DECEMBER 10TH. - SWANAGE, DORSET, AND BEMBRIDGE, ISLE OF WIGHT.

About ten at night the coastguard reported to the Swanage life-boat station that a steamer was ashore off Egmont Point, west of St. Albans Head. The motor life-boat Thomas Markby was launched at 10.30. The northerly wind was light and the sea smooth, but there were some patches of fog. The life-boat found the American Liberty ship T. A. Johnston, of Pensecola, and her master asked the life-boat to stand by. This she did all through the night. At nine o’clock next morning two tugs and a salvage vessel arrived. Towing began two hours later, but one tug grounded. The life-boat tried to refloat her, but the tide was ebbing and she failed. As she could do no more until high water she returned to her station at 4.30 that afternoon to re-fuel and to enable her crew to get a meal. At ten o’clock she left again, but found that the tug had refloated.

The master of the T. A. Johnston again asked the life-boat to stand by and this she did through the night and until 3.30 in the afternoon of the 12th. Then she arranged with the salvage officer to return if needed, and left for Swanage, where she arrived at 5.30 that afternoon. At Bembridge the report was received that the steamer was aground on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, and the motor life-boat Jesse Lumb was launched at 10.37 on the night of the 10th, but when the correct position of the T. A. Johnston was reported she was recalled and arrived back at 1.46 next morning. - Rewards : Swanage, £56 16s. ; Bembridge, £16 14s. 6d..