GOLD MEDAL SERVICE AT NEWCASTLE JANUARY 21ST. - NEWCASTLE, AND CLOUGHEY, CO. DOWN. At 12.45 in the morning a message came to Cloughey from the coastguard that a steamer was ashore half a mile off Ballyquinton, and at 1.40 the life-boat Herbert John was launched. A gale was then blowing from the south-east, with a very heavy sea, sleet and rain.

As the life-boat was launching another message came from the coastguard to warn the coxswain that the steamer was in a very rocky part and to say that the coastguard life-saving apparatus was also going to her help. The life-boat reached the steamer at 3.30 in the morning. She was now high up on the rocks and it was impossible for the life-boat to get near her, but for the present her crew was safe. The coxswain intended to stand by, but he saw ships to the north, apparently off their course and heading towards the shore. He at once went towards them, but found that several had already gone ashore, and two others were about to strike. They were evidently part of a convoy. The life-boat flashed her lamp. A destroyer, which was also heading inshore, put up star rockets and when she saw by their light that it was the life-boat which had signalled, she turned and headed out to sea, apparently towards the rest of the convoy.

Seven ships had gone on the rocks, but they were too far inshore for thelife-boat to give them any help, and she lay off until daybreak. She then went to each of the ships to see which required help, but the tide had ebbed and, except for one, they had been left high and dry and their crews appeared to be in no danger. One ship only was in sufficient water for the life-boat to get to her. She was the Orminster, of London, with 68 on board, Her captain asked the coxswain to stand by, as he thought he might be able to get off at high tide and wanted the life-boat to pilot her out. To this the coxswain agreed, but the attempt to refloat the steamer failed. The captain then allowed some of his crew to go aboard the life-boat, but afterwards ordered them to return, with the exception of two who remained on the life-boat.

There was now nothing more to be done, and the life-boat returned to her station, arriving at five that afternoon.

Three-quarters of an hour after the Cloughey life-boat had been called out that morning, the coastguard rang up the neighbouring station at Newcastle, to the south, to say that Cloughey had been called out, but might not be able to launch. The Newcastle crew and launchers were assembled.

That was at 1.30 in the morning.

Three hours later the coastguard again rang up the station to say that four ships had gone ashore off Ballyquinton Point. It was decided to launch, and at 5.5 the motor life-boat L.P. and St. Helen cleared the harbour. She had a journey of over twenty miles.

A very strong gale was blowing from the south-south-east, with increasing force. A very rough sea was running, and the night was very dark, with rain and sleet. Sometimes the coxswain could see for half a mile, at other times less than the length of the boat.

The life-boat had to cross the Strangford Bar, where a nine-knot, tide was running out against the gale, making a mass of jumbled seas, breaking in every direction. When the coxswain got into this tideway, he went with it, steaming out against the gale, dodging the seas, and at every opportunity edging the boat out to the north. He had to steam against thegale in this way for six miles, and it took him over an hour to clear the bar.

Then, with his drogue out, he made his way back towards the land. Day was now beginning to break.

At 10.30 he reached the scene and found not four but seven ships ashore.

Six were close inshore, but one of them, the Browning, of Liverpool, was lying farther out, with her stern on a reef of rocks. Earlier in the morning the Cloughey life-boat had asked her if she wanted help, but at that time her captain did not wish to be taken off.

Since then the life-saving apparatus had rescued from the shore seventeen of the 56 men who were on board, but to get near enough to work their a p p a r a t u s t h e m e n h a d h a d t o scramble out on to the rocks. The tide was rising, and by the time they had rescued those seventeen men it had risen to their shoulders. It drove them back, and they could rescue no more. On board the steamer were a number of horses, bloodstock stallions.

They had gone wild with fear and had broken loose. The captain had had to give orders for them to be shot, and in the confusion the seaman who did it put two bullets through his own hand.

This was the position when the Newcastle life-boat arrived. The coxswain anchored to windward of the steamer and tried to drop down to her on his cable, but the gale was now blowing its hardest, and the seas were breaking right over her. To go alongside her was like trying to go alongside a breakwater. At one moment the lifeboat was lifted by the seas as high as the steamer’s rail, and but for the cable would have been flung on her deck. The next moment she was caught in their backwash and whirled away. Three times the coxswain dropped anchor and attempted to go alongside, but after an hour he had to give it up as impossible. He then hailed the steamer and asked if there was any water on the lee side where the life-boat could float. The steamer’s captain answered that there was.

