THE question has often been asked—why are not life-boats propelled by steam power? It is a very natural question when we consider the difficulty of rowing any boat against a strong wind, and the much greater difficulty of doing so when, in addition, the opposing force of a heavy breaking sea, such as life-boats alone could face, has likewise to be encountered.

The question is also now the more fre- quently asked, since steam-power has been employed iisefully in boats of much smaller size than the ordinary coast life- boats.

It is true that the failures of our present life-boats to reach wrecked vessels are very few compared with their number- less successes, but even these few form a sufficient cause for serious consideration of the question, as to the probability or possibility of making steam available for life-boat propulsion.

We propose, therefore, to briefly state the difficulties that have stood and still stand in the way of its application.

If force alone were required there could indeed be no hesitation in exclusively adopting it, for so enormous is the power of steam, that the strength of man or even of the most powerful animals is insignifi- cant when compared with it. Moreover, if available, it would possess another special advantage, in that it would do its work at comparatively small risk of human life, for whereas from 10 to 20 men are required to work an ordinary life-boat, at the peril of their lives, steam life-boats would be readily managed by 4 or 5 men.

Yet notwithstanding these great advantages we fear that the difficulties in the way of propelling our coast life-boats by the aid of steam are insurmountable, and that the only mode in which it can be made available is through the medium of ordinary steam-tugs, at the very few localities, such as Liverpool and Ramsgate, where there are outlying banks and sheltered ports, from which life-boats can be taken in tow at all times of tide, and be placed in any position to windward or leeward of a wreck which may be most convenient and safest for reaching it.

We will at once assume that screw propellers, with the requisite machinery for working them, can be readily fitted to life-boats, and that by such means a greater speed might be obtained against a strong wind and a moderate sea; but the difficulties only then commence.

In the first place, a life-boat, like the " stormy petrel," which is rarely seen when the heavens are calm, and the sea is smooth, has its work to do amidst broken seas, and curling surfs where no other boats can live. Except in cases of collision and foundering at sea, when the life- boat's help can rarely be obtained, vessels are wrecked through running aground, either on outlying banks or rocks, or on the open coast, in both of which cases, in nine instances out of ten, life-boats have to be launched from an open and exposed beach through a high surf. On such occasions if the shore be flat, they have to be conveyed through the heavy surfs which frequently in gales of wind form one continuous mass of broken -water to the distance of a mile or more from the shore. In being so, heavy seas break over them, often filling them to the level of the thwarts, from three to four tons of water frequently breaking into a life-boat from a single wave.

It will then be readily imagined, even by those who have never seen a life-boat, that there would be extreme difficulty in suffi- ciently protecting the fires, to prevent their being extinguished, whilst at the same time preserving the necessary draught of air to enable them to burn, and sufficient access to them by the engineer in charge.

The second difficulty arises from the extremely violent motion to which, such- boats are often subjected, they being sometimes thrown into almost a vertical position, when bow or stern to the sea, the one being lifted high into the air, and the other buried beneath the water's surface; whilst the lateral motion is even more violent when broadside to the waves, the men on the lee side of the boat some- times being up to their waists in the water. Many instances have also occurred of life-boats being altogether upset.

What would happen to the steam and fires of a steam life-boat, if upset, although like the self-righting life-boats of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION she j might remain only momentarily keel-up, we will not pretend to say, since no steam- boat of any description has ever yet passed through such an ordeal. We believe, however that there would be the greatest risk of derangement of the machinery, and consequent disabling of a life-boat from the mere extent and violence of the motion to which it must frequently l e submitted, and we need scarcely remind our readers, that unless such a boat was likewise provided with a full crew, and full complement of oars, with room to use them advantageously, her being disabled might under some circumstances lead to the destruction of herself and crew.

j It has also to be remembered that the average draught of water of all life-boats, 1 except the heavily water-ballasted boats on a portion of the Norfolk and Suffolk | coasts, is only about 19 inches, so that ! their screw-propellers would need to be of very small diameter and would be frequently above the surface of the water ' altogether, so as to work at a great disadvantage when going against a heavy head- ; surf.

