BRONZE MEDAL SERVICE AT PETERHEAD DECEMBER 15TH. - PETERHEAD, ABERDEENSHIRE. At 3.50 in the morning the coastguard reported to the motor-mechanic of the life-boat signals of distress from a vessel in the direction of Buchan Ness. The motormechanic went at once to the lifeboathouse.

He could see the vessel in distress, with the coastal searchlights on her. She appeared to be a trawler.The coxswain of the life-boat was ill, and Captain James Winter, the harbour master, took command, but the coxswain left his sick bed, helped to call the crew together and to launch the life-boat, and remained at the station until the life-boat returned.

The motor life-boat Julia Park Barry of Glasgow was launched at 4.20.

There was a strong wind from the southsouth- east, with a heavy sea. The night was very dark, with rain. The lifeboat reached the trawler at 4.35 and found that she was the Loch Wasdale, of Aberdeen. She was lying on the Skerry Rocks, off Buchan Ness. Her stern was right under water and heavy seas were breaking over her. Her crew were clinging to the forward rigging and the deck. In the heavy seas and the darkness it was very difficult for Captain Winter to see exactly how the trawler was lying, and the best method to come alongside her. He tried first to go under her lee, but he could not come near because of the rocks, so he took the life-boat round to the windward side, and made straight for the trawler.

He knew that there was a great risk, for he could not tell if there was enough water, or if the life-boat would be wrecked herself on the rocks. He took the risk.

The life-boat went in on the top of a big sea, and her crew threw a line to the trawler and hauled the life-boat alongside. The trawler was lying on her side and was lifted by every sea that came in. At one moment she threatened to roll over and to crash on top of the life-boat. The next the life-boat was herself lifted by the seas and in danger of being flung on top of the trawler. But Captain Winter handled her with great courage and skill, and, with his engines running, kept her alongside, while, one by one, the twelve men of the trawler jumped and were seized and hauled aboard the life-boat. One of them fell between the two boats, and was badly crushed, but he too was dragged aboard. Then, just as the life-boat, with every man rescued, drew away, the wreck turned over and sank. Had the life-boat come only a few minutes later, or had Captain Winter hesitated to take her straight in to the rescue, the whole of the trawler’s crew would have been lost. At 5.15 the life-boat was back again at her station. She had been away for only 55 minutes. The rescued men were loud in their praise, and the trawler’s chief engineer said that he had thought that the life-boat could not possibly reach them.

The success of the service was due principally to the intrepid courage and skill of Captain Winter, and his courage was all the greater as he had not been at sea for some years, and he was 69 years old. The Institution made the following awards : To CAPTAIN JAMES WINTER, the acting coxswain, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To DAVID F. WISEMAN, the motormechanic, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum ; To the acting coxswain and each of the seven members of the crew a reward of £2 in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of £1 17s. 6d. ; To Coxswain John McLean a special reward of £2 ; To Mrs. M. Craighead, acting as honorary secretary in the absence of her husband serving in the Royal Air Force, who took an active part in mustering the crew, a letter of thanks ; Standard rewards, £15 18s. ; additional rewards, £18 ; total rewards, £33 18s..