But the steamer’s bow was very close to rocks, and the life-boat would have to go by the narrow channel between the two. The coxswain laid her for that channel, waited for his moment, and called on his mechanic for full speed. At its widest the channel was little more than twenty feet; at its narrowest sixteen ; and the life-boat was nearly nine feet broad; but he brought her through unscathed.

He now found himself in a little lagoon of calm water under the steamer’s lee. It was easy to come alongside, and he had soon taken off 29 of the steamer’s crew. That was one more than the number which this type of life-boat could carry in rough weather, and there were still ten men on board the steamer. The coxswain knew the risk that he would run in taking them. They would be an added three-quarters of a ton for the life-boat to carry. They would bring her deck almost awash. In that overloaded boat he would have many miles to travel. At the same time he knew that it would be impossible to return. He accepted the risk, and took them.

ACROSS THE ROCKS Some of the rescued men were far spent, and they were huddled away wherever they could be packed. At the coxswain’s request the captain told all who could to lie down, and to lie still. The lagoon where the life-boat lay under the steamer’s lee was so small that there was no room to turn her, and it was impossible to go out stern first through the narrow channel between the bow and the rocks. The only other way was to take the lifeboat right across the reef on which the steamer’s stern lay. It was a most hazardous thing to attempt, for between the seas there was very little water on the reef. Had any mistake been made in crossing it the life-boat would have stranded, the next wave would have capsized her, and all on board would have been thrown into the sea. The coxswain chose his time well. He was lucky enough to get three big seas one after the other.

Then he put the boat at full speed and crossed the reef without touching it.

No one on board knew what he intended, and when the mate of the Browning saw what he had done,he said, had he known, he would never have left the wreck.

The life-boat had crossed the reef but she was still not out of danger.

Newcastle was twenty miles away and it was impossible to return there against the gale with the overloaded boat. Instead the coxswain ran northwards before the gale, through unfamiliar waters, feeling his way, for he could see little, among rocks and reefs.

He had the drogue out all the time to keep the overloaded boat steady before the heavy following sea, and his rail was often rolling right under.

At 2.30 in the afternoon, nine hours after setting out from Newcastle, he brought the life-boat safely into the harbour of the small fishing village of Portavogie. There the rescued men were landed. Six were sent at once to hospital twelve miles away. The rest were taken in by the villagers. The life-boat could not return to her station against the gale, and her crew went home by road. They arrived at 10.30 that night, exhausted and wet to the skin. Two days later, when the gale had moderated, they returned to Portavogie for the life-boat.

It was a service of the greatest hazards, in which the coxswain showed reckless daring, great coolness and superb seamanship. The Institution made the following awards : To COXSWAIN PATRICK MURPHY, the gold medal for conspicuous gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum. He was also awarded the British Empire Medal ; To SECOND-COXSWAIN WILLIAM MURPHY and the motor-mechanic ROBERT AGNEW, the silver medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To WILLIAM J. LENAGHAN, bowman, THOMAS MCCLELLAND, assistant motormechanic, and PATRICK MCCLELLAND and PATRICK ROONEY, life-boatmen, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To the coxswain and each of the six members of the crew a money reward of £5 in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of £1 8s. 6d.

To the signalman a reward of £1 in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of 16s.To the coxswain and six members of the Cloughey crew a reward of £3 in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of £3 6s., making a reward to each man of £6 6s. ; To each of the seventeen helpers a reward of 10s. in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of 15s. 9d. each ; Standard rewards, £37 14s. 6d. ; additional rewards, £29 10s. ; total rewards, £67 4s. 6d.

To each of the helpers a reward of 10s. in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of 8s. ; Standard rewards to crew and helpers, £39 17s. ; additional rewards to crew and helpers, £55 ; rewards to crew and helpers for bringing back the life-boat from Portavogie, £17 9s. ; total rewards, £112 6s..