THE year 1921 was one of phenomenally fine weather. A very mild winter was followed by a summer of drought and an autumn almost without gales. In fact, there was no really severe weather until Christmas. The year then went out in storms, and during its last ten days there were Life-boat launches all round the coast. Yet mild as 1921 was, it showed how essential to the British Isles, with their 5,000 miles of coast, is a complete and ever-vigilant Life-boat Service. The Institution gave rewards during the year for the rescue of 410 lives, and its Life-boats helped to save twenty-two boats and vessels from destruction. These figures are small compared with those in years of heavy storms, but, in such a year as 1921, they are eloquent proof of the dangers of our coasts. Even during the six summer months, April to September, the average number of lives saved was eight every week. Altogether, since the Institution was founded in 1824 up to the end of 1921, it has given rewards for the rescue of 58,364 lives.

and made by the Birmingham Small Arms Company, and a full description, by the Chief Inspector of Life-boats, of this most important addition to the equipment of a Life-boat will be found elsewhere.

* * * * Of all the developments of the year, however, the most important is the laying down of the first of the new sixty-foot Motor Life-boats, which will be the largest and most powerful in the world, and the first of our Motor Lifeboats to have cabin accommodation. I hope, in the May issue of The Life-Boat, to publish a full account, by the Chief Inspector, of this new Boat, and of the novel features embodied in her.

The year was one of great activity in other ways. Six Motor Life-boats were completed and sent to their Stations, making a total of thirty on the coast out of a fleet, at the end of the year, of 241. One Motor Life-boat is temporarily out of commission, and is not included in these figures. Twelve more were under construction at the end of the year, of which seven were nearing completion. During the year the Institution also adapted five Motor Caterpillar Tractors for launching, and carried out experiments with various devices for effecting communication between Life-boat and wreck. The Institution has now adopted a shoulder gun, designed This great activity in building has, inevitably, meant a great increase in expenditure. Our total expenditure for the year was £300,679, nearly £61,000 more than in 1920, while the revenue was £31,000 less than in that year, when it I reached the highest figure hitherto attained. The most serious decline was in special gifts, which fell from nearly £20,000 to £5,000, thus accounting for three-fifths of the total decline. The contributions from Branches fell by over £11,000.

* * * * In view of the unprecedented conditions of 1921, and the increased difficulty which was experienced in getting helpers for Life-boat Days, I do not think that this is a result which need discourage us in the slightest degree.

! Indeed, I feel that the Institution may I well see in the fact that the decline was no greater, in spite of unemployment and general distress, a further proof of : the deep and generous interest of thepublic in the Life-boat Service, as well as of the energy and enthusiasm of its thousands of voluntary workers.

* # * * The fact remains, however, that we have a deficit on the year's working of over £100,000. I touched on this question in the November issue, and it is dealt with fully in the Annual Report.

I will, therefore, only say now that I earnestly hope all Life-boat workers will be induced by these figures to make a special effort during 1922, in order that we may increase our permanent income in proportion with the increasing cost of the Service.

The French Life-boat Service.

I have recently received a copy of Annales du Sauvetage Maritime, the journal of the Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages (the French Life-boat Society, which is supported, like our own, by voluntary contribu- tions) . It contains a report of the Annual General Meeting of the Society for last year. I notice that the President of the French Republic, the Minister of Marine, the Minister of Public Works, the Under Secretary of State for the Merchant Marine, the Minister oi Com- merce, the Minister of Finance, the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, the Military Governor of Paris, and the Director General of the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr were all officially represented at the meeting. It is not -without feelings of envy that I congratulate M. Granjon de Lepiney, the Secretary of the French Society, on the ample way in which the State shows its recognition of the national value of the French Life-boat Service.

