On Tuesday 28th August 1956 Monarch rescued two men from a small dinghy, called Dumbo, off the Old Harry Rocks in Poole Bay whilst on passage on her regular route between Swanage and Bournemouth.

Monarch’s master, Capt Harry Defrates, said that both men were almost naked, shivering with the cold and frightened “So frightened that I don’t think they will go to sea again in a small boat for a long time.”

Both men were given food and drink by the crew and a couple of passengers gave them mackintoshes to try to warm them up. Capt Defrates went on to say “They had no sail and seemed to have only one oar so I think they would have lost their lives unless they had been spotted.”

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