By H. de BOOY, Secretary of the North and South Holland Life-Saving Society.

No doubt ships have stranded and lives have been lost and saved on the coast of Holland from times immemorial, but it was the year 1824 before a Life-boat Service was founded.

On a stormy day of November of that year a disaster took place near Huis- duinen, where ten men lost their lives in a valiant endeavour to save a ship- wrecked crew with a boat totally unfit for the work. Under the vivid im- pression of this disaster, a couple of Amsterdam gentlemen, on the llth November, 1824, founded the "Noord- en Zuid - Hollandsche Redding-Maat- schappvj" (North and South Holland Life-Saving Society), and a few days later, on the 20th November, at Rotter- dam, the "Zuidhollandsche Maatsohappij tot Redding van Schipbreukelingen" (South Holland Society for the Saving of Shipwrecked Persons) was founded.

Why a national Life-boat Society for the whole coast of Holland was not founded I do not know. The fact is that the sit- uation of 1824 has remained unaltered.

It is of no use to talk about the pros and cons of this arrangement. In Holland the Life-boat Service is entrusted to two Societies.

The first named — the Amsterdam Society—attends the coast of Holland from the mouth of the Eems to the village of Loosduinon, south of Schev- eningen, and also the coast of Friesland; the last named attends to the coast to the south of Loosdumeii, comprising a small part of the coast of the province of South Holland with the important Station of Hook of Holland, and the coast of Zeelaud. All told, the two Societies maintain 30 Stations with 49 Life-boats, which is not bad if one compares the length of coast-line with the number of Life-Boats.

The organisation of the Dutch Life- Boat Service is very much like 'that of the British Society. With the exception of a small Governmental subsidy of £800 to the South Holland Society, the two Societies are supported solely by volun- tary contributions, and voluntary con- tributions also founded them. At every Stationouefinds an Honorary Committee, which appoints the coxswains, registers the crews, and sees about the quarterly boat-drills. Much valuable work is done by the Committees when shipwrecks occur, especially on the islands of the north of Holland—Texel, Vlieland, Ter- schelling, Ameland—where roads are scarce and the Boats have often to be transported for long distances along the beach : their work is often very tiring and full of anxiety. They report to headquarters at Amsterdam or Rotter- dam. Inspections are held by inspectors, by the Secretary and members of the Board of Directors. The Coast-guard, a Government Service along the whole length of the coast, looks out and reports to the Committees whenever it discovers anything. All the Committees are con- nected by telephone and telegraph. The rocket-brigades, however, are not, as in England, a separate Service, but belong to the Life-Boat Service. Every Life- boat Station is equipped with rockets and line-throwing appliances.

Types of Life-boat.

The boats are rowing and sailing boats and motor and steam boats. The beach boats, which nrast sometimes be carried along the beach for many miles, are less heavy than the British Life-boats. They are boats of 30 ft. length, 7.1, ft. width, and weigh about 2 tons. The carriage weighs about 1 ton. The carriages are pulled by 10 horses. As horses are getting scarce at some places, we have been obliged to look out for other means of transport. We were very happy to accept the very kind invitation of the ROYALNATIONAL LlFE-BoAT INSTITUTION to be present at trials with motor tractors at Hunstanton and Worthing, and have since, after successful trials at Katwyk, stationed one at Scheveningeii. We are expecting some more tractors for other places. My idea about tractors is that they are splendid instruments. They will, however, only be stationed where horsos are lacking.

Of Steam and Motor Boats we now have seven, some of which are big, powerful boats. The Steam Life-boats at Hook of Holland are 55 ft. long, and are propelled by the expulsion of water.

They have no screw propeller. At Terschelling and Vlissingen (Flushing) one finds 58 ft. Motor Boats, litted with the very reliable 76 h.p. "Kromliout" petroleum motors. Of these Boats the Brandaris at Terschelling has gained fame by her daring and successful ex- ploits. She is built of steel, as are all the other Motor Boats, and, since 1911, when she was launched, she has saved the lives of 240 men at 20 shipwrecks. The largest number of men she brought ashore in one haul was 70, and there was room for more on board. Other smaller Motor Life-boats are stationed at Rottum and Scheveningen. We hope to build three more, two large boats of the improved Srandaris type, and one 50 - footer.

They are to be stationed at Helder, Harlingen and Ymuiden. They will, however, cost more money than we can afford to pay at this moment. The big boats, if built in Holland, will cost about 100,000 guilders (about £8,500) apiece. Some say, " Ask Government.

Government, after all, is responsible for the efficiency of the Life-boat Service." In these times of Governmental meddling with everything this line of thought is nothing extraordinary. When one con- siders, however, that the Life-boat Service to be efficient must be as much as pos- sible free of red tape, one begins to doubt whether a Government Service would be better.

Support of the Shipping Companies.

Of one thing I am quite sure — a Government Life-boat Service would be infinitely more expensive. Although very thankful to Government for support in many ways, we did not ask Government money, but applied to those who, more than any others, have an interest in an efficient Life-boat Service. We have in view the owners of ships—the Shipping Companies—and we are happy to say that our request got a very generous response. Of 400,000 guilders we want for the building of new Motor Boats and the buying of motor tractors, the Ship- ping Companies gave us more than 200,000. We hope to get the rest in shipping circles.

