IN the issue of this Journal for August, 1909, the adventures of a Life-boat flotilla on the voyage from London to the distant Orkneys were described.

Almost precisely two years afterwards another such flotilla, also consisting of three boats, left London for the North.

These boats were the Henry Vernon, for Tynemouth, a self-righting boat 40 feet long and 10 feet 6 inches in beam, having a Tylor petrol motor of 40 horse-power, capable of being run at 700 revolutions; the Elliot Galer and Helen Smitton, sister boats, for Seaham Harbour in County Durham, and St.

Abbs in Berwickshire respectively, boats of the "Watson" type, 38 feet long and 10 feet in beam, with 34 horse-power Wolseley engines, also capable of 700 revolutions at full speed.

In each of these cases the type and size of boat, as well as all the details of her equipment, were selected by her crews, the Institution considering that the men who man the boats should always have this choice. All three boats were built by the Thames Ironworks, Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Ltd.

Readers will probably not have for- gotten the snow-storm which swept over this country on the morning of the 5th of April last, turning the promise of spring to a scene of midwinter. It was in the height of this blizzard that the three boats left the East India Dock, and 'steering down the Thames, met the full onslaught of the easterly gale. The experience was a trying one for all, as the driving snow made it impossible for the helmsmen to discern either river bank, nor could they see more than a boat's length ahead of them. As the estuary broadened out, the boats began to feel the weight of the sea, and off Sheerness the officer in command felt that it would be futile to continue the passage, and the boats put into that port for the night. On the 6th the gale was unabated, and they remained securely in harbour; but on the next day they reached Harwich, and here during the ensuing week the "sea trials " took place. These proving very satisfactory, arrangements were made to start for the North immediately after Easter.

On the 18th of April the crews arrived at Harwich from their respective stations, each boat having a Coxswain and four men, and in addition a mechanic. On the 19th of April the boats began their voyage. Leaving Harwich with a strong southerly breeze on the bow, on reaching the Landguard Buoy they bore up, and, hoisting jib and foresail, steered along the Suffolk coast through the Covehithe Channel, and reached Gorleston at 6 P.M., securing for the night near the Life-boat House.

A great part of the following day— Thursday, the 20th of April—was spent in a heart-breaking attempt to get the Seaham boat's engine to start. Every possible thing was tried by the various mechanics, ably assisted by Mr. Addison- Williamson, the Chairman of the Gor- leston Life-boat Committee, who placed his time, his workshop, and his great experience of motor engines, at their disposal. At 6 P.M. the crews, weary of waiting, were about to make arrange- ments to spend another night at Gorles- ton,when the welcome buzz of the engines fell on their ears. A few minutes after- wards the boats were making their way out of Yarmouth Haven.

A gentle off-shore breeze, not strong enough to fill the sails, met them as they skirted the low-lying Norfolk shore, the remaining hour or so of daylight en- abling them to clear the various shoals close to this coast. Soon after passing Hasboro' Light they drew off the land, and, setting a course across the Wash, passed close to the Sheringham Buoy, whose tall staff and triangle were dimly discernible in the dusk. Soon after this the night, which had hitherto been brilliantly fine, with every star showing, began to cloud over; the wind backed towards the southward and came in little squalls which increased in force, and by two o'clock in the morning of the 21st it was blowing a fresh gale from the S.S.W., with a heavy following sea which caused the boats to yaw con- siderably, and made steering a matter of some difficulty. The rain fell in torrents, and the continual wash of the water in the boats did not add to the comfort of the crews.

Dawn broke shortly after four o'clock, and the opportunity was taken to re- plenish the petrol tanks from the deck cargo, an operation which can be per- formed in these new boats without stopping the engines, a matter of great convenience. The crew, who by this time were thoroughly wet and cold, got such comfort as they could from a cold meal; cooking, it may be mentioned, being quite impossible under the circum- stances, even if it were safe to allow it in a motor-boat. At ten o'clock, how- ever, their hearts were cheered by the look-out man's cry of " Land ahead !" And very soon all could make out the noble outline of Flamborough Head, from time immemorial a beacon to the mariner by day and, as its name implies, by night. Rounding it by about eleven o'clock, the boats hauled their wind, and with sheets aft and drop-keels down were just able to steer a course to weather Filey Brig. After passing this the gleaming crescents of Scarborough showed up ahead, and by one o'clock they had berthed alongside the Pier, and the crews dispersed to seek dry clothes and a hot meal, both very wel- come after eighteen and a half hours' continuous " running," which, albeit in some ways a trying experience, had, in the opinion of all, served to show the seaworthiness and weatherly quality of the boats.

At seven o'clock precisely on the morning of the 22nd of April the boats left Scarborough Harbour for what was for two of them the last day of the voyage. Setting sail to a moderate gale from the S.S.W., they ran within a cable's length of the magnificent suc- cession of bold headlands which form the coast of the North Riding. Close to the foot of noble Ravenscaur, and across the broad bight of Robin Hood's Bay, with the rei roofs of its village tumbling to the sea; under " high Whitby's cloister'd pile "—the splendid ruins of Hilda's Abbey ; by beautiful Runswick Bay, beloved of artists, and rock-girt Staithes, whence no fisherman goes out with any certainty of beaching his boat there that night ; by the 600 sheer feet of Boulby Cliff; past the smoking furnaces of Cleveland and the collieries of Durham, the two boats came to their destinations; the Elliot Galer reaching Seaham Harbour at two o'clock, and the Henry Vernon entering the Tyne shortly after three. TheHelen Smitten also reached the Tyne that day, and, remaining there the Sunday, got as far as Berwiok-on-Tweed by the evening of Monday, 24th, and left it next morning for her final voyage.

The arrival of the boats, which had been for such old-established Life-boat stations as Seaham and Tynemouth merely events of great interest, assumed an altogether different importance for the little fishing village of St. Abbs, the whole of whose inhabitants turned out on the 25th April to welcome their first Life-boat. As they waited and watched on that bright spring morning the thoughts of most must have surely gone back to that tragic night of waiting and watching when they strained their eyes to see the dim outline of a doomed vessel, until morning broke and they learnt that of the ship there was nothing left but stranded wreckage and floating cargo, of the life on board her only a wounded dog, which by some miracle had survived the buffeting of the waves and reached the shore.

This sad wreck of the steamship Alfred Erlan&sen with the loss of her whole crew was the immediate cause of the establishment of this Life-boat station, the people of St. Abbs having determined that never again should such a catastrophe occur without their having the means at hand for them to attempt to save life.

I Thus three more motor boats have | been added to the Life-boat Fleet, three j boats on which the Institution is un- doubtedly to be congratulated; good sea boats and fast sailers (an important fact when it is remembered that in all cases the motor is an auxiliary, and the boat contains all that is necessary for service entirely independent of it).

Moreover the engines themselves proved very satisfactory, for, except for the breakdown at Gorleston (which is not likely to occur again) they gave but little trouble and worked smoothly and well throughout, including the rather severe ordeal of an eighteen hours' con- tinuous run.

These boats bring the complement of motor Life-boats in the service of the Institution up to thirteen. Four more are now building, and still more will doubtless be laid down in the near future; the principle of motor propul- sion in Life-boats having now been, firmly established as a sound one. It is consoling to those who see the dis- coveries of modern science, too often, alas ! directed towards forging instru- ments of death, to know that in this case at any rate they are applied to the noble work of saving life, and to feel that the invention which has made the sub- marine possible has also produced the motor Life-boat..