* * * * It is further, and striking, evidence of this State recognition that the Report announces that two French Life-boat men have been decorated with the Cross of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

No State decoration of any sort or kind has ever been given to any British Life- boat men—except by foreign Govern- ments and monarchs !—though many have records unsurpassed for courage and devotion to duty. Moreover, al- though over 5,000 lives were saved during the war, many of them from mined or torpedoed vessels, and the Life-boat crews continually risked their lives in the danger-zone, there was no State recognition of these splendid services, and when the Institution asked that its men should receive either the British War Medal or the Mercantile Marine War Medal, which were specially awarded to the Mercantile Marine and the Pilotage, Lighthouse and Fishing Services, we were informed that Life-boat men were not eligible. I still hope that it may be possible to get this injustice put right.

French and British Shipowner! : A Contrast.

I have read nothing in the French Annual Report more interesting than the terms in which it refers to the help of the French shipping companies.

Vice-Admiral Touchard, in his Presi- dential address, said : " I should be very ungrateful if I did not offer very warm thanks to our generous con- tributors, among whom henceforth the great shipping companies hold one of the chief places, for since the beginning of the year they have handed to us 150,000/rawcs, collected on board their ships, thanks to the kind help of their captains and officers.

The Annual Report of the Society speaks of the shipping companies in the same warm terms. " Well able to appreciate the part flayed by our Institution, they do much to spread a knowledge of what it does, and are real collaborators in its work. We cannot say too much in ex- pressing our gratitude to them." In France, as in Norway and Holland, the shipping companies, in striking con- trast to our own, recognize their obliga- tions towards their Life-boat Service.

* * * * I regret to state, for instance, that an Honorary Secretary of one of our most notable Stations, who has recently settled in the East, informs me that on the ship in which he travelled out there were no Life-boat collecting-boxes, nor was he able to secure any portion of the daily sweepstake for the benefit of the Institution ; nor was any state- ment issued at any time as to the total amount assigned to charitable pur- poses from such sweeps. I may addthat the ship in question belongs to a noted passenger line whose contribution to the Institution is microscopic—far below that of most foreign shipping companies.

Yacht Clubs and the Institution.

A few yacht clubs are regular subscribers to the Institution, and in the hope of enlisting the support of others a special letter from the Chair- man was sent, last November, to about a hundred of the leading clubs, asking if they would put up one of the Institu- tion's collecting-boxes in their club- rooms and place The Life-Boat pro- minently among the papers in their reading-rooms. This was not very much to ask, but only three clubs have re- plied. I cannot think that this indiffer- ence really represents the attitude of the majority of yachtsmen towards a Service which they should feel specially called upon to support, and I hope that Honorary Secretaries on the coast will make a special point of approaching the yacht clubs in their districts and asking them to help the Institution, either as subscribers or in the way sug- gested in the Chairman's letter.

The Dutch Life-boat Service.

All those who read in the Journal for last February the admirable account of the Dutch Life-boat Service, by Mr.

H. de Booy, the Secretary of the North and South Holland Life-Saving Society, will learn with especial regret of the losses which the Dutch Service sus- tained in the first winter storms at the end of last October. Of the forty-nine Life-boats on the Dutch coast, five are Motor Boats, and two of these are, at present, the largest Life-boats in the world, being fifty-eight feet long, two feet shorter than the projected new Motor Boat for New Brighton. One of these two Boats, The Brandaris, * was stationed on the island of Ter- schelling, off the north coast of Holland, at the mouth of the Zuyder Zee. She left her Station at 1.30 P.M. on the 23rd October in a N.N.W. gale, to go to the rescue of a German schooner, passed through the dangerous channel called * A full-page photograph of her appeared in the February issue last year.

" Spilt Milk," between Terschelling and Vlieland, the next in the long chain of islands which runs along the north coast of Holland, and was seen from this island at 4 o'clock. And that is the end. She never returned, nor was seen again.

* * * * Four life-buoys and one Kapok life- belt were washed up—and that was all.

Four months later, I heard from Mr.

de Booy that the body of the Coxswain had come ashore.

* * * * The Brandaris had a very fine record.

In eleven years she had been out on eighty-eight services, had rescued 231 lives, and helped many ships. In the summer of 1920, when the Chief In- spector, the Surveyor of Life-boats and I visited a number of the Dutch Stations, we went out in The Brandaris and into the North Sea by " Spilt Milk "—the way that she took on her last tragic voyage.

