At 0506 Dover Coastguards contacted Dover Lifeboat station honorary secretary Captain White asking for Dover Lifeboat to be placed on standby. Crew pagers were activated immediately Captain White also telephoned Acting Coxswain, Second Coxswain/Mechanic Roy Couzens,to ask that the crew be mustered to standby and await further instructions. Outside Dover Harbour seas were up to 60ft in height. The breakwaters were suffering much severe damage (50 ton stone blocks were being broken away and hurled into the sea by the wind) and a 17 ton bowser full of diesel fuel had just been washed off the inner pier into the harbour. Inside the harbour seas were some 20ft in height and visibility varied, but was at best 50 yards and frequently nill due to spume spray. The Crew mustered at 05:29 having travelled in total darkness as there was no electric power in either the town or harbour. Crew member Chris Ryan found his car undrivable as a chimney stack had demolished its roof and so he ran to the lifeboat dodging flying portions of wooden bill boards, torn from their locations by the hurricane force wind.

At 05:45 the crew monitoring the VHF radio on the lifeboat, heard that the Sumnia, which was in ballast had declined a tow from the harbour tug Deft which reported at 05:51 that due to the violent conditions it would in any case be impossible to put men on deck to man a tow line. Acting Coxswain Couzens decided to clear the lifeboat berth and await further orders nearer the harbour's western entrance after learning from VHF transmission that the Sumnia had struck the easternmost breakwater arm, there was ranging and rolling violently creating an extremely hazardous situation in which there was imminent risk of loss of life. However as Dover's 50ft steel Thames class lifeboat Rotary Service attempted to clear her pontoon berth a combination of the violent wind and ranging alongside caused the forward back spring mooring to be swept into the water fouling the starboard propeller. The lifeboat was eventually re-secured using the anchor warp attached to an adjacent pontoon and winching alongside using capstan. The help of divers was then requested.

They arrived at 06:20 and entered the water at great personal risk. At about 06:55 they reported that the mooring rope was clear from the starboard propeller shaft but still wound around the starboard propeller. Nevertheless, acting Coxswain Couzens decided that the lifeboat should proceed without further delay such was the urgency of the situation so, at about 06.57 in darkness and still with no harbour lighting Rotary Service set off at full speed down the inner harbour. Visibility there was 50 to 100 yards and the fouled propeller was causing the lifeboat to vibrate (a condition which worsened the longer the service continued). As Rotary Service rounded the prince of Wales Pier she encountered confused seas of some 20ft in height. Visibility varied from frequently almost nill in the spume and spray to very occasionally 500 yards. The lifeboat was rolling heavily and shipping sea and spray overall, such that after only a few minutes the entire crew were soaked save for Crew Member Geoffrey Buckland in the wheelhouse. The Sumnia's green navigation light was sighted before visibility closed down once more. The lifeboat continued to roll heavily, shipping beam seas, with the crew on the weather deck frequently being up to their waists in water.

Visibility improved briefly and, at about 100 yards distant, almost on the lifeboat's starboard beam, Sumnia was sighted hard up against the breakwater, ranging some 30ft up and down it and as reported by Deft rolling up to 80 degrees with capsize imminent. At 07:00 Dover lifeboat reported her position as 20ft from the casualty's port bow, Couzens having with great skill manoeuvred the lifeboat in the heavy and confused seas, past the wreck buoy and as close as he could to the Sumnia to see if any of her crew were visible. In the half light which had replaced the total darkness, two figures in lifejackets were seen on deck. However, as Couzens, having again used great skill in the confused 20ft seas to manoeuvre Rotary Service around to the casualty's starboard bow, was appraising the situation with Acting Second Coxswain Michael Abbott, the Suninia was engulfed by a huge wave. When it had passed there was no sign of either of the two crew members sighted earlier and it was obvious that they had both been washed overboard. The lifeboat crew on deck made their way with considerable difficulty up the lee side onto the foredeck to effect a better lookout but were forced back by the seas being continuously shipped forward.One person was then spotted in the water some 15 feet from the casualty's bow.Acting Coxswain Couzens skilfully manoeuvred the lifeboat alongside him at the first attempt, amid much flotsam and, despite the violent motion of the lifeboat, the conscious survivor was hauled on board and placed beside the wheelhouse door.

