By Captain HOWARD F. J. ROWLEY, C.B.E., R.N., Chief Inspector of Life-boats.

I GAVE an account, in The Life-Boat for May, 1920, of the reasons which had led the Institution to look for some mechanical means for launching Life- boats, where, until then, horses had been employed, of the preliminary trials which were made in March of last year with a Clayton Caterpillar Tractor, such as is used in agriculture, and of the alterations which it would be necessary to make in order to render the tractor " sea-worthy." Following on these very satisfactory trials the Institution purchased twenty Tractors, and the work of adapting them to our special requirements was begun.

The first of the adapted Tractors, destined for the Hunstanton Station, was completed in March of this year, having pasasd through her preliminary trials on the 23rd February at St. Ives.

Dynamometer tests gave a draw-bar pull of well over 4,500 Ibs.; after which the Tractor entered the River Ouse, until her magneto box was well sub- merged, going in to a depth of four feet of water. The patent sparking-plug covers were tested by deluging the engines with buckets of water applied with considerable pressure. On the 16th and 17th of March the final trials took place at Hunstanton, in the presence of General Lake, Admiral Rudd, and Commander Tower, of the Committee of Management, and of all the Inspecting Staff of the Institution.

The trials were most satisfactory in every respect, and it was found to be only necessary slightly to modify one attachment of the Tractor, and slightly to strengthen the draw and pushing bar in certain parts, before completing the remaining Tractors and despatching them to the coast.

On the 6th and 7th May trials were carried out at Hoylake with the Tractor •which had been sent to that Station.

These trials were under abnormal con- ditions, for they were intentionally made at dead low water, which meant that the Tractor had to travel for a full two miles from the Boat-house, to the water's edge over a beach which is a mixture of sand and mud. Over this difficult ground the launch was carried out without a hitch.

The Hoylake Tractor was the one which was inspected by the Prince of Wales outside the Central Hall at West- minster on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting. For her journey across London, drawing a Life-boat with her, from the Storeyard at Poplar, her tracks had been specially fitted with rubber pads. These were tried at Hoylake with the idea of seeing if they would give the Tractor a still firmer grip.

Made for the streets of London they did not prove satisfactory under the severer conditions of an actual launch.

New pads, to a special design, are now being made, and will, I hope, make it possible for the Tractor to get a good grip, not only on sand, but on shingle as well. If the new pads prove successful it will mean that the use of the Tractor [will be still further extended, and that we shall be able to send it to many more Stations than had at first been thought to be possible..