RYE, SUSSEX. Shortly after two in the afternoon of the 5th of March, 1944, two men in the fishing boat F.E.152 were trawling in Rye Bay. They heard a burst of machine-gun fire from a Thunderbolt aeroplane, and saw the pilot bale out. The sea was calm and there was no wind. Lashing a rubber buoy to the tow rope of their trawl they left it and went to his help. They reached him in fifteen minutes and found him very cold and unable to speak. They took him on board, with his dinghy and oxygen bottle. On their way to Rye a high speed launch came alongside and took off the pilot. The F.E. 152 then recovered her trawling gear, but all the fish had been lost when the trawl had been buoyed. - Rewards, £10 for loss of fishing and 2s. 6d. for fuel used.

HASTINGS, SUSSEX. About eleven in the morning of the 24th of March, 1944, a fisherman was out fishing single-handed, in a rowing dinghy, when he saw two boys under the cliffs, 50 yards west of Ecclesbourne Glen, a prohibited area. The tide was half flood.

A light south-west wind was blowing, with a swell. The fisherman found the boys, who were aged between 10 and 12, on the rocks.

They could not get ashore and were in danger of drowning as the tide rose. He called on the motor fishing boat R.X.47, manned by two men, to stand by, and rescued the boys.

The R.X.47 then towed him and the boys to Hastings. - Rewards, 10s. to the fisherman and 15s. to the other two men, with 2s. 6d.

for fuel used.DINGLE. CO. KERRY. In the early hours of the morning of the lst of April, 1944, four men were out in a fishing boat. Their engine failed and they drifted out to sea, about seven miles north-west of Valentia Island.

A strong south-east gale was blowing, with a heavy sea running. Four men in another fishing boat, the St. Patrick, went to their help.

They showed both their courage and skill in taking the disabled boat in tow, and bringing her the twelve miles to Cahirciveen in safety. They arrived at 6.30 that morning.

There the rescuers were weather-bound from Saturday until Monday. - Rewards, £7, with £5; for subsistence, also £9 9s. for a sail lost, 12s. 6d. for a pair of oilskin trousers lost, and 17s. Gd. for fuel used.

SOUTHWOLD, SUFFOLK. Just after ten o’clock on the night of the 22nd of April, 1944, an American Liberator aeroplane was seen by the coastguard to crash on land near Southwold. They saw two parachutes descending over Southwold Marshes, and heard a cry from seaward. They immediately called for help to launch a small boat. Soldiers and Wrens helped them and three auxiliary coastguardsmen put out in it. A light south-west wind was blowing, with a slight sea. They found the parachute 200 yards out and rescued the airman. - Rewards, £1 10s.

ST. DAVID'S, PEMBROKESHIRE. On the afternoon of the 14th of May, 1944, seven airmen at rubber dinghy practice, one mile south of Newgale, in St. Bride’s Bay, floated out on the ebbing tide. There was no boat nearby that could go to their help, and at 3.40 the coastguard telephoned to the honorary secretary of the St. David’s life-boat station.

A moderate east-north-east wind was blowing, and a moderate sea running. The life-boat coxswain and the assistant motor-mechanic put out in the coxswain’s 18-feet motor boat.

They reached the scene just as the airmen had succeeded in getting ashore under the cliffs between Newgale and Nolton. The boat returned, arriving at eight that evening.

- Rewards, £1 18s., with 18s. for fuel used.

WHITBY, YORKSHIRE. Shortly before noon on the 25th of May, 1944, four fishermen in their 31-feet motor coble Silver Line were south of Whitby harbour, not far from the Whitby High Lighthouse. A light northnorth- west wind was blowing, with broken water inshore. They were preparing to haul their crab pots when a British Halifax bomber came down on the sea, on fire, a short distance away. Leaving their pots, they went at once to her help, and found the seven men of the crew paddling clear of her in their dinghy. They threw them a line, towed them clear of broken water and then took airmen and dinghy on board the coble. On reaching Whitby the coble had to lie outside until two in the afternoon until the tide had risen and she could land the airmen at the quay. The fishermen had then to wait another two hours until R.A.F. officers came to inspect and take over the rubber dinghy. - Rewards, £2 10s., with £7 10s. for loss of fishing.EYEMOUTH, BERWICKSHIRE. About 11.30 in the morning of the 26th of May, 1944, the motor fishing boat Cecil Rhodes, with six men on board, caught fire while fishing some nine miles north-north-east of Eyemouth. A light westerly wind was blowing. Five men in another motor fishing boat, the White Heather, were about a mile away. They saw the smoke and a distress signal, went to the Cecil Rhodes and took off her six men and some of her gear. Shortly afterwards there was an explosion on the Cecil Rhodes. She burned to the water’s edge and foundered.- Rewards, £15 for loss of fishing and £1 2s. for fuel used.

BRIDLINGTON, YORKSHIRE. On the evening of the 5th of June, 1944, the British steamer Chant 63, a new vessel of 390 tons gross, with 500 tons of water ballast, capsized five miles east-south-east of Bridlington.

A strong westerly wind was blowing, with fresh short seas. The fishing boats Express and La Mariole went to her help, but before they reached her she had turned turtle and her crew of fourteen had been rescued by a minesweeper. The Bridlington life-boat had also gone out. She took the rescued men from the minesweeper, and the fishing boats returned to harbour. - Rewards, £5, with 10s. for fuel used. (See Bridlington, “Accounts of Services by Life-boats,” page 24.)

EASTBOURNE, SUSSEX. At 9.12 in the morning of the 11th of June, 1944, the coastguard asked the honorary secretary of the life-boat station to launch the life-boat to an aeroplane down in the sea two miles southsouth- east of the lookout. The sea was slight, with a west-south-west wind blowing.

To save time in launching the life-boat, the coxswain put out with the motor-mechanic and four other men in his own motor fishing boat. At 11.5 they returned, bringing with them one injured airman whom they had rescued from a Walrus amphibious aeroplane.

- Rewards, £3 15s. to the crew, £2 0s. 6d. to the helpers, with 2s. 6d. for fuel used.

BLACKPOOL, LANCASHIRE. At four in the afternoon of the 20th of June, 1944, a woman came running to the life-boat motor-mechanic and told him that two men bathers were clinging to life-belts under the jetty. The tide was ebbing, the weather fine, and the sea calm. The mechanic was working on his own rowing and sailing fishing boat. He, the life-boat coxswain and two other life-boatmen rushed the boat 500 yards to the water, launched her and reached the jetty in time to rescue the two exhausted men. They were taken to hospital and later thanked their rescuers for the promptness with which they had come to their help. - Rewards, £2.