The financial position has become rather difficult by the enormous rise of prices of everything. The Life-boat Service in Holland at present costs about 100,000 guilders (about £8,500) yearly, not too much if one takes into consideration that for this sum a fleet of fifty Life-boats, of which seven are Motor or Steam Life-boats, is maintained and everything is paid, the building of the ordinary beach boats included. The capital of the two Societies affords a yearly income of about 30,000 guilders (about £2,550) and the rest has to come from contributions, legacies, etc. I am happy to say that we usually succeed in making both ends meet, but the building of big Motor Life-boats, the buying of motor tractors, will demand large sums of money and a large ex- penditure in the way of salaries of fixed crews, which, with intricate instru- ments like Motor Boats, cannot be done without.

The Dutch Life-boat Men.

We do miss the splendid organisation of propaganda we find in England. We have no Branches, no self-supporting Stations, no annual general meeting.

I We have a journal, de Reddingboot, but the number of regular subscribers is still small, about 2,000. A lot of work must still be done in the way of propa- ganda, for, though money is never lack- ing when some building scheme has to be carried out, it sometimes is not thought of that, by the building of Motor Boats and such instruments that want special care, the expenditure in the way of fixed salaries, repairs, and so on, is much enlarged. We want more regular income.

" Lest best " we say in Holland, which means that we keep the best for the end. I am now finishing up with the crews, the soul of the Service. The men, even in these egoistic times, keep up the noble tradition of the Service. They risk their lives on a coast which has always been known for its dangerous character, a coast exposed to the full force of the gales from the west. They must be very much like their British col- leagues, and not so very much different from their forefathers who met the English on the seas some centuries ago.

Here is one of them; his name is Theodoras Rijkers. He was for twentyfive years Coxswain of the Helder Lifeboat.

Following is the list of his rescues :— Men rescued.

1872. Dutch ship Australia . . . . 25 1876. British s.s. Niger 18 1880. German frigate Gustav Oscar . . 21 1881. Norwegian brig Pallas . . . . 4 1881. German schooner Schioalbe. . . 3 1881. Dutch fisherman 3 1881. Dutch schooner 6 1881. Russian barque Torsen . . . . 1 2 1881. British barque Hospodar . . . 4 1882. British s.s. Strathmore . . . . 4 1883. German barque Viva 4 ! 1884. British s.s. Sapphire 27 1885. British schooner Mary Emma . . 5 1885. British smack Herbert Polly . . 6 1886. Norwegian schooner Skjold. . . 7 1886. British frigate Brambletye . . . 2 1 1887. Belgian smack Ferdinandus . . 7 1887. German barque Renown. . . . 2 5 1888. German barque Apollo . . . . 15 1889. British barque Scottish Fairy . . 1 7 1889. German s.s. Johannes . . . . 13 1889. British s.s. Dragonfly . . . . 2 2 1890. British s.s. Elstow' 11 1890. Dutch smack Februari . . . . 5 1891. British s.s. Tuscar 32 1893. British s.s. Lucy March . . . . . 7 1893. Danish schooner Express . . . 6 1895. British s.s. Wandle . . . . «•.. 23 1896. Russian barque Uman . . . . 13 1896. Dutch Bom 9 1897. British s.s. Harrow 3 1897. British s.s. Zamora 11 1900. British s.s. European . . . . 12 1907. British s.s. Turbo 16 1907. British s.s. Ninian Paton . . . 38 1908. British s.s. Volta 13 1908. Italian barque Roma 3 1911. German schooner Elfriede . . . 6 The total is 38 rescues and 487 men saved. In 1911 he resigned because of diminishing strength. In his letter to the Board of Directors he expressed the wish that the Lord might grant one more shipwreck before the date of his resignation, and that he might be successful in rescuing the men. I am happy to say his wish was granted.

It was the last one of the list, the schooner Elfriede, and Rijkers took off' the men with considerable difficulty.

But he was not quite happy ; there was some grumbling about the size of the ship ! Last summer we had the pleasure of seeing our British colleagues in Holland, when Mr. George F. Shee, the Secretary of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, Captain Howard Rowley, C.B.E., R.N., Chief Inspector, and Mr.

Felix Rubie, M.I.N.A., Surveyor of Lifeboats, paid us a visit for the particular purpose of inspecting our Motor Lifeboat Brandaris, which was built for us in 1910. These gentlemen arrived at Amsterdam on the 17th July, and I met them with Mr. van Lennep, a member of our Committee of Management, and Mr. Goedkoop, Director of the big ship - building works in Amsterdam, and the builder of the Brandaris. On that afternoon we went to Hindeloopen, a little hamlet on the Zuyder Zee, where, on the 18th July, we saw the launch of the Hindeloopen Life-boat.

We then proceeded to Gaast, another small Station on the Zuyder Zee, and inspected a Surf-boat. From there we went to Harlingen, where we went on board the Brandaris, and crossed the Zuyder Zee, passing out into the North Sea through the chain of islands between Terschelling and Vlieland, and got a good view of the American ship West Aleta, from which the Brandaris had only a short time before rescued the crew of 46. We landed on the Island of Terschelling, and saw the Life-boat there launched as we entered the harbour.

The next day we saw the launch of a Life-boat on the northern shore of Terschelling, and then went on board the Brandaris, and so back to Harlingen, 22 miles distant. This practically completed the British representatives' Life-boat visit, but we returned together to Amsterdam. I have been very glad to hear that the visit was much enjoyed by the Secretary of the Institution and his colleagues, and it was a great pleasure to us to receive these gentlemen and entertain them in Holland. I feel sure that such mutual visits, giving an opportunity of exchanging experiences, must be of great value, and I shall look forward to a constant interchange of ideas with regard to the splendid, humane service in which both Societies have been engaged for nearly one hundred years..