had a request from the coastguard to go out to Hammond Knoll to reinforce the Cromer life-boat, and had been launched at noon. She had a very difficult journey, 19, miles in the face of a strong northerly gale, with a rough sea and a flood tide. The journey took her 3 1/2 hours, and she reached Hammond Knoll about 3.30, just half an hour after the Cromer life-boat had left it on her way to Great Yarmouth. The two life-boats had passed without seeing one another.

While the water was slack, between 4 and 6 o’clock, the Louise Stephens made five separate attempts to go alongside the English Trader and get under her lee. She was very heavily buffeted, and shipped a great deal of water. She was faced too with the same difficulties as the Cromer life-boat, the loose, swinging derricks and the floating cargo, but at one of the five attempts she succeeded in firing a line over the wreck, got a mooring rope secured between them, and was able to haul alongside, but the rope parted, and the life-boat was swept away. The seas were increasing, and darkness was now setting in. The captain of the English Trader himself blew a whistle and waved to the life-boat to go away. It was now 6.15 and the coxswain decided to return to Gorleston for the night.

Meanwhile the Cromer life-boat had arrived at Yarmouth at six in the evening. There a doctor and an ambulance were waiting, and the body of the signalman was put ashore.

Some of the crew were so exhausted that they had to be helped out of the boat, but they immediately refuelled her and made ready for a further attempt at rescue early next morning.

The crew were then taken to the Shipwrecked Sailors’ Home where they were given hot baths, hot drinks and food and dry clothes. At the same time a telephone call was put through to Cromer for more dry clothing and oilskins, and for another man to take the place of the signalman. They came at once by car.

The Gorleston life-boat was now on her way home. The bad weather and the absence of lights made it a difficult journey, but the coxswain stood inshore, picked up the land, followed the coast down, and reached Gorleston about 10.30 at night. The crew were so wet and cold, the night so dark, that the coxswain decided not to refuel the life-boat until morning. He told the crew to assemble again at 5.30.

Late that night, when the Cromer coxswain heard that the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston life-boat had returned, he telephoned her coxswain to discuss their arrangements for the next morning. He said that he intended to go to sea again at four o’clock. The Gorleston coxswain said that he would wait until day.

CROMER’S THIRD ATTEMPT Next morning, between 3.30 and 4 o’clock, the Cromer coxswain was up and got weather reports both from the Yarmouth naval base and the Cromer coastguard. Both told the same. Wind and sea had gone down a very little, but the weather was much what it had been the day before. At 4.15 he called at the naval base and asked that the boom defence might be opened. At 4.40 the life-boat put to sea. She had still three hours of darkness before her. The ropes were still round her propeller. She had 22 miles to go against the gale. It took her three hours and twenty minutes. She reached the sands about eight in the morning.

By that time the wind had backed to the north-west, and wind and sea had both gone down. The fore part of the English Trader was now under water, but the life-boat was able, without difficulty, to go alongside the steamer’s lee rail, which was only about two feet above her, and within half an hour the 44 survivors of the crew had been taken on board the life-boat and she was making again for Yarmouth. She arrived there and landed the men about 11.30 in the forenoon. Although both wind and sea had gone down, there was still too much sea for it to be possible to haul the Cromer life-boat on to her slipway, and her crew left her at Gorleston and returned to Cromer by car.Meanwhile the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston life-boat had put out at 6.30 in the morning and reached Hammond Knoll at 8.30, to find that the Cromer life-boat had rescued the crew and was now returning. The Great Yarmouth and Gorleston life-boat arrived at her station again at 11.30.

THE REWARDS Both the Cromer and Great Yarmouth and Gorleston life-boats made very gallant attempts on the first day in circumstances of great difficulty and danger, and the Cromer crew showed an indomitable spirit in preparing for sea again immediately they arrived at Yarmouth on the evening of that day, in spite of the terrible and exhausting experience through which they had passed, and in setting out again on the second attempt in the early hours of the following morning.

The Institution made the following awards : To CROMER To COXSWAIN HENRY G. BLOGG, a third clasp to the silver medal for gallantry which he already held ; To each of the following members of the crew, already holders of the bronze medal for gallantry, with one or more clasps, another clasp : To JOHN J. DAVIES, SENIOR, secondcoxswain, and HENRY W. DAVIES, motor-mechanic, third clasps ; To JAMES W. DAVIES, assistant motor-mechanic, and the late EDWARD W. ALLEN, boat signalman, second clasps ; To WILLIAM T. DAVIES, bowman, and JOHN J. DAVIES JNR. and SIDNEY C. HARRISON, life-boatmen, clasps ; To each of the following members of the crew, HENRY T. DAVIES, boat signalman, WILLIAM H. DAVIES, ROBERT C. DAVIES and JAMES R.

DAVIES, the bronze medal for gallantry ; To the coxswain and each of the above eleven members of the crew a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum, except to the late Edward W. Allen, whose widow was awarded, in place of it, a relative’s certificate recording the gallantry of his death ; To the coxswain and each of the ten members of the crew who took part in both services, a reward of £5, in addition to the ordinary rewards on the standard scale of £1 8s. 6d., for the first service and £2 16s. 6d. for the second service, making a total monetary reward to each man of £9 5s. ; To the late EDWARD W. ALLEN, a reward of £5 in addition to the ordinary award on the standard scale of £1 8s. 6d. for the first launch, making a total monetary reward of £6 8s. 6d. ; To GEORGE R. COX, life-boatman, who took the place of Edward W.

Allen on the second service, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum and a reward of £2 in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £2 16s. 6d., making a total reward of £4 16s. 6d.

Total rewards on the ordinary scale to crew and helpers for both services, £52 16s. ; additional rewards to crew, £62 ; other expenses, £26 19s. ; total rewards and expenses, £141 15s.

A pension was granted to the widow of Edward W. Allen on the same scale as if he had been a sailor of the Royal Navy killed in action, and the funeral expenses were paid by the Institution.

Letters of thanks were sent to Miss Pertwee, matron and secretary of the Shipwrecked Sailors’ Home, Great Yarmouth, and to Police Constable R. C. Crighton, through the Chief Constable, Great Yarmouth, for his help to the crew when they came ashore exhausted.

To GREAT YARMOUTH AND GORLESTON To COXSWAIN CHARLES A. JOHNSON, a third clasp to the bronze medal for gallantry, which he already held ; To each of the other six members of the crew, JOHN R. WRIGHT, secondcoxswain, THOMAS C. MORLEY, bowman, GEORGE F. MOBBS, motormechanic, ARTHUR G. BUSH, assistant motor-mechanic, WILLIAM PARKER, signalman, and LEWIS D. SYMONDS, life-boatman, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum ; To the coxswain and each of the six members of the crew a reward of £3 in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale, of £2 16s. 6d. for the first service and £1 8s. 6d. for the second service, making a total reward to each man of £7 5s. ; Total rewards on the ordinary scale for both services to crew and helpers, £25 8s. 6d. ; additional rewards to crew, £21 ; total rewards, £46 8s. 6d.

Total monetary rewards to both stations, £188 3s. 6d.

Many messages of congratulations were received, including messages from the flag officer at Great Yarmouth, the inspector of coastguard, and the owners of the English Trader, the Trader Navigation Co., Ltd. The owners also made a donation to the Institution.