SILVER MEDAL SERVICE AT NEWHAVEN NOVEMBER 23RD. - NEWHAVEN, SUSSEX. At 8.40 in the evening a message came from the naval officerin- charge at Newhaven, through the coastguard, asking that the life-boat should stand by. The crew were assembled and at nine o’clock the honorary secretary reported the boat fully manned and ready for service.

A further message was received from the naval officer-in-charge at 9.42, asking the life-boat to launch and stand by. No other information had been given to the life-boat station, so, before launching, the honorary secretary asked the position to which the life-boat was to go and what service was expected of her. He was then given a position two miles from Newhaven, and the motor life-boat Cecil and Lilian Philpott was launched at 9.45.

A gale was blowing, with a very rough sea, the night was dark with continuous heavy rain, and visibility was very bad. The coxswain went to the position given, but found nothing.

The shore signal station was sending out further information, but in that weather it was impossible to read the signals, and the coxswain returned to the mouth of the harbour. He was told to go eastwards to the mouth of the Cuckmere, between four and five miles from Newhaven. There, off Hope Gap, he saw the lights of a vessel.

She was firing rockets, red, green and white, and burning flares. Searchlights from the shore batteries were playing on the water, but their dazzling lights were more of a hindrance than a help to the life-boat.

The coxswain, however, could make out a large trawler. She was, in fact, H.M. Trawler Avanturine, with 25 men on board, in a very dangerous position, for she was only between 200 and 300 yards off a rocky lee shore, and from her position the coxswain realised she was very near a reef which he knew must be just off her port beam.

She was in only three to four fathoms of water, and she drew 15 1/2 feet.

The coxswain decided that the only thing to do was to anchor, drop downon his cable, with the wind and tide, and go under the trawler’s lee side.

This meant dropping down on the cable across her bows. He let go the anchor, and had run out about forty fathoms of cable when suddenly, out of the darkness, the trawler, which he had thought to be at anchor, appeared close to the life-boat coming at full speed towards her.

The coxswain put his engines full astern, but it was too late. The trawler was lifting out of the trough and at the same moment a heavy sea caught the life-boat and flung her against the trawler’s bow. It cut right through the life-boat’s side. The shock broke her mast into three pieces, which went overboard, taking the wireless with them, and felled five of the crew.

The coxswain knew that the boat had been badly damaged. How great the damage was he could not tell, but he at once went astern and gave orders for the anchor to be hove in and stowed, and the mast and rigging to be cleared away. While these things were being done a heavy sea was seen approaching, and the coxswain shouted " hold on ”. After the sea had passed it was found that the bowman and signalman, Benjamin J. Clark, had gone with it.

The position now was that the coxswain, who had been thrown heavily against the wheel, was suffering intense pain in his back ; that he had not only lost one of his crew of seven men, but that three others were injured, how seriously he could not tell ; that he did not know how seriously injured he was himself ; that he had only one uninjured man on deck. The other two uninjured were the two motor-mechanics.

The coxswain was finding the boat increasingly hard to steer, and the petrol tank hatch had gone overboard and had left a large open space on the deck, an added danger to the crew working in the darkness.

In spite of this the coxswain looked for and found the trawler, which had steamed off. He then escorted her to a place of reasonable safety, some two or three miles off the harbour entrance, where she could anchor for the rest of the night. With his wireless out of action and his signalman lost, the coxswain was unable to communicate with the shore, but he stood by for a time to see if there were signs of any other vessels in difficulty, and as there were no other lights to be seen he made for Newhaven. The hole in the boat was on the weatherside, which increased the difficulty of controlling her ; and this, with the pain he was suffering, taxed the skill and strength of the coxswain to the utmost, but he brought the life-boat safely in and berthed her half an hour after midnight.

It was then one and a half hours since the trawler had rammed her.

The injured men were attended to by the naval surgeon and were then sent home by naval transport.

The coxswain had bruised his back. The second coxswain had injuries to the bridge of his nose and both eyes, and bruises on body and legs. One of the crew had lost his false teeth, smashed in his mouth and completely destroyed.

Stitches had to be put in his lower lip by the naval surgeon. He also had injuries to his hands, arms, head and chest, which was heavily bruised. The fourth injured man was suffering from bruises and cuts.

Patrols were sent out along the beaches and at mid-day of the following day the body of the bowman and signalman, Benjamin J. Clark, was found. At the inquest held on November 26th the verdict was accidentally drowned. Benjamin Clark was 49 years of age and had served in the Newhaven life-boats for 25 years.

His father and his brother both had long records of service in the lifeboats, and both had served as coxswain.

At his own wish Benjamin Clark was buried at sea, and the Institution made the arrangements for the funeral and paid all expenses. He left a widow, and the Institution pensioned her, from the day of his death, as if he had been a sailor, soldier or airman killed in action. The Navy collected £40 for the benefit of the widow. The Institution also compensated the injured men for their loss of wages while they were unable to work.

The life-boat herself had been very severely damaged. The trawler’s stemhad driven two feet deep into her, had broken a hole, just abaft the port shoulder, from deck to bilge keel, 5 feet from top to bottom and 2 feet 6 inches across at the top.

It had buckled the port petrol tank and had driven it with such violence against a bulkhead that the bulkhead had been fractured and water had got through into the forward and after holds and the cabin. It was this which had made the boat difficult to steer. Although the petrol tank had been moved off its seating and had been badly buckled, it had not been perforated and the engine had continued to work off that tank, without any failure in the petrol supply, right to the end of the service.

A patch was put over the hole, and on November 30th the life-boat went by sea to Shoreham Harbour for repairs. On the same day a life-boat from the reserve fleet took her place at Newhaven. The repairs took four months to carry out, and cost about £650.

In recognition of the gallantry and endurance of the coxswain and crew in carrying on, in spite of their injuries, with a boat which they all knew to be severely damaged, the Institution made the following awards : To COXSWAIN LEONARD A. J. PEDDLESDEN, the silver medal for gallantry with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To SECOND-COXSWAIN FREDERICK A. PARKER; R. W. LOWER, the motor mechanic ; J. EAGER, the acting assistant motor-mechanic ; and S. WINTER, S. HOLDEN and H. MOORE, life-boatmen, bronze medals for gallantry, with copies of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To BENJAMIN J. CLARK, the bowman and signalman, the bronze medal for gallantry, posthumously, and a certificate to his widow recording his devotion to duty and his sacrifice ; To MR. R. K SAYER, the honorary secretary of the station, an inscribed aneroid barometer ; To R. HOLDEN, head launcher, a letter of thanks ; To the naval authorities at Newhaven for the services of the surgeon and their help with the burial at sea, a letter of thanks ;To MR. CARDY, divisional marine manager of the Southern Railway at Newhaven, for his help with the burial at sea, a letter of thanks ; To the coxswain and each member of the crew a special reward of £2, in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of £1 17s. 6d., making a reward of £3 17s. 6d. to each man ; To seven launchers a reward of 12s. 6d. each, in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of 12s., making a reward of £1 4s. 6d.

to each man ; Standard rewards to crew and launchers, £18 4s . ; additional rewards to crew and launchers, £20 7s. 6d. ; total rewards, £38 11s. 6d..