LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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JULY 30TH. - BLYTH, NORTHUMBERLAND. At 3.50 in the afternoon the coastguard telephoned that he could see three people on the wreck of the minesweeper Unicity on the beach in Blyth Bay. The minesweeper had capsized just eighteen months earlier, on January 31st, 1942, just outside the Blyth piers, and two of her men had been rescued from the sea by the Blyth life-boat. The minesweeper had been salved and put on the beach at Blyth. A slight S.S.E. wind was blowing with an increasing swell, and the wreck would soon be covered by the rising tide. The motor life-boat Joseph Adlam was launched at four o’clock, and, as time pressed, the coxswain did not wait for the whole of the crew of eight men, but went out with four. She reached the wreck at 4.15. It was covered with barnacles which made it necessary to take great care in getting alongside. The life-boat found on the wreck a girl and two men. The girl had got into difficulty while bathing near the wreck, but had managed to get on to it.The two men, sub-lieutenants in the navy, had then swum out to it to help her, but they found that they could not get back.

They had all three been badly cut and bruised on the barnacles, and were bleeding freely, and the life-boat took them to the naval base so that they could get medical attention as soon as possible. She then returned to her station, arriving there at 4.45 P.M. - Rewards, £3 16s.