FOR the past seventy years there has been a Life-boat Station at Aberdeen, provided and maintained, not by the Institution, but by the Aberdeen Har- bour Commissioners.

The first Boat for the Station was procured by the Commissioners in 1853, a boat 30 feet 11 inches by 8 feet, which was known as the " Beach" Life-boat, as she was provided with a carriage for transport and launching.

In 1875 a second Life-boat was obtained, 34 feet by 8 feet, and was known as the " Harbour " Life-boat, as she was kept suspended in a shed above the water in the Harbour itself. Up to the present year both these original Boats were still on service. The Commissioners also owned three Life-saving Rocket Appara- tuses.

The Aberdeen Life-boat Crew con- sisted of a Master and Mate and ten men, chosen yearly from among the twenty-four harbour pilots. The whole of this Crew was required for the working of one Boat, but it was felt to be highly improbable that both Boats would be called at the same time.

These two Boats, the " Bonaccord No. 1," and the "Bonaccord No. 2" have rescued between them 589 lives.

For many years the Institution has had a financial branch at Aberdeen, which last year raised £563, but the Branch has had no share whatever in the administration of the Station, which has remained entirely in the hands of the Harbour Commissioners.

For a long time the Committee of Management have felt that it would be to the advantage, both of Aberdeen and of the Institution itself, if the Institution were to take over the full control of the Station, to provide for it Boats of the latest type, and to give Aberdeen the advantage of the Institution's experience of life-saving work all round the coast of the British Isles.

For the sake of the Institution also the Committee were anxious to take over a Station for which, even in Aberdeen itself, many people believed the Institu- tion to be responsible. In 1900, there- fore, the Committee offered to take charge of the Station, but the Harbour Commissioners did not see their way to accept the proposal. The offer remained open. There were many people in Aberdeen in favour of its acceptance, and again in 1915 the matter was con- sidered by the Harbour Commissioners.

Again, however, it was decided that " no advantage would be gained by the transference of the service to the Institu- tion." So matters remained until 1923. On 13th October of that year the trawler Imperial Prince, of Aberdeen, was wrecked off Belhelvie, near Aberdeen.

The Aberdeen Harbour Life-boat was called out, but as she approached the wreck she broached to ; part of her Crew were washed overboard, and were rescued with great difficulty. The Boat herself was carried to leeward, and was finally beached with her crew exhausted.

In the end the crew of the trawler were rescued by the Newburgh Life-boat, with the help of men from'H.M. de- stroyers Vampire and Vendetta, which were lying at Aberdeen. The Life-boat had to be dragged seven miles along the beach to the scene of the wreck.* . * A full account of the service appeared in The Lifeboat for December, 1923. Shortly after this the Harbour Commissioners invited the Institution to discuss with them the question of transferring to it the Aberdeen Station. As a result, the Institution has now taken over'to the Station as from the beginning of 1925, and has sent to Aberdeen a Self-Righting Life-boat, 34 feet by 8 feet, of the Rubie type, and a Watson Life-boat 40 feet by 11 feet. The latter Boat will be replaced, early next year, by a Barnett 60-foot Twin Screw Motor Life-boat, the most powerful type in the Institution's Fleet, of which the first was completed in 1923,1 Commisand is now at New Brighton, and the represent a second is being built for Plymouth.

The Harbour Commissioners are trans- ferring to the Institution a legacy of £1,350 left them in 1894 to provide and endow a Life-boat at Aberdeen, which now amounts, with the accumulated interest, to nearly £3,000. This legacy will be devoted to providing and endowing the Self-Sighting Life-boat which will be named " George and Elizabeth Grow," in memory of the testator and her husband. The Motor Life-boat, which will cost about £16,000, will be provided out of the funds of the Institution.

The Life-Saving round our coasts is manned and maintained by the Board of Trade, but as the Rocket Apparatus at Aberdeen has, for so many years, been part of the Life- Rocket Apparatus saving Service there, the Institution, by transagreement with the Board of Trade, has taken over the Rocket Apparatus as well.

The Commissioners have handed over over'to the Institution the two Boathouses and other buildings, and will maintain these houses for the Institution. They will also provide and maintain moorings for the Motor Life-boats in the Harbour, and will contribute £500 a year towards the upkeep of the Station, which will cost more than double that sum.

For the administration of the Station it has been decided that the Commisand sioners shall appoint three representasecond tives to serve on the Committee of the Aberdeen Branch of the Institution, and mainthe Branch has elected the Harbour Master as its Marine Honorary Secretary to take charge of the administrative side of its work.

Thus, by amicable arrangements with the Harbour Commissioners, the Institution has now assumed full control of the Aberdeen Station, which will be administered in exactly the same way as the Institution's other Stations. Thus, in the last year of its first century, the Institution had the satisfaction of taking over the last but one important Life-boat Station hitherto owned and managed by a separate organisation.

The last is The Tynemouth Life-boat own Boats.

Society, which maintains a service on the Tyne alongside the Institution's own boats.