THE fishermen round the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland play, as may naturally be supposed, the most important part in manning the fleet of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, and it is of course to their co-operation that the Institution in the first place looks. At 104 stations the entire Life-boat's crew is composed of fishermen, and at 85 other stations they partly man the boats, making a total of 189 stations where the LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION depends on the fishermen to carry out the noble aims which prompt its existence.

The public is well alive to the gallant acts done by out fishermen, both in the Institution's Life-boats and on the high seas, as the Press brings home to them, from time to time, especial deeds of heroism; but, "out of sight,out of mind," unfortunately holds good in Life-boat work as well as in most other matters, and there are many small, out-of-the-way places, small fishing villages, which have been the scenes of some of the most gallant exploits in saving life that are to be found among the records of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. Deeds done when no reporter has been present to extol the bravery of those who have done them, and perhaps nothing has appeared in the Press except a few lines to say that the Life-boat, at some place with an unpronounceable name, was out on the night of the inst., and saved lives; nothing to say how long this work took, or what suffering from exposure, in probably a bitter cold wind and driving snow, was endnred, &c., but simply the bare statement of fact. At any rate, the men who have done the work are the last to think it necessary to make a fuss about it, and would be very much surprised to be told that they had done anything out of the ordinary, for the real fisherman, is as modest as he is tough and hardy.

The deep-sea fisherman is, by the nature of his work, not able to take so active a part in Life-boat work as those that only fish in the neighbourhood of their village or port, for during many months in the year he is away in the large fishing boats in which he follows his calling.

At certain seasons, according to where the herrings are, or what other fishing is on hand, it is no uncommon thing to see Scotch, Lowestoft and Yarmouth, Ramsgate, Penzance, and Isle of Man fishing boats all together fishing, at one time of the year off the coast of Scotland, at another off Yarmouth, and at another on the Cornish fishing grounds, testifying as to the long distances they go from their homes, and the long absences en- tailed thereby.

When the deep-sea fisherman is at home, and Life-boat work is on hand, he is always to be counted on as ready to form one of the crew or to assist in launching.

Wherever it is possible the crews of the Life-boats are enrolled; that is to say, there is a certain number of men who always form the regular crew of the boat; sometimes two crews are enrolled, and sometimes more, but where the men who man the Life-boats are fishermen, it is extremely difficult to carry out this plan, for the very men who are enrolled as the Life-boat's crew may be at sea at the time the services of the boat are required, and, in fact, instances have occurred of the coxswain having been rescued by his own Life-boat, which has taken him out of his fishing boat in which he has been caught by one of those sudden gales which spring up so rapidly on our coasts, and which are such a scourge to our fishermen.

This inability to be able to count on the same men to man the Life-boat is one of the greatest difficulties the LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION has to contend with, especially where the Life-boat is worked by fishermen, and is the greatest obstacle to securing that discipline without which a Life-boat station can never be thoroughly efficient.

However good a seaman or boatman a man may be, he requires a certain amount of special training for Life-boat work, and in a fishing population, which numbers some hundreds of first-rate men, it can readily be seen that it would take a long time to impart the necessary information to each of these men by means of the quarterly exercises of the Life-boat, and although the Life-boat house is always accessible to any fisherman who might wish to make himself acquainted with the boat and her equipment, it is unfortunately true that the opportunity for doing this is seldom or never taken advantage of.

