As soon as the vessel struck, the captain tried the pump, and found that there was a quantity of water in the hold, and that the ship was rapidly sinking by the stern. He at once ordered the boats to be lowered. Then a mattress was brought on deck, soaked with paraffin oil, and lighted as a signal of distress. The flare was seen by the coastguard at St. Anne’s Head, several miles away, and they telegraphed the news of the disaster to the lifeboat station at Angle. Obedient to the summons, the lifeboat put off to the rescue. Meanwhile several of the shipwrecked men had been forced to take refuge in the mizzen rigging, and others had climbed over the jibboom and landed on the rocks. Presently the lifeboat came dashing along in splendid style. On nearing the vessel the anchor was dropped, and the boat’s bow brought close to the mizzen rigging, to which six men could be seen clinging. One of these was an invalid passenger, and great difficulty was experienced in getting him on board. More than once the men expected to see him lose his hold and fall into the sea, but he, fortunately, had sufficient strength to hold on till he reached the arms stretched out to save him. The remaining sufferers were then quickly taken out of the top, the anchor was hauled in, and the boat pulled round to the leeside of the island, to take off the remainder of the crew and passengers. Mr. Mirehouse, the Honorary Secretary of the Angle Branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, who had accompanied the boat, and Edward Ball and Thomas Rees, two of the crew, now landed. Taking with them a rope and a lantern, they crawled along the edge of the cliff until they arrived above the spot where the people had taken refuge. They then lowered the rope over the cliff, and, in spite of the darkness of the night and the fury of the storm, they hauled up the remainder of the crew and passengers of the _Loch Shiel_, one of whom, a lady, was in a very weak and exhausted condition. But the rescue was not yet completed. The return journey had yet to be made along the narrow and dangerous pathway, in some parts barely a foot wide. The difficulties of the passage were further increased by having to guide the rescued and exhausted persons. To the credit of Mr. Mirehouse and his two men, be it told, that after great exertions and several narrow escapes they succeeded in bringing all in safety to the place where the lifeboat was in waiting.