THE LIFE-BOAT The Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution VOL. XXXV JUNE, 1959 No. 388 Notes of the Quarter A PASSAGE up the Thames by the new an agreement with the life-boat com- Walmer life-boat in March, 1959, gave mittee established in Dublin. Poolbeg civil servants in appreciable numbers life-boats were designed for rescue an opportunity of inspecting one of work in the Liffey estuary and were the boats which has been provided for not normally expected to go beyond the Institution by the civil servants' the lighthouses on either side of the own remarkably successful fund. The entrance to the river. With the Walmer life-boat, which is named establishment of motor life-boats, which Charles Dibdin (Civil Service No. 32), could be speedily manned at both Dun is in fact the thirty-second life-boat to Laoghaire and Howth, the need for a have been provided by the voluntary life-boat at Poolbeg diminished steadily. gifts of civil servants. Sixteen of the To-day both Dun Laoghaire and Howth life-boats were pulling and sailing life-boats can reach casualties at the boats and sixteen were motor boats. river entrance more quickly than the Ten of the motor life-boats are in service life-boat at Poolbeg, and the last to-day: at Blyth, Hartlepool, Holyhead, occasion on which the Poolbeg life- Margate, Portrush, Thurso, St. David's, boat was called out was in 1955. Southend-on-Sea and Whitehills, as well Since the Institution took over the as at Walmer. station Poolbeg life-boats have rescued The Civil Service Life-boat Fund, 59 lives. which was established in 1866, was The provision of a new 42-feet beach virtually the creation of Charles Dibdin, type life-boat at Aldeburgh and im- himself a civil servant in the Post Office proved launching arrangements have Savings Bank until he joined the virtually eliminated the need for two Institution as Secretary in 1883, a life-boats at this station, and for this post he held until his death in 1910. reason it has also been decided to close While the Walmer life-boat was at the Aldeburgh no. 2 station. Westminster pier she was visited by the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman MEDAL SERVICE CERTIFICATES Sir Harold Gillett ; the Minister of On the occasion of the remarkable Transport, Mr. Harold Watkinson ; rescue carried out by the Longhope the Chairman of the Port of London life-boat, which appears on page 222, Authority, Lord Simon ; several mem- it will be seen that medal service bers of Parliament of both Houses and certificates were to be issued to three a number of other distinguished visitors members of the crew. This is the in addition to civil servants of all result of a decision taken by the grades. On the 17th of March the Committee of Management in 1955, life-boat visited Twickenham, Kingston when it was resolved that whenever and Richmond, where receptions were the coxswain of a life-boat was awarded held by the mayors of the three boroughs. a medal for gallantry, except for a purely personal act of bravery, certifi- CLOSING OF A LIFE-BOAT STATION cates should be accorded to every A life-boat station which has been member of the crew to record the in existence for 139 years is to close fact that they played their part in the this year. This is the station at rescue operations. The standards Poolbeg in County Dublin, which was which the Institution maintains in the taken over by the Royal National granting of its awards are rigorous, and Life-boat Institution in 1862, after a certificate indicating that a man 222 THE LIFE-BOAT [JUNE, 1959 carried out his duties in a life-boat in took her in tow to Fleetwood, after a service meriting one of the Institu- her propellers had become fouled. tion's medals is a possession which She finally sank after going aground can well be highly prized. on the Kirkcudbrightshire coast. THE END OF THE "TRANQUILLITY" FRENCH AND IRISH LINK A vessel which seems to have given A friendly link has been formed rise to more calls on life-boats than between the life-boat stations at Dun any other in the Institution's history Laoghaire, County Dublin, and Bou- finally met her end in February 1959. logne-sur-Mer. This was the result of This was the fishing boat first named a visit paid by the Dun Laoghaire Tranquillity, whose name was later honorary secretary, Dr. J. de Courcy changed to Patte. In January 1954 Ireland, to Boulogne, where he met the she was towed in by the Workington chairman of the Boulogne life-boat life-boat ; in March of the same year committee, M. le