JANUARY 3 1 ST AND FEBRUARY 1 ST. - SOUTHEND - ON - SEA, ESSEX. At 11 A.M.on the 31st of January the naval control reported that the National Fire Service float Gladys, lying half a mile west of the pier, was driving on to the sands, and at 11.20 A.M. the motor life-boat J. B. Proudfoot, on temporary duty at the station, was launched. The second coxswain was in command, as the coxswain was in London in connection with a broadcast which he was to give on the work of the station. A whole gale was blowing, with rain squalls and a very rough sea. The lifeboat found the Gladys being swept by heavy seas and hitting the sand. The lifeboat let go her anchor, dropped down and, with great difficulty, got close in. The firefloat’s crew of fourteen were very seasick, but the life-boat got them all on board and landed them at the pier at 1.15 P.M.

Next morning the coxswain was told by the pier master that the fire-float had been washed against the pier and was crashing into it. The weather was still bad. A moderate S.W. gale was blowing, with squalls and a heavy sea. When he got to the boathouse the coxswain was met by a naval officer who asked that something should be done to save the vessel from cutting the pier in two.

The coxswain, taking a second anchor and cable on board the life-boat, put out at 7.45 A.M. He left one of the crew on the pier, and this man, with great difficulty, dropped from the pier on to the fire-float. The coxswain then anchored to windward of the fire-float, and fired a line to her. The life-boatman on board her hauled in a towrope and made it fast. By heaving on this rope the life-boatmen kept the fire-float from doing any more damage, but already she had torn girders from the pier and they were lying on her deck. Then, with the help of a motor vessel, the life-boat towed the firefloat round the pier and under its lee. There the naval control took charge of her. This prompt service not only saved the fire-float, but prevented the pier from being cut in two, a matter of great importance to the naval control. The life-boat returned to her station at 12 noon. - Rewards : first service, £8 15s; second service, property salvage case. A letter of thanks was received from the Thames naval control office at Southend.