' A third, and, as far as we see, insurmountable difficulty, is the fact that the only class of men that are available to work the life-boats on the coast, Viz.,-the fishermen and other boatmen, would be incompetent to manage a steam-engine, and to keep it in proper order. They are skilful in the use of the sail and the oar, through having them in every-day use in following their avocation; but they know nothing of steam or steam-engines, and as at the majority of stations the life-boats would not be sufficiently often in use for them to acquire the necessary knowledge by experience, the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION would have to seek competent trained men elsewhere. This might appear to persons unacquainted with the system of the Institution to be a difficulty easily overcome; "but it is not so, since, apart from the probability that the local boatmen would not, at many places, volunteer to work such boats, it would be necessary to maintain at each place a practical engineer, and to pay him a sufficient salary for his maintenance ; for, unless he were to take the place of the village blacksmith, he would find no other employment in his own line of business.

Up to the present time, the Institution has only paid the small sum of 81. annually to the coxswains of each of its life- boats, for taking charge of it and keeping it in good order, and in a state of readi- ness for service; and 2Z. annually to an assistant-coxswain to help him to clean his boat, &c.; both being also paid, on the same scale as the life-boat's crew on all occasions of going afloat in the boat, whether for proceeding to the rescue of shipwrecked persons, or for their quarterly -exercise in her. But these men earn their living by fishing, hovelling, or piloting, &c., as the case may be; and a small portion of their leisure time is sufficient for the effectual performance of their duties as coxswains. Their .services, or at least those of one coxswain to each boat would still be required, as a practical boatman, acquainted with the management of a boat in a heavy sea, would alone be competent to take command of a life-boat when afloat, and to direct her movements. To provide therefore, in addition, for the entire support of a skilled engineer would not only be quite beyond the means of the Institution, but would be doing a positive evil, by maintaining a large number of working men in a state of permanent idleness, to their almost certain ruin.

In illustration of the first and second difficulties above delineated, the following recent service of the Ramsgate and Broad- stairs life-boats may be quoted:— The Barque Idun, of Bergen, Captain H. C. Meidell, ran on the outer edge of the Goodwin Sands on the night of the 27th March last, where, at daylight, she was observed from Ramsgate and Broad- stairs; and, the life-boats at those places were speedily launched, and proceeded to the aid of her crew, the former being towed off to the Sands by a steam-tug, and the latter worked off under sail.

In the words of Captain Meidell, in a letter addressed to the London Daily Papers:— "The noble boats, under the able and skilful management of their persevering crews, came out from the land at daylight in the morning and dashed fearlessly into the foaming breakers, crossed the boiling sand, and at very great risk (the sea breaking heavily into them as they approached) j succeeded in reaching the ship and lying i alongside to our rescue. We were all then ! hastily, but most kindly, assisted into the : two life-boats (my daughter being with me a passenger), together with a quantity of nautical instruments, clothes, and other i effects. At this time the steam-tug was waiting to windward at the edge of the sand, near the breakers, to receive the boats; but on leaving the ship, they could not get off the sand, the tide not having flowed sufficiently to enable them to pass through the breakers; their crews were therefore compelled to wait and allow the boats to beat over the sand to leeward, the boiling sea breaking heavily into them for three hours, when at length they succeeded in getting off the sand, where the steam-tug (having come round to leeward) was waiting in readiness to receive them.

The tug then took the two life-boats in tow (one being disabled in her rudder), and steered for Ramsgate Harbour with flags flying from their mastheads, Where we arrived about three P.M." This description pourtrays in clear lan- guage the severe character of the work which our life-boats are sometimes called on to perform, and shows what valuable service a steam-tug may render in con- junction with them, although she cannot herself venture into the shallow and broken water into which a life-boat may be taken with impunity.

Now let the reader for a moment imagine a steam life-boat submitted to such .a test, beating for three hours on a Band- bank, with the sea continually breaking over her during the whole time. Even if the fires were not put out by the volumes of water breaking into and over the boat, is it likely that the machinery would bear uninjured such a series of violent concussions from contact with the ground, and remain in working order ? We think not.

Impressed with the importance and apparent immobility of the difficulties which we foresee, and have here endeavoured to pourtray, we do not feel able to expect that steam life-boats will ever come into general use.