By E. Pierrard, Director-General for the Belgian Marine Administration.THE establishment of the Service for the Saving of the Shipwrecked on the Belgian coast dates from 1838, when the Belgian Government decided to provide an organization. Since then, as the Public Authorities have felt that the maintenance of a Service of such humanitarian importance could not be left to the chance generosity of individual people, the State has continued alone to bear the cost both of equipment and 'personnel necessary for organizing and carrying on the Service. The War brought the work of the Service to a stop, but one of the first cares of the Govern- ment from the moment when the coast was evacuated by the enemy was to xe-establish it without delay.

The Life-Saving Posts are under the direction of the Chief of the Pilotage Service in Ostend, who is, by tradition, a naval officer serving under the Central Marine Administration. This officer has under him at each station an Overseer, who is also a retired officer or a retired seaman.

Equipment of the Service.

The Life-Saving Posts placed along the thirty-five miles of the Belgian coast number ten. At each of these posts is an unsinkable pulling Life-boat, thoroughly equipped and either kept afloat or mounted on a carriage drawn by horses,anda cart,equipped with sue h life- saving apparatus as lines, rocket appara- tus, breeches buoy, medicine chest,' etc.

This apparatus is kept in stone sheds, situated so as to be easily accessible from the shore. Close to these buildings are guard houses for the purpose of sheltering the crews when they have been called out and are waiting on duty.

Slopes of stone, with an easy gradient, have been constructed to enable the Life- boats' carriages and the carts to reach the shore, and these are placed at short distances right along the Belgian coast.

The Boats themselves have been built exactly to meet the requirements of a Service working on a flat coast, off which there lies, parallel to it, a series of shoals.

on which heavy seas roll and break.

driven by high winds from the open sea. They are of small draft, very light in proportion to their size, so that they are easily launched in the breaking waves and have the essential quality of being easily transportable along the shore.

All the Life-Saving Posts are con- nected by telephone both, with the j Central Post where the Head of the j Service is stationed and with one (another. In addition there are inter- j mediary observation posts, also provided with telephones, and placed, as far as possible, half-way between the Life- saving Posts. The Overseers already mentioned have under them, for each Boat, a Coxswain, a Second Coxswain and six men. The Coxswain and Second Coxswain are chosen from among the Life-boatmen themselves, while these are recruited among the sailors, fishermen and pilots of the locality, men already trained to the work. The Life-boatmen, whether they are the men appointed by the Adminis- tration or volunteers, are rewarded according to fixed rates and in proportion to the services rendered.

The crews are warned on the approach of bad weather, and hold themselves ready in the guard houses to go out.

The observation posts are also warned ; the equipment is got ready for immedi- ate use ; and the Central Post (at Ostend) gets under steam a powerful tug, of which the crew is also on the alert during the whole time that the crews are on duty. This tug is in the harbour, stand- ing off ready to answer the first call and to go out with the Life-boat from one or other of the posts to the rescue of any vessel in distress, or of shipwrecked men.

There are also at the eastern and western ends of the coast—Zeebrugge, Blackenberghe, and Nieuport—motor boats, which are used in ordinary weather for towing or piloting, and which are called out in heavy weather to fulfil the same duty as the Ostend tug on their own sections of the coast.

Regular exercises maintain the spirit, discipline, and cohesion necessary for the work of saving life. Practical instruc- tions nave been drawn up and published by the Administration in a vade-mecum for the use of Coxswains and crews, and the doctors approved by the Adminis- tration have the duty of arranging con- ferences at which the men are instructed in the methods of treating the apparently drowned, and in the use of the contents of the medicine chests.

The Administration of Marine does not publish the records of the life-saving work accomplished by the Posts on the coast, but the summaries of two periods, one before the Great War, half-way be- tween 1838 and 1914, and the other from the reorganization after the war to the end of 1924, show that the Belgian Life-boatmen have always known how to do their duty as well as their brother Life-boatmen of the neigh- bouring countries on the North Sea.

Tlie following is the record for the period before the War :— 1877.—The crews of five vessels in distress were rescued and brought safely to land.

1878.—The crew of a stranded fishing boat was saved, and an English schooner driven on the shore was refloated.

1879.—The Station at Nieuport saved the crews of three fishing boats, and helped and brought to Ostend an English cutter.

1880.—An English steamer, a pilot boat, and six fishing boats, stranded on the Flemish coast, were helped.

1881.—The crews of two fishing boats, an English schooner, and a Norwegian schooner were helped. Four fishing boats and two English steamers were refloated with the help of the State tug.

1882.—The crews of two wrecked fishing boats were rescued, and also the passengers of a mail packet wrecked to the west of Ostend. Help was also given to a sailing ship in distress. With the help of the tug, a French brig and two fishing boats were refloated.

Since the reorganization of the Service after the War the following services have been performed:— 1920.—In February the Station at Ostend helped two men who were in peril on a wreck to the east of the port, and saved the crew of a barge which had capsized in the surf. In July of the same year the Service rescued the crew and passengers of an excursion boat which had stranded off Middelkerke.

On the night of 12th November the Life-boatmen went out towards the Rammekens Bank to the help of the English steamer Clan Graham, on which a fierce fire had broken out. Seventy- one men of the crew of the English steamer were snatched from the furnace by the Belgian Life-boatmen.

