SILVER MEDAL SERVICE AT BALLYCOTTON DECEMBER 23RD. - BALLY-COTTON, CO. CORK. At nine in the morning a message was received at the station that a vessel was in distress about five miles south of Power Head. She could be seen from Ballycotton, but she was showing no signals of distress. A gale was blowing from the south-south-west, with heavy squalls of rain and a rough sea. The gale grew steadily more violent ; the vessel was drifting fast ; and at 12.45 the motor life-boat Mary Stanford put out. The vessel was then about 4 1/2 miles south of Ballycotton Lighthouse and was drifting towards the north-north-east. The life-boat reached her about 1.30 in the afternoon and found her to be the steamer Irish Ash, of Dublin, with a crew of 35 men.

Her captain said that the circulating pumps and the ballast pumps had broken down and that he would like the life-boat to stand by him.

This she did, and about three in the afternoon the coxswain advised the steamer’s captain to anchor. The steamer was then about a mile south of Cape1 Island and was drifting fast towards it. She let both anchors go, and they held. The captain had heard by wireless that a steamer was coming out to his help, but when she arrivedthe captain said that he would wait for a more suitable ship to tow him off and that he thought that he might soon get his pumps working. In that case he would try to go back to Queenstown under his own steam. The life-boat then went to Knockadoon with a message from the captain asking for engineers to be sent to him from Queenstown, but in the heavy seas she could not go alongside the pier and returned to the Irish Ash again.

She continued to stand by until after nine that night. By that time the repairs had been made and, with the life-boat escorting her, the Irish Ash started to steam slowly towards Queenstown, but she had not gone far when her engines broke down again.

She was then four miles south of Ballycotton Island.

The wind was still increasing, and a very heavy and confused sea was running, made much worse by the ebb tide. The steamer’s head fell off, and, rolling heavily and broadside on to the seas, she began to drift towards the island at an alarming speed. Had she struck she would have gone to pieces on the rocks in a few minutes, and there would have been very little hope of rescuing her crew. It was then 10.30 at night. If she and her crew were to be saved the life-boat must tow her head round so that she would drift clear of the island. The coxswain took the life-boat close under her bows and shouted for a rope. At the same time his men threw a line aboard the steamer. To this the steamer’s crew attached a wire. The life-boat hauled it aboard, made it fast, and started to tow. A very heavy sea struck her and the wire broke.

A second wire was made fast, but twice it broke. Then a rope was made fast. With this the life-boat succeeded in towing the steamer’s head round, and she drifted past the island with less than half a mile to spare. She was now in shallower water, the seas were less violent, and the coxswain advised her to anchor again. This she did. After standing by her for another half an hour, to be satisfied that the anchor would hold, the life-boat returned to Ballycotton to refuel and to deliver the message which she had failed to deliver at Knockadoon. She reached Ballycotton at 1.45 in the morning of the 24th. Since nine the previous morning her crew had had no food or drink, except for half a bucket of tea which the Irish Ash had lowered to them. The petrol tanks were refilled, the crew had a meal, and the life-boat put out again to the Irish Ash at 2.30.

She found that she had dragged another half a mile towards the shore in the strong flood tide and was getting near the Ballycrenane Rocks, but her captain still hoped to start his engines again and shortly after six in the morning they were working. The anchor was weighed, and the life-boat led the steamer to a safe anchorage half a mile north-north-west of Ballycotton light.

The life-boat again went ashore to see if the engineers had come from Queenstown, and as they had not the Irish Ash’s captain decided to go there under his own steam. The wind had shifted to the north-west and there was a little shelter. The life-boat went with her and they arrived at Queenstown about 2.30 in the afternoon. The lifeboat left again at 4.30 and was back at her station at 6.30 that evening.

It was then thirty hours since she had put out. Her crew were soaked to the skin and exhausted. The coxswain’s wrists were swollen to twice their normal size and his voice had gone.

The two motor mechanics were completely worn out, for it had not been possible for the life-boat to anchor at any time and they had been on their knees at the controls during the whole time.

It was a very long and hard service, and the life-boat had been handled very skilfully and courageously. The Institution made the following awards : To COXSWAIN PATRICK SLINEY, the Institution’s silver medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To MICHAEL L. WALSH, the secondcoxswain, and THOMAS SLINEY, the motor-mechanic, the bronze medal for gallantry, and to WILLIAM SLINEY, the assistant motor-mechanic, a clasp to his bronze medal, in each case with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum;To each of the other four members of the crew, THOMAS F. WALSH, bowman, and BERTIE LYNCH, JAMES MCLEOD and MICHAEL C. WALSH, lifeboatmen, the Institution’s thanks inscribed on vellum ; To the coxswain and each of the seven members of the crew a reward of £3 in addition to the reward on the standard scale of £5 13s., making a total reward to each man of £8 13s. ; Standard rewards to crew and launchers, £42 7s. ; additional rewards to crew, £24 ; total rewards, £66 7s.

The owners, Irish Shipping Ltd., gave £100 to the crew of the life-boat.