APRIL 27TH. - SOUTHEND - ON - SEA, ESSEX.

At 11.45 in the morning the coastguard at Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey, reported that a barge was drifting towards the targets of the Royal Air Force off Leysdown, and at 11.55 the motor life-boat J. B. Proudfoot, on temporary duty at the station, was launched. A strong wind from the E.N.E.

was blowing, rising to the force of a gale at times, and a big sea was running. The lifeboat started out with her motors, but she had to go through channels which had not been swept of mines, and there she cut off her engines, for fear of acoustic mines, and went on under sail. The barge was the Emma, of Rochester, in ballast, with only one man on board, and the life-boat reached her when she was already within 200 yards of the targets. Her sprit was broken and her sails were in ribands. The coxswain put some members of his own crew on board the Emma, took her in tow, got her out into the swept channels and then brought her to asafe anchorage at Southend at 4.30 in the afternoon. - Property salvage case..