BRONZE MEDAL SERVICE AT HOLYHEAD FEBRUARY 12TH - 13TH. - HOLYHEAD, ANGLESEY. In the early hours of the 12th of February the S.S. Castilian, a 3,000-ton ship of the Ellerman Papayanni Company, entered Church Bay, and let go two anchors. She had evidently come in for shelter. A heavy gale was blowing from the south-west and the sea was very rough. The anchors failed to hold, and the Castilian steamed away to the northwards, probably to take shelter on the north side of Anglesey in the two-miles channel between the Skerries Rocks and Carme1 Head on the mainland of Anglesey.Nearly in the middle of this channel is a small group of rocks, the East Platters, submerged at all but the lowest tides. They are a well-known danger and it was they that were to prove fatal to the Castilian.

Shortly after five o’clock in the morning the coastguard passed to the life-boat station a message from the naval base that a ship was ashore somewhere inside the Skerries, and at 5.25 the motor life-boat A.E.D.

put out. Owing to the war she had a crew of only six men, instead of eight. It was pitch dark, and the darkness and heavy seas made it almost impossible to see anything.

The life-boat searched for about two hours before she found the Castilian aground on the East Platters. The heavy seas were pounding on her weather side. The ebbing tide ran against her lee side. Her bows were on the rocks. Her stern was swung to and fro by the wind and tide and the eddies which abound round the rocks. The life-boat came as close as was possible and her coxswain hailed the captain. He told him that he must leave the ship. The captain refused. He hoped that tugs would pull her off, though no tug could have done it. The life-boat drew away and the coxswain reported by his radio telephone to the honorary secretary.

Both knew that at any moment the steamer might slip off and perhaps founder. It was decided that the lifeboat should stand by and wait for what might happen. The life-boat herself was in considerable danger, and the coxswain made for the lee of the Skerries. They would give her a little shelter.

The Castilian was soon listing heavily to port, and about an hour later the coxswain warned the captain that, with wind and sea increasing, and the tide ebbing, it would soon be almost impossible to do anything to help him. He then agreed to abandon ship, and the coxswain brought the life-boat more or less alongside. It was done only with great difficulty, and after several attempts. It had to be done on the weather side because of the ebbing tide, that ran against the lee side, and the ships’ boats whichwere turned out on that side and were an added and great danger. But the coxswain handled the life-boat with great skill, and, with the prompt and complete co-operation of the motor mechanic, he was able to hold her near enough to the steamer for the forty-seven officers and men to jump aboard. They all landed safely, though one slightly injured his foot.

It was then 8.45. At ten o’clock the life-boat arrived at Holyhead. At two o’clock in the afternoon the Castilian slipped off the rocks and sank. Only the top of her funnels and her mast were above water.

The life-boat went out to her twice more. The naval base asked her to find out if it would be possible to recover confidential mails which were in the chart room. She also took out the Castilian’s captain and the shore superintendent of the Ellerman Papayanni Company. She went out on the first trip at 2.30 on the afternoon of the 12th and returned at 6.15, and on the second at 11.10 in the morning of the 13th, returning at 1.10 in the afternoon.

The rescue was carried out in the face of very considerable risks. It succeeded through the great skill with which coxswain and motormechanic handled the life-boat and her engines.

The Institution made the following awards : To COXSWAIN RICHARD JONES, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To JOHN JONES, motor-mechanic, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; TO ROBERT WILLIAMS, second-coxswain, RICHARD BELL, bowman, HUGH THOMAS, assistant motor-mechanic, and THOMAS NUNN, life-boatman, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum ; 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 8s. 6d. each.

Standard rewards to crew, £5 14s. ; additional rewards to crew, £12 ; total rewards, £17 14s.

Rewards of £5 14s. and £2 17s. were granted for the two last trips, but these were repaid to the Institution by the shipping company..