It may be thought, what can a man who has been at sea from childhood have to learn about a Life-boat ? Many things The mere fact of his having been at sea all bis life, in almost one type of boat, ha got him into a groove, and in that boa he knows, on the darkest night, where to put his hand on anything required. The position of the sheets, halyards, cable, and all other necessary ropes are as familiar to him as the door-handles and bell-pulls to the "land-lubber." In the life-boat everything will be strange to him; not only the position of the ropes, put the uses of the handles for admitting he water ballast, the manner of working he drop keels, the method of firing the sight signals and the place where they are stored, and, most important of all, the way in which the drogue is worked—that serious-looking brown canvas bag, that has caused much speculation as to its use n the inland towns where they have been been as forming part of the equipment of ,he " Demonstration " Life - boats. The safety of the boat and her crew depends on this drogue when running before a heavy, creaking sea, and although drogues have, 10 a certain extent, come into use in some of the small fishing cobles on the north- eastern coast, still a fisherman's know- edge of how to work it cannot be absolutely counted on. But, surely, a fisher- man can pull an oar ? Yes, assuredly; and no man will stick to it longer, but even here he requires exercise and instruction in a Life-boat, for where do you ever find ten or twelve fishermen pulling together in one boat ? They have to learn to keep stroke in a Life-boat, and although the Institution tries to assimi- late the nature of oar and rowlock to the local pattern, still it will not be quite the same thing to the fisherman, and he must get accustomed to the pull of a Life-boat oar. In the cobles mentioned above, it is customary for the time to be taken from the bow oar instead of the stroke. This would rather upset the fresh-water oars- man's idea of things; but the reason for this strange proceeding is because the man sitting on the thwart nearest to the stern is perpetually engaged with the lines or crab-pots, whereas the bow man can always be pulling. From these re- marks it will be seen that in fishing towns the LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION suffers from an emlarras de richesse as far as able and willing men are concerned, but is met by this great difficulty of discipline, a subject it is striving to grapple with, and, in fact, in recent years has, in many places, already done BO with considerable success.

Unlike the beach companies, mentioned in our last article, whose work is always in large 'sailing boats, the fishermen are called upon to work in every class of Life-boat, and to launch their boats in every conceivable way, according to the local circumstances, and what holds good in launching a boat in one place by no means follows in another. The larger proportion of boats manned by fishermen are of the pulling class, and are mounted on carriages, which are transported to the launching place either by hand or by horses. Some of the Life-boats launch from slipways, while a few can be moored afloat if the harbour is convenient, and the boat accessible at all stages of wind and tide.

Launching a boat from a carriage from an open beach into & boiling surf is by far the most difficult process of launching, and requires the greatest coolness and judgment. It is also by far the most picturesque description of Life-boat work, and anyone who saw the trials of the pulling Life-boats which took place at Montrose in the winter of 2892, would hardly forget the extraordinary sight of the seven Life-boats being launched. No horses were used, and the whole work was done by the Montrose fishermen.

They found the crews and also the launch- ing parties, and the launchers' part in the proceedings is no sinecure, for to ensure a good launch they must haul the carriage into the water until they are nearly up to their necks in water. The crew are in the boat, and up to now are fairly dry, except for the rain or snow which usually accompanies a strong north-easter at Montrose, but their time came afterwards, for when once afloat the breakers did not spare them. At these trials, and also frequently at the quarterly exercise, every bit as much risk is run as if they were actually on life service. The breakers are the same, whether you have to get through them for practice or for saving life, but in the latter case there is a more determined look in the men's faces, and a sort of solemnity which makes the dis- tinction between "peace and war" in Life-boat work; but whether it be to launch from a carriage on an open beach or from a slipway, or to thrash a boat out under sail over a harbour bar, the fisher- man is always to the fore.

Space does not permit us to quote many of the Life-boat services done by fishermen, but the accident to the Staithes Life-boat may be in the memory of some of the readers of this journal, and as this Life- boat service combined so many extra- ordinary experiences, we will just give an outline of what occurred, as an example of what sort of work the fishermen are called upon to do.

Staithes is a small fishing village on the Yorkshire coast, with some 150 fishermen who fish in small boats to within a radius of ten miles of their picturesque, rocky little bay or rather creek, for " bay " one could hardly call it, as it is but a little indentation in the rock-bound coast. It is open to winds between north and north- east, and when these winds are blowing the little " bay" is a mass of broken water, the sea heading with exceptional force on the promontories of rock which run out in ledges under water, locally called " steels," and between which boats have to pass to gain the open sea or return to shore. There are certain landmarks used in the daytime for avoiding these steels, and at night certain lights in the village (when they can be seen) guide the boats in.

The times for the men to leave Staithes for the fishing ground are chiefly de- pendent on the tides, for it is necessary to lift lines, crab-pots, &c., at slack water, consequently the men are sometimes out all night, or have to leave in the small hours of the morning and do not return till late in the afternoon. Such was the case on 27th November, 1888. Forty-five of the fishing cobles had left in the morning, each with a crew of three men, and were returning in the afternoon when they were caught in a terrific north-easter, which came down like a thunder-clap.

