JANUARY 1 8 T H . - WALMER, KENT. A quarter of an hour after midnight a message came from Dover that two motor boats were aground near the East Goodwins, 2 1/4 miles from the No. 2 Buoy. The motor lifeboat Charles Dibdin (Civil Service No.

2) got away at 1.25, great help being given in the launching by an A.A.

searchlight near the boathouse. The coxswain took the life-boat at full speed right across the Goodwins. It was a hazardous thing to do. A fresh south-west wind was blowing ; the sea was rough ; the night very dark with mist and rain ; the tide was low ; at times there was only a foot and a half of water under the boat. The crossing was made more dangerous by old wrecks, but by using his searchlight, and guiding himself by old wrecks, which he recognised, the coxswain brought the boat safely across. Her searchlight was seen by one of the stranded boats. She fired red flares and tracer bullets, and the lifeboat found her on the east side of the Sands, on the outer edge, about two miles north-west of the charted position of the East Goodwin Lightvessel.

She was H.M. motor anti-submarine boat No. 25. She had been travelling at 23 knots when she struck the Sands.

The shock had driven both propeller shafts through the boat’s bottom and her engine-room had caught fire, but it was put out by the incoming water.

When the life-boat arrived she found her with her bow sticking up, and all her after part under water. It was then about 2.15 in the morning. The way in which she lay, the broken water, and the swirling tide combined to make it impossible for the life-boat to get alongside her, but a rope was passed between the two boats and then, watching his opportunity, the coxswain ran the life-boat’s bow on to the bow of the motor boat, and the men of the motor boat jumped aboard her. He had to do this four times before all thirteen men of the crew, and a box of confidential books, had been rescued. It was then three in the morning. The life-boat had arrived in the nick of time, for the tide was flowing and in a very little while the motor boat would have been submerged.

The life-boat then went in search of the other boat which had been reported stranded, but, although she looked for an hour and a half, she found nothing. It was learned later that the boat had managed to get off the Sands, and had been taken in tow by a tug. The life-boat returned to her station and was beached at 5.15 that morning.

The rescued crew were wet through and exhausted, and Mr. and Mrs.

C. D. Myall, the honorary secretary of the life-boat station and his wife, took them in, dried their clothes and gave them hot food and drink, until naval ambulances came for them two hours later.

It was a difficult service, carried out with skilful and daring seamanship, and the Institution made the following awards : To COXSWAIN J. MERCER, the bronze medal for gallantry and a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To the coxswain and each of the eight members of the crew, a special reward of £1 in addition to the ordinary reward on the standard scale of £1 17s. 6d. ; rewards on the standard scale to crew and helpers, £32 1s. 6d. ; additional rewards to crew, £9 ; total rewards, ; £41 1s. 6d..