* — * * * The loss of The Brandaris is a heavy one when it is remembered that she was one of five Motor Life-boats on the Dutch coast, and it is with real pleasure that the Institution has just learnt that an Amsterdam Society, called " Help After Investigation," has offered to provide a new Motor Life-boat to bear the old name. This is another instance of the public spirit of the Dutch with regard to their Life-boat Service.

The Norwegian Life-boat Service.

I would specially commend to all readers of The Life-Boat the most interesting article elsewhere in this number on the Norwegian Life-boat Service, by Mr. Ottar Vogt, the Secre- tary of the Norwegian Life-boat Society.

Mr. Vogt wras in this country at the end of last year for the purpose of studying both the Boats and the methods of our Institution, and was on board the Blyth Motor Life-boat for a part of her voyage from Cowes to her Station.

* # # # The special interest of the article is that it describes a. Life-boat method entirely different from our own—a method evidently well suited to the special conditions of the Norwegian coast, for it has had very fine results.

The Norwegian Life-boats are not placed at Stations from which they are launched when required, but cruise up and down the coast, their voyages being largely determined by the movements of the fishing fleets. It is a method which in conceivable circumstances—as, for example, the failure to find crews on some part of the coast—the Institu- tion might find itself led to adopt. Mr.

Vogt's article, it is worth noting, has not been translated, but was written by him in English, a circumstance on which I should like here to congratulate him.

An Echo of an Old Life-boat Service.

At Peel, Isle of Man, on the morning of the 7th October, 1889, during a N.N.W. gale of unusual violence, with torrents of rain, a large full-rigged ship was seen about ten miles away with nothing standing but the mizen-mast and the stump of the mizen-topmast.

The Peel Life-boat John Monk put out at once, but she was fighting for two hours in the teeth of the gale before she could reach the vessel, which was a Norwegian ship, the St. George, with twenty-three on board, including the captain's wife and her baby, nine months old. After a long struggle all were rescued, but the vessel herself had become a total wreck before the Life- boat had reached the shore.

* * * * In memory of this gallant service, the huge figurehead of the St. George still stands at the Life-boat House. Nor, though it was performed over thirty- years ago, has it been forgotten by one, at any rate, whose life was saved. Last November the following letter, addressed to the " Chief Magistrate and High- Bailiff," was received at Peel :— " Horten, Norway, " 29th October, 1921.

" DEAK SIR,—Underwriter was chief mate on board the St. George, the 7th of October, 1889, 3 P.M., when Peel Life-boat, with Charles Cain on board as Captain of the above - mentioned Life - boat, saved twenty-four persons from the dreadful wreck of the St. George. I am at present working out a picture of the wreck." [The letter here shows a drawing of the proposed picture, with the Norwegian and old Isle of Man flag, the Peel Life-boat, Castle, rocks, and Bay, Charles Cain, Miss Lily Laughton, with the captain and mate at the foot.] j "Will you please send me the colour of the old Isle of Man's flag, as it is going to stand above the picture ? As soon as it is finished from the photographist, I am going to send one picture either to Charles Cain's oldest son or daughter, if any one is alive.

If not, I am going to send a picture to Miss Lily Laughton, or, if she is dead, to the Chief Magistrate of the Isle of Man, as a memory of that dreadful wreck. Is Mr. W. Fargher living yet ? Is Miss Lily Laughton living ? I know that Charles Cain died in 1894. Give my best regards to the landlord of the Craig Malin Hotel, and to all in the Life-boat ; my best regards to Dr. Friend, Douglas.

" I remain, Sir, "Yours most respectfully, " OLAF CHRISTIAN BKATH." Commenting on the names mentioned in this most interesting and pathetic letter, the Isle of Man Times says :— " Those in Peel who remember the mate, state that he must now be an old man, as he was, at that time, over forty years of age.

