"MAN the Life-boat!" has become a household -word, and it may possibly prove of some interest to those who, have not had the opportunity of seeing different parts of the coast of England, or of studying the different types of the inhabitants of the coast, to have some account of the crews who are ever ready to man the Life-boats of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. I There is a considerable vagueness in the minds of a great proportion of the public about the manning and launching of Life-boats. The deep national pride in the existence of the LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION naturally centres itself in the Life-boat men; but to the generality of people a Life-boat man is a Life-boat man without distinction. He is pictured clad in oil- skins and cork, and is known to be ready, under any circumstances, to risk his life to save others, but very little is generally known about the particular sort of man or the various difficulties to be encoun- tered under the different aspects of Life- boat work.

That there are different sizes and types of Life-boats for the work also does not appear to be comprehended; and, although the " Life-boat Saturday " demonstrations are familiarising the inhabitants of the large inland towns with the boats and crews, still only the smaller class of Life- boat can be available for this purpose.

There is a widespread notion that all Life-boat work is done under oars, and it comes as a surprise to many to be told that the greater number of rescues have been made by sailing Life-boats, when an oar is not even touched. Perhaps in the future steam or otherwise mechanically- propelled Life-boats will be able to claim the largest number of lives saved; but it is very unlikely that sailing and pulling boats will ever be entirely superseded.

Generally speaking, at the places on the coast "where the greatest amount of danger to shipping exists, there is to be found a class of men to whom Life-boat work is second nature. Take for instance the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, off which perhaps the greatest number of casualties occur, this locality, at any rate, having quite as unenviable a notoriety as the Goodwin sands and those in the esttzary of the Thames. Along these coasts has lived for centuries the brave type of seafaring men who compose the well- known " beach companies," which are governed by communistic rules of a curious and interesting character, though they are not of so deep an interest as the men themselves, who at once strike one as being of a different race to their neighbours a few miles farther inland.

The ancestors of these men practically existed by disasters to shipping; conse- quently to he always on the alert, to have a thorough knowledge of the out-lying shoals, the tides, and above all how to manage a boat was the first necessity, and their descendants have up to this day cultivated those attainments.

These remarks apply equally to that part of the Kentish coast opposite the Goodwin sands and the Essex coast adjacent to the estuary of the Thames; here also are to be found men whose whole life and bringing in a position to reach her. These mistakes are almost non-existent with the class of men described above, who are to be found in other places on the coast of Great Britain, but undoubtedly the best known are those whom we have taken for an illustration, viz., the East Anglians and the men on the Kentish and Essex coasts.

Now it must be borne in mind that these men are, as a rule, distinctly different from up has served to produce the ideal Life-boat man. There is practically nothing about the management of boats left for them to learn, and it must be remembered that a Life-boat requires as much and as careful management as any other boat, if success is to be attained: a trifling mistake in manage- ment may cause the boat to miss the wreck and possibly lead to the loss of those whose lives are in danger through the vessel breaking up before the Life-boat is again what is generally understood as " fisher- men." If they fish at all, it is only of secondary importance. Salvage and "hovel- ling "—that is, assisting ships in various ways—is their true work, and there is no more satisfactory school for Life-boat men; for not only does it teach them to manage their own boats, but nearly all these men, in pursuit of their useful calling, get so much experience in hand- ling large vessels that they can be relied on to take them safely into port after haying helped them out of their position of danger.

So here we have, on the most dangerous parts of the English coast, a race of Life-boat men ready to hand; although, generally, where there is a dangerous coast there are able Life-boat men, there are unfortunately exceptions. The nature of the coast in some places makes it impossible for a seafaring population to gain a livelihood; for instance, at the mouth of the Humber, the Hull Trinity House is obliged to maintain a paid crew especially for Life-boat work, there being no local means of obtaining a livelihood.

But to return to the manning of the boats by the beachmen (a term comprising beach companies, salvage companies and hovellers). The Life-boats worked by these men are of the largest class, from 40 to 46 feet long, and 10 to 13 feet beam; their work is nearly always on the outlying sands, which are from about half a mile to fifteen or more miles from their station, and of course is always done under sail, with occasional assistance from tugs. Fifteen to twenty men make the crew, and in places where they are formed into beach companies, the Life- boat is entirely worked by the company, which usually consists of from forty to eighty men.