Garrec, a trawler she was towed in by the Fleetwood owner who more than fifty years ago life-boat ; and the Barrow life-boat was rescued by the Courtmacsherry had to tow her in first in July and then life-boat from a French barque. The in September 1954. In January 1956 two life-boat stations have agreed the Workington life-boat towed her in regularly to exchange annual reports, again, and little more than two years reports of services, photographs and later, in May 1958, the Barrow life-boat other information. Rescue by Breeches Buoy from a Trawler At 2.30 on the morning of the 4th of was setting to the south-east. It was February, 1959, the honorary secretary cloudy, and fog patches and spray from of the Longhope, Orkneys, life-boat the breaking seas made visibility poor station, Dr. S. Peace, received a mes- at times. Where the trawler was sage from the coastguard at Broughness aground it would be high water soon that the trawler Strathcoe was ashore after six o'clock. in the Pentland Firth. It was an The Longhope life-boat followed a anticipatory message and there was no course close to the coastline. A search- request for the life-boat to be launched light from the seine-netter Triton indi- immediately. The Thurso life-boat cated an object which seemed to be a station was also alerted. wreck, and a parachute flare was fired At 3.5. Dr. Peace was told that the from the life-boat. This showed that trawler was ashore on the west coast of the object was not the trawler, and the Hoy between Sneuk Head and Rack- life-boat continued on a northerly wick. He ordered the maroons to be course. A second parachute flare was fired, and the 45-feet 6-inches Watson fired, and the trawler was seen to be cabin life-boat Thomas McCunn put out lying in a small cleft in the cliff known at 3.27. locally as the Geo of the Lame. The Strathcoe, whose nett registered ton- Second Life-boat Launched nage was 93, was 117 feet long. Her The honorary secretary of the Strom- draft aft was 14 feet. She had been ness life-boat station, Mr. T. S. Harvey, homeward bound for Aberdeen from who had also been told of the position the fishing grounds. of the Strathcoe, ordered the 52-feet When the Longhope life-boat reached Barnettlik-boat Archibald and Alexander her she was hard ashore, heading east- M. Paterson to be launched. She put out south-east with a list to starboard of at 3.30. The position of the Strathcoe 45°. The cliffs on either side of the was eight miles from Longhope and small gully were five hundred feet high, eleven miles from Stromness. and the bottom round the stern of the There was a light north-easterly wreck was rocky with a number of large breeze with a heavy ground sea breaking and dangerous boulders. The depth on the face of the cliffs. The flood tide of the water by the trawler's wheelhouse JUNE, 1959] THE LIFE-BOAT 223 was about 20 feet, but the ground too dangerous to continue in his present sea, estimated at 15 feet in height, was position and that he must wait for the breaking over the funnel, and the beginning of the ebb, when conditions trawler's radio, lights and distress flares might be expected to improve. had all been made useless. Her trawl gear was lying in a tangled mass over Judgment Proved Right her starboard side. His judgment was proved right, and At 4.50 the Stromness life-boat also at 7.45, when conditions were somewhat reached the scene, and it was decided easier, the tail block was secured to the that she should stand by to seaward and mizzen boom of the trawler. From this act as a radio-telephone link with the position the remaining thirteen members shore station. Ten minutes later the of the crew were taken aboard the coxswain of the Longhope life-boat, Longhope life-boat by breeches-buoy. Daniel Kirkpatrick, approached the Throughout the rescue operations the port quarter of the trawler, but he second-coxswain, John Norquoy, gave found that the surge of the ground sea Coxswain Kirkpatrick invaluable sup- in the shallow water made it impossible port, particularly in his handling of the to manoeuvre the life-boat with any securing rope. The two mechanics, safety, and he brought her out stern Robert Johnston and Robert Rattray first. He then anchored in ten fathoms Johnston, handled the engines fault- of water on a rocky bottom and veered lessly and Mechanic Robert Johnston down on to the starboard quarter of the succeeded in carrying out a minor wreck with the object of trying to take repair to the radio-telephone equip- the trawler's crew off by breeches buoy.