The Mr. Fargher referred to was the late schoolmaster, who died in 1893. Miss Laughton was the daughter of the late High-Bailiff Laughton, and has been dead for many years. The landlord of the Creg- Malin Hotel, at that time, was Mr. Trelow, who has been dead over thirty years. Dr.

Friend was the house surgeon at Douglas Hospital. The huge figurehead of the St.

George still stands at Peel Life-boat House in memory of the wreck." The Life-boat Service and the Coast-guard.

I All those vho read, in the last number of The Life-Boat, the very interesting article on the Coast-guard Service, by Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair, will, I am sure, be no less interested in his opinion of the Life-boat Service. He has written to me to say, " I have seen this great Service working round our coast with unbounded admiration." That is a very valued tribute from one who is not only a distinguished seaman, but as Admiral in charge of the Coast-guard has had so close and personal a knowledge of coast- watching and the saving of life from shipwieck.

Life-Saving by Airplane.

Such enormous progress was made with airplanes and airships during the war, that the possibility of using them some day in rescues from shipwreckcannot be ignored. Since the war, in fact, the Institution has kept this possibility before it, and is watching with great interest any experiments and developments in the air which seem to lead in this direction. During June experiments were carried out by two Swansea inventors with an inflatable raft, provided with paddles and side- lines, to be carried by airplanes in case of accidents when flying over the sea. In the experiments, as carried out at Swansea, the airplane did not itself fall into the sea, but the inflated raft was dropped, and was then boarded by members of the town swimming club, who tested its seaworthy qualities.

These experiments are interesting as showing one of the ways in which air- planes might, conceivably, be used in the work of the Institution.

A Coast-guard Air Service ? In this connexion, I should like to refer to an interesting suggestion made, at the Air Conference recently held in London, by Sir Samuel Instone, head of the Instone Air Line, and also of the Instone Shipping Company, of Cardiff.

In the course of a speech on the future of aviation, Sir Samuel Instone said : " I suggest that our present Coast-guard Service is antique in method, and that the guard should be carried out by amphibian aeroplanes, each given a patrol of one hundred miles and in constant wireless communication with Life-boat and naval Stations. This would result at once in great economy with greater efficiency." The Life-boat Museum.

On the llth January a Life-boat Museum was opened at the House of the Institution. This Museum will form the nucleus of the special Life-boat Exhibition which will be one of the principal features of • the Centenary Celebrations, and it will, I hope, become each year a fuller and more interesting record, of the work of the Life-boats.

At present it consists of the Institu- tion's collection of Life-boat models, portraits and pictures of services, of a number of war relics presented to the Institution by the Admiralty in recog- nition of its great services in saving life during the war, and of a number of very interesting relics of wrecks received from the Stations in response to the appeal to Honorary Secretaries which, under the heading " Centenary of the j Institution, 1924," has appeared in every issue of The Life-Boat for the past four years. Several Honorary Secre- taries have sent up very interesting con- ; tributions, for which the Committee are most grateful, but there must be many more relics of wrecks and services round the coast, and Honorary Secre- taries will be doing a real service to the Cause if they will send them to the Insti- tution. The Museum is open free to the public on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on Saturday mornings, and I hope that all Life-boat workers will make a point of visiting it when they are in London.

Ships' Life-boats.

Readers of The Life-Boat will re- member an article in the issue for November, 1920, by Mr. Felix Eubie, the Surveyor of Life-boats, called " The Problem of Ships' Life-boats." In that article Mr. Eubie pointed out that a ship's life-boat is, necessarily, entirely different from the Life-boats of the Institution, and said: " The main problem is whether we should not be wiser to rely on the ship rather than on her boats, and to devote the energy and money, which is now divided between the two, on making the ship herself safer.

Much might be done towards making ships practically unsinkable. Much, in fact, has been done." At the International Shipping Con- ference held in London last November, a series of resolutions was proposed by Sir Alan Anderson, and adopted by the Conference, which confirms this view.

