Delivering fish by boat to a waiting customer on Westward Ho! sands last Friday afternoon,

Capt J R Pile, ‘Commodore’ of Bideford’s fishing fleet, accomplished a feat that has probably not been performed within living memory, and certainly not in the month of October.

Mr Claude Wise of Westward Ho! had ordered some soles from Capt Pile and, having seen what conditions were the previous day, Capt Pile promised to deliver the fish personally at Westward Ho! When the Deera finished some way off Westward Ho! Capt Pile brought her in until she almost grounded in some six feet of water. He and Mr Vernon Boyle then transferred to a 14ft boat brought for the purpose – the Deera does not now carry a boat of her own on normal trips – and rowed ashore with the fish.

Although during that week of quiet weather, there had been little or no ground sea, the handling of an open boat in the surf is no sinecure but the trip was accomplished without difficulty. So often Westward Ho! is a lee shore which means that even if a boat gets ashore it is impossible to get off again.

Gazette article dated 16 October 1953