At 0704 a second person was spotted in the water 20 feet away and again with only one attempt Couzens put the lifeboat alongside, allowing this second conscious survivor to be brought inboard. Both survivors were placed in the wheelhouse and strapped in. They confirmed that the Sumnia had a crew of six. As the how section had now apparently broken off and sunk and the remaining part of the vessel was on her beam ends to seaward of the breakwater end, Couzens decided to search outside the harbour for further possible survivors.

The crew on deck all secured themselves by their lifelines to a strong point on the lifeboat and, with exemplary boathandling and excellent timing the acting coxswain turned Rotary Service to starboard to line up for the western entrance to the harbour. During this manoeuvre the lifeboat was hit by several huge waves, knocking her off her heading in the hurricane force winds. One 60ft sea saw the lifeboat drop 30ft from the crest into the trough, landing extremely heavily. Her bows were buried into the bottom of the next oncoming sea such that she was totally engulfed in green water and almost immediately knocked down to port. Some of the crew thought the lifeboat was about to capsize. It was during this encounter that .Couzens found himself landing very heavily between the throttles and the wheel, despite still being secured in his harness. Two harbour launches, (George Hammond II and Verity were braving conditions in the outer harbour also searching for survivors and at 0709 Deft reported seeing a man in the water Just inside the eastern entrance and sought urgent lifeboat assistance. While Couzens, again using great skill, brought the lifeboat into the relative safety of the outer harbour, having spent some time searching on the seaward side of the harbour's western entrance, Deft managed to drag this third survivor aboard.

At 0714, among the vast amount of floating debris and diesel fuel (leaking from the wrecked bowser) Abbott spotted a lifejacket and the lifeboat was expertly manoeuvred astern towards it. Crew Members Eric Tanner and Dominic McHugh in the starboard waist recess, aided by Abbott, started to bring the apparently empty lifejacket inboard, only to find that it was being worn by a fourth survivor, who was given. immediate first aid by Crew Member Robert Bruce, who succeeded in restoring the apparently lifeless man's breathing. Rotary Service, meanwhile, was taken back towards her pontoon berth, landing the three survivors at 0724 from alongside the tug Deft's berth. Three minutes later the lifeboat returned to the Outer Harbour to resume the search for more survivors. Several empty lifeiackets were found but nothing more.

During this search Acting Coxswain Couzens asked Abbott to take over at the wheel as he wheel feeling unwell. Shortly afterwards Couzens collapsed and Abbott asked Crew Member Buckland to inform the coastguard that the lifeboat was returning immediately to the tug haven and that an ambulance was required urgently. The crew then carried the 40 year old Couzens (who it later transpired had suffered a heart attack) to the weather deck in readiness for being landed. No ambulance had been able to get through because of fallen debris blocking roads and so Deputy Launching Authority Ken Miles drove Couzens by car to Buckland Hospital where he was placed in the intensive care unit.

The search for more survivors from the Sumnia was called off by Dover Coastguards at 12:15. The lifeboat crew had been stood down by the coastguards, after landing Couzens, but remained at immediate readiness in the crew room. Following this service and in recognition of his excellent seamanship, outstanding boathandling, tremendous courage and determination to carry on despite serious injury, resulting in the successful recovery of three survivors in weather conditions of unparalleled severity, Second Coxswain/Mechanic (Acting Coxswain) Roy Couzens has been awarded the Institution's silver medal for gallantry. For their considerable courage, disregard for personal safety and outstanding efforts in performing this successful service, the Institution's bronze medal for gallantry has been awarded to Emergency Mechnic/Emergency Coxswain Michael Abbott and Crew Mem:bers Geoffrey Buckland, Dominic McHugh, Christopher Ryan, Robert Bruce and Eric Tanner. A framed letter of thanks from the Institution's chairman, the Duke of Atholl, has been accorded to Shore Helper David Moore for his help to the divers during their hazardous task and in landing the survivors.

Similar letters go to the master and crew of the Dover Harbour Board tug Deft and letters of thanks signed by the RNLI's director, Lt Cdr Brian Miles, have been sent to the crews of the launches George Hammond II and Verity and to Universal Marine Divers of Dover, naming the two operators, Mr M Cook and Mr D Gill who cleared the lifeboat's fouled propeller shaft.