THERE are more ways than one of launching a Life-boat. Perhaps the most elementary way now in use is that of pushing her into the water over skids thrown down on the foreshore.

The quickest, and therefore the most satisfactory way at present devised, is to place the Boat at the top of a steep slipway, down which, when released, she runs by her own weight into the water —a matter of a few seconds only. At many Stations the Boat is conveyed from the boat-house to the sea on a carriage drawn by men or horses; and at a number of these which have flat sandy beaches it is now proposed to replace horses with motor caterpillar tractors.

At a few Stations the Boat is mounted on a trolley running on rails laid from the boat-house over the fore- shore into the sea. In all these cases it should be noted, however, that the Boat takes the water bow first, and it is only at two Stations at present that this principle is departed from.

At Port Patrick the Boat is lowered into the harbour by means of a crane, and at Sunderland she is lowered into the river on a plat- form or " lift." Before describing in more detail the I arrangements at Sunder land, the reasons I for adopting them will be first explained.

It was decided in 1912 to place a Motor Life-boat at Sunderland, but the questions of where to house the Boat and how to launch her presented some difficulties. No site for a slipway could be found on the south side of the river, and the north side was too far from the crew's homes. At spring tides at Sunderland the difference in level be- tween low water and high water is I about 14Jrft.,and allowing for launching the Boat at the lowest tide and for hauling her up out of the reach of the 1 highest tide, a slipway about 200 ffc.

| in length would be required. A ! site of this length could not be i found alongside the busy quays on j the south side of the river, and i where space was available in the outer j Harbour the site was too exposed in heavy weather.

! In order to meet these difficulties it I was at first proposed to place the Boat i on a floating pontoon moored within " dolphins " or piles alongside the Perry Landing Jetty. Here, where the boat- i house now stands, there was room [ enough for a pontoon 50 ft. long, though a slipway was out of the question. The proposal, however, was abandoned, because at low water the pontoon would have been aground unless the site had been dredged, and this would kave entailed future difficulties and great expense in maintaining the extra depth of water.

It was then proposed to place the Boat on a platform which could be lowered into and lifted out of the water vertically. The difficulty about available space was met equally well by this device as by a pontoon. A similar scheme had been adopted at Marseilles, but there, the tidal rise being about 3 ft. compared with 14| ft.

at Sunderland, much less work is re- quired in lifting and lowering the Boat.

On the score of cost, it was decided, at first, to work the lowering and lifting machinery by hand power, and this is now being done; but it has since been decided to have a petrol engine to do the work, and this will shortly be installed.

The writer hopes that readers of The Life-Boat will be able to picture to themselves, by the aid of the diagram, the whole arrangement—the tall piles in the river carrying the boat-house ; the well, open to the river at its front end and with "deck platforms along each side and at the back of it: the moving platform for the Boat suspended by four steel wire ropes ; the drums round which these ropes are wound; the two main shafts of solid steel carrying the drums; and, lastly, the winch and gearing by which these shafts are turned. The diagram is a perspective view looking into the house at low water, showing the Boat and platform partly lowered so that the ropes and winding machinery can be seen. The house itself is not shown.

When the platform reaches the bottom of its travel it is so held that, as the ropes continue to be wound out it gradually tilts forward and the boat is inclined ready to slip into the water as soon as she is released.

While the Boat is being lowered and tipped she is secured by a slip chain to a mooring bar at the rear of the well, the bar being lowered synchronously with the platform by the same winding machinery. This detail is omitted from the diagram in order to avoid confusion.

As soon as the Boat is fully tilted for a launch her slip chain is released.

As the Boat is mounted on rollers, she slips off the platform by her own weight and runs over some steel rail skids into the river channel. Such is a launch at low water of spring tides, but if the tide should be higher the boat is only lowered into the water until afloat, when her propeller is started and she i is away.

When the Boat returns she is steered I into the well, placed correctly over the platform, and secured to it by preventer ropes on each side fore and aft. Boat and platform are then slowly wound up out of the water, when the slip chain is again attached, and the wor.k of winding them up into the boat-house is completed.

! The lifting and lowering machinery is more difficult to describe without recourse to technical terms, but it may be realised by the following train of movements. First, there are men turn- ing four handles; these handles turn toothed wheels, which turn other toothed wheels. These latter turn a shaft running across the boat-house at the back of the well. At each end of this shaft are what are termed " worms "— just screws with the threads far apart.

These worms turn a pair of big-toothed wheels, indicated in the diagram, and these big wheels turn the main shafts running along each side of the well.

Fixed to these shafts are the drums round which are wound the wire ropes attached to the boat platform and mooring bar.

When the boat is being lowered two men are sufficient for turning the handles. Moreover, an arrange- ment is provided so that the Boat is lowered more quickly than she is lifted. For lifting, eight men are required to turn the handles, and it is hard work for them all. Soon, however, a neat little petrol engine will be doing the work. But for the war, and the necessity of curtailing expenditure, it would have been pro- vided sooner..