JANUARY MEETING NAIRN, MORAYSHIRE. About 11.15 on the night of the 13th of November, 1945, an R.A.F. Warwick aeroplane was seen by the Lossiemouth coastguard to crash in the sea in flames, six to eight miles in a north-easterly direction from Lossiemouth. The wind was slight from the south-east and the sea calm.

The coastguard enlisted the services of the Nairn motor fishing boat Larus, and with her crew of eight she put out at 11.45. Of the aeroplane’s crew of seven the Larus was able to save only two, and one of them died before he was landed. One of the rescuers was lost overboard from the Larus the morning after the rescue when she was going out to the fishing grounds. - Rewards, £8. (See Buckie, “Accounts of Services by Life-boats,” 1945, page 49.)

CASTLEBAY, BARRA ISLAND. At 5.3 in the evening of the 2nd of December, 1945, it was reported that a torch was being flashed from Ennister Island, some four hundred yards east of the life-boat station. A strong, south-west wind was blowing, with a rough sea. The life-boat motor-mechanic, with two other men, at once put out in his own motor boat, without waiting for the life-boat crew to assemble. He found the motor boat Presshome on a rock. She had a crew of five, but two had already got away in the ship’s boat.

He rescued the remaining three with some difficulty, owing to the rocks, the rough sea and the darkness. - Rewards, £3.

SHESHADER, ISLAND OF LEWIS, HEBRIDES.

At 1.30 in the morning of the 8th of December, 1945, the continuous blowing of a ship’s whistle was heard in the village of Sheshader, some twelve miles from Stornoway. Later, rockets were seen. A strong south-southwest wind was blowing, with a rough sea.

The ship in distress was the steam trawler Eileen Wayman. She had stranded on outlying rocks under steep cliffs in Sheshader Bay. Of her crew of thirteen, two had got ashore in the trawler’s boat, but it had been damaged and sank. Five fishermen from Sheshader launched a rowing boat. They pulled a mile and found the trawler with a list and her gunwale level with the water.

At great risk in the darkness and rough seas they rescued the remaining eleven men of the trawler. Shortly afterwards she disappeared.

The Stornoway life-boat was called out, but the men had been rescued before she arrived. - Rewards, £12 10s. (See Stornaway, “Accounts of Services by Lifeboats,” 1945, page 53.)

NEW BRIGHTON, CHESHIRE. At one in the afternoon of Christmas Day, 1945, news was received from Perch Rock Fort that a girland her dog were being surrounded by the rising tide on a sandhank. The sea was smooth, with a light southerly wind. The two motor-mechanics of the life-boat went out in the life-boat’s motor boarding boat and found the sandbank covered. No one was to be seen. The girl and the dog had got ashore.

- Rewards, £1.