The resolutions begin : " Safety of life at sea depend upon the care of the navigator and upon the type and design of the vessel, much more than upon life- saving apparatus. The stability and seaworthy qualities of the vessel itself must be regarded as of primary im- portance, and every other provision made against possible disaster must be subordinated to that primary con- sideration." A Gift from Mid-Ocean.

Last December the Institution re- ceived a present of one of the new Line Throwing Guns, which I have already mentioned, by wireless from mid-ocean. A message reached the B.S.A. from a passenger on board the s.s. Arlanza, of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, then on her way to South America, asking that one of the guns should be sent to the Totland Bay Station, in the Isle of Wight. I have since had a letter from this kind donor, Mr. Frank J. Cheval- lier Boutell, who is Lloyd's Agent in Buenos Aires. Mr. Boutell writes : " I believe I know a good many seas in the world, and have travelled over 50,000 miles on them, and, as Lloyd's Agent in this city, see, meet, and appreciate ships and seamen. Thus I feel I can never do enough for those who are always sailing and may require help.

School, home and work in England give me many opportunities of seeing what grand men assist the Life-boats in every branch." That is the kind of tribute which we most appreciate.

* # * * Yet another gift, inspired by the same feelings, is an anonymous contribution recently received : " From two small girls who have enjoyed ' safe voyaging ' on five different occasions, especially during the war, when on their way to India as infants." A Tribute from Old Age.

I have just received a most touching gift to the Life-boat Service—two beautifully dressed dolls—from a lady in Clapham, with this simple and pathetic note : " One sailor boy doll, one woolly girl doll, from Miss , dressed by herself, aged eighty-nine, and blind. In lieu of annual subscrip- tion." This is the second annual sub- scription of dolls which we have received from this lady, and I propose to get a well-known actress to sell them all by auction on London Life-boat Day, May 2nd. I feel sure not only that there will be many who will be ready to bid for them, but that many more will be touched by the example of such generosity.

A Generous Irish Village.

On the 30th December last the Wick- low Motor Life-boat went out in a heavy gale in search of a small boat with a fisherman on board, which had been carried out to sea. There was scarcely any hope that he could have survived in such weather, but the Life- boat searched for several hours. All that was found, however, was the missing man's fishing lines and buoys.

He and his boat had gone. It was not until six in the evening that the Life- boat returned. Her crew had been out nearly the whole day, for they had already rescued six men from an open boat—the crew of the steamer Sannox, of Glasgow, which had foundered that morning—before going out in search of the fisherman.

* * * * The lost man came from the neigh- bouring village of Greystone, and in appreciation of the devotion of the Life- boat men the inhabitants collected over £21, which they presented to the Hon- orary Secretary at Wicklow, half to be given to the members of the crew, and the other half to the funds of the Institution.

Gifts from Salvage.

Three gifts out of salvage, each of £5, have been received recently from Life- boat crews—from Sennen Cove, for the service to the barge The Strumble, which had broken from her tug and was drifting towards the Longships, on the 16th August, 1921; from Scarborough, for the service to the steam trawler Eccleshill, which was driven out of harbour and ran ashore, on the 4th January, 1922 ; and from the Holyhead Steam Life-boat, for service to R.M.S. Hibernia, which broke from her moorings and was carried against the breakwater, on the 15th January, 1922.

Gifts of Chocolate.

I have once again to tender our sincere thanks to the three firms of Messrs. Cadbury, Fry, and Rowntree for their annual contribution to the Institu- tion in the form of chocolate for the crews. It is a gift in kind which is very warmly appreciated.

Llandrindod Wells : A Correction.

In the list of Life-boat Day results published in the November issue the sum raised by Llandrindod Wells was given as £25. From this total, by an unfortunate mistake, was omitted the amounts collected during the Day in Hotels and Boarding-houses. When these are included, as was done in the case of other towns, the total proceeds of the Day are over £70, an excellent result for a town of the size of Llan- drindod Wells.

Forthcoming Articles.

Besides the Chief Inspector's article on the New Brighton Life-boat, which I have already mentioned, I hope to publish, in the May issue a short history of the French Life-boat Service..