" THE LIFE-BOAT AND ITS STORY." By Noel T. Methley. Sidgwick and Jack- son. 7s. 6d.

In our May issue we briefly noted the publication of this book, which reached us too late for review. As the Life- boat Journal was .going through the press we learnt, to our great regret, that Mr. Methley had died after a very brief illness. Fortunately, the author had the satisfaction, which will be readily appreciated by anyone who has published a book on a subject dear to his heart, of holding in his hand the finished volume and seeing some of the earliest notices. And no one who reads this volume can fail to see that it has been a labour of love to a man who has evidently taken the keenest interest, practical as well as theoretical, in everything connected with boats, and especially with Life-boats, with which he had a close acquaintance for over twenty-five years, and on behalf of which he did excellent service as a member of the Central Committee and Chairman of the West of England and South Wales District Committee of the late Life-boat Saturday Fund.

His services in this capacity were honourably recognised by the Committee of Management in the award of a barograph and a vote of thanks inscribed on vellum when the Fund was wound up, and one cannot but feel that his death is a real loss to the Life-boat cause.

The " Life-boat and its Story" deals, as its title implies, with the origin and development of this great instrument of humane and heroic service; and the illustrations, which are numerous and well chosen, enable even the most ignorant of land-lubbers to get a full and very clear idea of how a Life-boat is constructed, how it is tested for its arduous task, and how it lives and moves and has its being. Mr. Methley, following the lines indicated by Sir John Lamb in his book, " The Life-boat and its Work," allots the due meed of merit to Lukin, Wouldhave and Great- head, the three men whose names will ever be associated with the origin and development of the Life-boat in England, although pride of priority must clearly be given to M. de Bernieres, whose canot insubmersible et inchavirable was tried, with perfect success, on the Seine in 1775. We note that, while the trial is described in the French work by G.

de La Landelle, quoted by Sir John Lamb, Mr. Methley quotes another authority dealing with the later experiments made in August, 1777.

The author traces, in easy and popular language, the development of the Life- boats of various types which are at present employed by the Institution, dealing faithfully and with considerable detail with the variations and the improvements which time and experi- ence have suggested. In doing so he has taken a very wide survey of what might be called "life-boat types" in various parts of the world, ranging from the Viking ship of our Norse forbears to the enormous, heavy and extra- ordinarily well-poised surf-boats of the African coast, and rightly insisting upon the Norway yawl as the type upon which, on the whole, all true Life-boats have been based.

Mr. Methley has rendered a very good service, both to the public and to the Institution, in referring to the close attention and anxious care which the Committee of Management have taken, from the first moment of its establishment, in seeing that the instru- ments provided for our brave Life- boatmen are as perfect as human ingenuity and the progress of science could make them. Nothing could better illustrate this fact than the ever- increasing stringency of the tests applied to self-righting Life-boats, each cruel victory of the sea being made a starting-point of further slight im- provements, till it may be claimed that the present self-righting Life-boat is, of its type, as near perfection as humanity can achieve. It may be well to remind our readers that the test of the self-right- ing boat now is such that the boat must right with her full crew aboard, with water tanks full or empty, and even with the sails set, before she can be free. The other types of Life-boat are described with equal care and minuteness, even the tubular Life-boat receiving very full treatment. Mr. Methley has also dealtsensibly and clearly with the question of mechanically-propelled boats, and it is to be hoped that the public will understand, after a perusal of this book, that neither steam Life-boats nor motor boats are suitable to all parts of the coast and to all circumstances, although the tendency will undoubtedly be to increase the number of motor boats where the very special conditions which they demand are obtainable. The quali- ties which the Institution requires from its motors are well summarised in Mr.

Methley's words as " simplicity, accessi- bility to all parts, an engine capable of running for twelve hours without atten- tion, and of being listed 45° on occasion, or 25° permanently. An automatic cut-out switch is required if she heels to excess (60° and upwards), and a governor to prevent racing." We may note that, at the present moment, there are four- teen Motor Boats on the coast, while another is ready for dispatch to her Station, and four others are under construction.

Mr. Methley gives much interesting information with regard to the Station and its equipment in dealing with the various kinds of slipways which form so important a feature in the machinery of the Life-boat service. He also has many a stirring tale to tell of gallant rescues by Life-boatmen who have gone out again and again, though exhausted by many efforts, till their courage and endurance have triumphed in the battle with the elements. But perhaps the most interesting feature in the book is the very full treatment of Life-boat service abroad and in the British Colonies. We have nowhere seen so complete an account of the services in those other countries which have, for the most part, modelled themselves upon our own; and Mr. Methley is very fair in comparing the efforts made and the results achievedin different countries, bearing in mind the widely varying conditions with which each has to deal.

There are, too, pleasant gleams of hu- mour, especially in the description of the freaks and oddities of inventors of Life - boats, some of which remind one of Gilbert's description as being " something between a large bathing machine and a very small second-class carriage." We feel, on closing this book, that we hare been brought into very pleasant and intimate contact with the Life-boat and the splendid men who man her, and we cannot help regretting that Mr.

Methley should not have lived to enjoy the success of a book which, together with Sir John Lamb's smaller work, ought to be in the hands of everyone who takes an interest irv a work whieb.

provides a living example of British courage, endurance and humanity..