VALOUR AT SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 February 1940, Page 5

VALOUR AT SEA

RESCUES BY LIFEBOATS ON BRITISH COAST

ANSWERING CALLS OF DISTRESS. ACTIVITIES IN TEMPESTUOUS WEATHER. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, February 5. British lifeboatmen have spent their busiest weekend for months searching the wintry seas for Nazi victims and responding to calls of distress from three ships wrecked in the tempestuous weather. Two members of the crew of a Yorkshire lifeboat were washed overboard and drowned during an attempt to save the crew of the Belgian motorship Eminent. The lifeboat had been hauled by hand for a mile overland before being launched. It.made three attempts to reach the ship but failed. Six of the Belgians tried to reach the shore by a raft but were drowned. The others were finally landed by a breeches buoy. The Norwegian steamer Jernfjeld (1369 tons) also went ashore and was holed in the stern and bow. The crew of 18 escaped by a boat.

The British steamer Baron Ruthven (3178 tons), which the Nazis bombed last week, met a like fate on the north-east coast. Thirty-four members of the crew were rescued by a lifeboat.

Oho coastal lifeboat spent 29 hours continuously at sea seeking three ships. Another found the 2000-ton Swedish vessel Mertainen out of control without a soul on board. It later picked up a skeleton crow and returned them aboard the vessel, which made port.