By CAPTAIN HOWARD F. J. ROWLEY, C.B.E., R.N., Chief Inspector of Life-boatsALTHOUGH the Barnett (Twin Screw) Boat, built for the Station at New Brighton, was the first Cabin Life-boat to be laid down for the Institution's fleet, the first actually to be completed was the new type of Watson Boat, fittedwith a cabin, which has been built for the Station at Tenby, South Wales. The high cost of the Barnett Boat and the fact that a boat of such size must be kept afloat makes it necessary to limit its use to those stations where, for special reasons, a large and very powerful boat is required and suitable anchorage can be found. On the other hand, the value of cabins is very great, and the need for them is greater now that we have powerful Motor Life-boats with a radius of action of anything from 50 to 100 miles. If, however, they are to be in anything like general usethey must be in Boats which can be launched from a slipway. For these reasons it was decided to modify the present Watson type, of which there are nineteen Motor Boats and nearly thirty Pulling and Sailing Boats, pro-viding it with one cabin. The Tenby Boat is the first of this new type, and others are being built for Portrush, Yarmouth (Isle of Wight), Porthdinllaen, Langhope (Orkneys), Douglas (Isle of Man), Holy Island, Margate, Teesmouth, and Dunmore East. These Boats are all of the same dimensions as the largest the existing Watson Boats, that is to say 45 feet by 12 feet 6 inches. They have practically the same displacement, 20 tons, with the crew and all gear on board, and they are fitted with the Institution's new six-cylinder 90 b.h.p.

engine which gives them a speed of 8to 9 knots and a radius of action of 50 miles.

They have a flush deck, except for the end-boxes and a cockpit aft, protected by the hood, which can be clearly seen in the illustration. Forward of this hood is the engine-room and, forward of that again, the cabin which will have room for about twenty people.

The Tenby Boat was completed in June, and before going to her Station visited the Thames and gave a display at the Meeting of the British Motor Boat Club, held on the Chelsea Reach on 30th June. A party of Members of Parliament were taken for a trip in her, and were given a demonstration of the Line-throwing Gun. Some very inter- esting experiments were then carried out in the dock at the Storeyard with a view to testing her buoyancy. Different compartments were flooded, and, in the end, the whole Boat, with the exception of the petrol tanks. The accompanying diagrams show the result of this test. They speak for themselves, but one or two words of explanation may help to emphasise them.

The figures at either end of the Boat, in each diagram, give in inches the depth of the keel, fore and aft, below the water-line.

The darkened parts show the flooding.

In the second and fourth diagrams, respectively, the cabin and engine-room are marked with cross linea They are not themselves flooded, but, as will be seen by looking at the deck plan, they are surrounded by water on three sides, in (he case of the cabin by the flooding of the fore hold, and in the case of the engine-room, by the flooding of the after hold.

Buoyancy is given to the Boat by ninety-one air-tight cases. Yet more could be fitted, but the test shows con- clusively that with ninety-one there is already a very large margin of buoyancy.

These air-cases suffice to keep her afloat with every compartment flooded and with fifteen men all on one gunwale, whereas, in no conceivable circumstances on service could there be more than two or three compartments flooded..