All the able-bodied fishermen being at sea and the people in Staithes seeing that the Life-boat must go out to the assistance of the fishing boats and convoy them in, the question arose who was to take her, as both the first and second coxswains were at sea.

It was not, however, debated long, for the old coxswain, Mr. Verrill, whose age had compelled him to retire some years previously, at once came forward, and forming a crew of what material was left behind, chiefly men of about his own age, he launched the Life-boat and proceeded to his comrades' assistance. Luckily the greater number of the cobles had got close home, but many were the anxious moments as each boat passed between the dreaded steels under the watchful eyes of the Life- boat men, who kept their boat in such a position as to be ready to pick up the crew of any coble that might be capsized. No disaster, however, occurred, and when it was thought that all the boats had returned safely to shore the Life-boat was beached. By this time darkness had come on, and hardly had the Life-boat been beached when it was discovered that one coble was still left outside! No sooner was this verified than Horn, the proper coxswain of the Life-boat, got a picked crew together, all of whom had been out in their cobles since 5 A.M. and it was now nearly 6 P.M., and proceeded to launch. Staithee was in those days one of the most difficult places on the coast of Great Britain to get a Life-boat to sea from, but since then, a- very great expense, the LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION 'has considerably improved the slipway, but no improvement could ever make it easy. After one failure the boa was got off and rowed out through the deafening breakers into the " mother sea,' and now began a period of terrible 'anxiety for those on shore and fearful hardship for those in the Life-boat.

The boat was soon lost sight of from shore, but the Staithes population re- mained on the beach, straining their eyes and no doubt haunted by terrible thoughts not soon to 'be dispelled, for about three quarters of an hour after the boat had n lost sight of, the coxswain suddenly emerged out of the surf and scrambled to shore, presently followed by one of the crew.

[t is difficult to imagine any more terribly dramatic scene, the people all huddled together, for there is not much open space on Staithes sea-front, especially when the tide is up, the pitch darkness only relieved by the white foam of the breakers and these two men emerging from this sort of cauldron. Poor Horn could not give a very clear account of what had happened; at any rate, he could not speak as to the fate of the rest of the Life-boat's crew and the crew of the coble. His account was, that they found the coble outside clear of the breakers, and with considerable difficulty got her crew of three into the Life-boat, and then cast the coble adrift to find her own way ashore, and made the best of their way in the Life-boat for the landing- place ; but, on account of the pitchy darkness, they missed the channel and crossed the " steel" just where the sea broke heaviest, and that a mountainous sea had overwhelmed them and capsized the boat, but he fancied when he came to the surface, after he was thrown into the water, that he saw the boat had righted herself, but could not be sure.

This was all that could be told to the anxious relatives of the fourteen men who were still missing. As the tide went down the coast was carefully examined, and in a little rocky inlet called Harden Loup was found the body of one of the gallant Life-boat men named Crooks.

After this all hope was given up, and although the grief-stricken people re- mained watching all night, there were not many who ever expected there would be any survivors. Nothing further was heard, and a terrible night was passed; but, except for the widow of poor Crooks, the dawn was not hopeless, for on the opening of the telegraph office a wire was received from Middlesbrough announcing the arrival of the Life-boat there with all on board except three. These three we can account for. On the Life-boat men returning to Staithes they told how the boat bad righted instantly, and how they had regained her, and had been blown out to sea by the wind suddenly shifting into the westward; how they had spent miserable hours at anchor until at last picked up by the steamer Elkd, of Stock- ton, which was bound south, but which took them in tow and towed them back to Middlesbrough. The marvel is that only one poor fellow lost his life, especi- ally as three of those in the Life-boat —namely, the fishing-coble's crew—had no life-baits on. The force of the wind was curiously exemplified by the following incident. On the iron viaduct which spans the deep valley behind the village of Staithes is a wind-pressure gauge, which rings a bell when the pressure of the wind is so great as to make it undesirable for trains to cross the ravine; this bell, which had never been rung before, was continually ringing on the evening of the 27th November, 1888, and no trains were allowed to pass over the viaduct. That night will long be remembered in Staithes.

(To be continued.).