FOR the past four years no Life-boatman has lost his life at sea. When it is remembered that in that time 1,507 lives have been rescued from shipwreck, and that altogether, on service and exer- cise, between 40,000 and 50,000 men were afloat in Life-boats, often in the worst weather, that fact is a great tribute to the skill and fine seamanship of the Coxswains and Crews, and to the soundness of design and construction of the Life-boats.

Unfortunately this fine record was broken on 9th March of this year. On that day Ralph Scott and Herbert Harrison, the Mechanic and Second Mechanic of the Motor Life-boat sta- tioned at New Brighton, on the Mersey, went out to her in a small motor-boat used for boarding. This Life-boat, it will be remembered, was completed in 1923, and is the first of the 60-feet Barnett type, with twin screws. She lies at moorings, and is visited daily by her mechanics, in order that the f ngines may be maintained in a state of perfect efficiency day and night.

The engine of the boarding-boat stopped, and Scott and Harrison were carried down the river by the flood tide for three miles. A tug then threw them a line and took them in tow, but the river was choppy, and the boat capsized.

Both men were flung into the water.

Scott was rescued by the crew of the tug, much exhausted. Harrison was nearly rescued. The rescuers, in fact, had actually seized the collar of his oil- skins, but the buttons gave way and he slipped out of them and was drowned.

Harrison had been in the employ of the Institution since April 1924, and follow- ing its. practice of pensioning the depend' nts of any man who loses his life in the Service, the Institution at once made provision for his widow.

Ralph Scott, whose life was saved, has been in the employ of the Institu- tion for many years. In 1899 he be- came Chief Engineer of the Steam Life- boat, which was then stationed at Angle in Pembrokeshire, was later transferred to Totland Bay in the Isle of Wight, and then to Dover, and which is now at Holyhead. He was the Mechanic in charge of the engines of the New Brighton Motor Life-boat when, before going to her Station, she made a tour, in the summer and autumn of 1923, round the British Isles. Scott broke his arm during the tour, but he refused to leave the boat, and with that broken arm was on duty during ten. hours while the boat was fighting her way through a whole gale round the north of Scotland.

Nor, even after that, did he give up, but remained on duty until the end of the voyage..