MARCH 4TH. - ANSTRUTHER, FIFESHIRE.

At four in the morning the Elie coastguard reported that a trawler was aground near Boarhills, and the motor lifeboat Nellie and Charlie was launched at 4.45.

A strong easterly wind was blowing, with a heavy sea and snow. The life-boat found the Granton trawler Marjory M. Hastie, but the coastguard life-saving apparatus from St.

Andrews had already got a breeches buoy aboard and a tug was on the way out, so the life-boat returned, arriving at 9.15. Two hours later the St. Andrews coastguard telephoned that the naval authorities at Rosyth had received a message from the Admiralty tug which had gone to the trawler asking that a life-boat be sent. At 11.30 the life-boat put out again, and reached the trawler at 1.20 to find that in the early morning three of the crew had been taken off by the coastguard life-saving apparatus and the remainder had walked ashore when the tide ebbed, but that all had gone back when the tug arrived. The trawler was now bumping heavily. A hawser from the tug had been secured and she was refloated, but her propeller was damaged and she was leaking. The seas were heavy, so the life-boat went with her as the tug started to tow her to Leith. On the way a salvage vessel arrived and went alongside, and when off Crail, the tug was able to increase her speed, so the life-boat left and returned to Anstruther, where she arrived at five o’clock that afternoon. The life-boat was in the charge, on both services, of a pre-war coxswain who had volunteered to act as coxswain, and on the second service another ex-coxswain also volunteered to make up the crew as the mechanic was now sick and unable to go out again. - Rewards : first service £29 4s. 6d. ; second service £6 13s..