The rubber rafts flew up like kites in the gale; 30-foot waves battered the heavy motor lifeboat until it sank. How, under these conditions, to save the lives of sixty-nine men, women, and children in a foundering flying boat was the problem confronting CAPTAIN PAUL B. CRONK of the U.S. Coast Guard weather ship Bibb. It called for seamanship, instinct, courage, and luck. The Atlantic is proud to publish Captain Cronkâs own account of the minute-to-minute derisions which had to be made in a situation that was all but hopeless.