To satisfactorily work one of the large sailing Life-boats, a gang of no less than fifty men should be available. The boats themselves weigh between 9 and 11 tons, and cannot be mounted on carriages like the small pulling Life-boats, but must be dragged and shoved down to the water's edge, with their keels on skids. There are a few places on the coast where the shingle beaches are so steep (Deal, Walmer, Kingsdown, Aldeburgh, Dunge- ness, &c.) that it is only necessary to haul the boats to the "full," or top, of the shingle; the "skids" are then laid like sleepers of a railway, from the top of the beach to the water, and, at a signal from the coxswain, the boat is let go and her impetus takes her down the beach and into the breakers. The rest of the work is done by the boat's crew, who haul on the " warp," which is always kept laid out to an anchor about 150 fathoms seaward, until the boat is sufficiently far off the beach to be able to make sail. But at most places on the Norfolk and Suffolk coast the beach is not steep enough to admit of launching in this manner, and the boat has to be dragged actually to the water's edge; then a large pole called a " sett" is brought to bear against the stern of the boat, and by the combined efforts of the launchers pushing on the pole and the crew hauling on the warp the boat is got into the breakers, and gradually hove off until in a position to make sail.

The following description of a launch of a large sailing Life-boat on the Norfolk coast is taken from an article written and illustrated by Mr. CHAS. J. STANILAND, and published as a supplement to the Graphic of the 21st January, 1888 :— " The writer on retiring to roost would place a pea-jacket, unmentionables, socks and boots by the side of his humble couch, and on the first stroke of the Life- boat bell, would dive out of bed, insinuate himself into pea-jacket, etc., and rush down the narrow stairs, sometimes com- ing into collision with Tom Pout, Esq., on the road (poor Tom, the last time I saw him was past Life-boat work, and in sorrow, having just lost lost his nephew, Jack Sutton, by the disastrous yawl accident, which had plunged Caister into mourning), and out into the deep and holding sand belonging -and appertaining to those parts. Holloaing, plunging and colliding, come from all points the Caister heroes (the East Anglian has lungs), in costume various, with trousers and with- out, with shirts and without, mostly with- out shoes, they make their way to the shed, where, hanging from the rafters, are their oilies and sou'-westers, and, reposing under the benches are their boots and boot-stockings moninm, scuffling, shouting, shouts of 'Hurry up, boys!' from the coxswain, Philip George, and then an empty shed and a plodding line working their way through deep sugary sand to the Life-boat (you can't run on Caister sands); then, while some tumble on board, getting in masts and sails, others take away the legs that hold the boat upright, while the skids are placed in line with the boat.

" The Caister broad-backs keep the boat one at her stern, it is caught up by two beachmen and aligned with her bows.

She is kept moving steadily over her skids, and at last her bluff bows smash into the breakers, shipping tons of water. The next wave catches her, but the knowing ones are ready with the sett, they ship it on the stern-post, and, with a shout, send her off into the yeasty foam.

"Up goes the red-tanned foresail, up the orange mizen, fire flashes against the on the level by placing their B. B.'s under the cork-jacket surrounding her, and amid shouts of ' Hold her up; keep her up, Aaron,' and sometimes stronger lan- guage, she keeps on her even way to the surf. The hauling-off warp is taken on board, the remainder of the crew tumble in, and with a genuine East Anglian shout of ' Yo, ho, hi, hi, h-i-i, h-i-i-i-i-i,' the boat gathers way on her porpoise-oiled skids. As she goes over and clears the breaking spray, and, heeling over to an angle which looks fatal, she lurches off; the hauling-off warp is sent to take care of itself, and, clear of the beach, she is fighting her way, first over the Barber, then over the Scroby, away to the North Cross Sand, where for some hours a miserable, hopeless crew have been hoping against hope, and hanging on by their eyelids, as sailors say, awaiting succour from the shore.

 " Succour comes none too soon. Hope is nearly dead, when the boat, anchoring to windward, veers down to the wreck, takes the exhausted crew on board and makes for shore. There a pony-cart is chartered from the village, and the rescued men are driven off to the Sailors' Home at Yarmouth, where they are cared for and forwarded to their homes." Mr. Staniland for some time lived in one of the beachmen's houses whilst he was painting some of his well-known sea pictures, and the above account of the launch of the Caister boat is as teeming with life as his pictures, and may well be taken as a sample of what occurs when these large Life-boats are called out for service.

The character of these beachmen is much the same whether they live at Caister or Deal, and they will be found to be hard-working, self-respecting and very independent, but staunch friends when once they have " taken your measure." Up to now we have only dealt with one type of Life-boats' crew, but in a future article the part taken by the fishermen, pilots, boatmen and landsmen in working the Life-boats will be described, while the assistance given by that magnificent body of men, the coastguardmen, both in manning the boats and generally co- operating with the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, will also be touched on.

(To be continued. ).