1921.—On 6th November the Life- boatmen at Knocke saved the entiie crew of the Midsland, stranded on the shore, and the crew of the smack N.5, which had been driven ashore after fail- ing to make Ostend. On 28th December the crew at Ostend succeeded in saving seven men of the smack (3.616, sinking out at sea east of the port. On 30th December the Motor Boat at Zeebrugge took on board the crew of the disabled smack BAl.

1922.—On 8th March the smack 0.121 was driven on the shore to the east of Knocke. and its crew was saved by means of the rocket apparatus.

1923.—On the 10th October the Lifeboatmen of Nieuport helped, most effectively, in the work of refloating a motor fishing vessel which had stranded in the channel.

1924.~-0n the 18th July a violent storm burst on the Belgian coast, taking by surprise the Ostend fishing fleet.

The Crew of the Ostend tug succeeded in saving the lives of two sailors who had been thrown into the water when their boat was wrecked, and going out a second time brought into harbour a smack which had signalled that she was sinking off Wenduyne. On 10th Sep- tember the Crew of the Station at Knocke saved, in very difficult circum- stances, the lives of fourteen men, two women and two children, on board the trawler Nebris, which was sinking off Knocke.

Service to a French Vessel.

Here is an account by the French Con- sul at Ostend of the help given by the Belgian Life-boatmen to a French vessel in distress off Ostend. It is ta ken from a speech which he delivered on the occasion of the presentation of the awards :— " On the afternoon of 28th December, 1921, between noon, and 1 o'clock, the French fishing smack G&rmaine, driven by a gale from the S.W., arrived off the port of Ostend, under jury-rig. She had been dismasted towards 4 o'clock in the morning, about thirteen miles to the north of the port of Gravelines. Flying before the gale she was seeking refuge at Ostend. When she arrived before the booms the Germaine missed the entrance, and drove towards the place wheie lie.

the wrecks of two cruisers and an English minelayer. She had time to drop her two anchors, and in a furious sea swung straining at her cables, which threatened every moment to part. When the Ostend Life-boat left the port, towed by Tug No. 4, she was already dragging her anchors, and getting near the dunes, but under oars the Life-boatmen suc- ceeded in reaching her, and took on board the five men and the two boys who formed her crew.

- " Thanks to you, seven French sailors have been saved from death, and it is your splendid action that the President of the Republic wishes to recognize. I congratulate myself in having been chosen by him to hand you the medals which have been awarded to you. They are an honour to you and an honour to the Service to which you belong, and which your Chief, M. de Grave, controls with so much skill and devotion. My countrymen, like myself, are grateful for the help which they know that, on all occasions, they will receive from him." Here is a notice from the Orders of the Day of the Marine Administration with regard to the Belgian Life-boatmen who carried out the service to the English steamer Clan Graham.

Service to an English Steamer.

" On the night of 12th-13th Novem- ber, Tug No. 4 of Ostend, under the command of the Master, E. C. Verstraete, was sent out towards the Rammekens Bank to the help of the English steamer Clan Graham, which had sent out wire- less appeals for help. When our tug, towards three in the morning, reached the scene of the casualty the English vessel, aboard which a violent fire had broken out, was nothing but an immense furnace. The efforts to put out the fire were useless, and at 5.30 in the morning a terrible explosion shook the vessel, blowing up the upper bridge and cover- ing our boat with burning fragments.

It was in these perilous circumstances that the crew of the Clan Graham were saved. In spite of the danger our Captain manoeuvred so as to bring his boat against the stern of the English steamer and succeeded in taking on board the seventy-one men of the Clan Graham. The life-saving work lasted nearly half an hour, and was carried out by our tug alone, without the help of any of the other tugs in the neighbour- hood. In this service the whole crew showed splendid qualities of courage and devotion and Captain Verstraete great coolness and decision in directing the work. In proof of his satisfaction, the Minister has decided that the bravery of these men shall be notified to the Service.

In consequence their names are pub- lished here in the Orders of the Day as follows. (Here follow the names of the Captain and his crew of eight.) These Orders of the Day will be posted, in both languages, on board all vessels belonging to the State, in the guard houses, offices, workshops and depots.

(Signed) PIERRARD, Director-General.

Brussels, 4th December, 1920." A Visit to England.

A Commission, composed of technical experts, State officials, and private men, has just been formed to study the best methods of improving the organization of the Service. The great progress made in recent years in the use of motor-power at sea entitles us to expect that on certain parts of the coast Boats equipped with motors will be adopted, the weight of which will not unduly reduce the buoyant qualities which are an essential condition to success in life-saving opera- tions on the shoals and sandy beaches of the Belgian coast.

A delegation of this Commission visited Margate on 28th August last in order to study the working of a Motor Life-boat, It returned delighted with the welcome given by the English Life- boat authorities, and with the most valuable information which it obtained.

The Motor Life-boat of the Watson Cabin type, on which the members of the Commission made a trip, specially interested them. They were astonished at the rapidity with which the Life-boat was launched, the smooth and consistent running of the engine and the perfection of the whole installation.

The question of replacing the horse- drawn carts by mechanical tractors is one that is also being considered.

"Whatever happens, Belgium will con- tinue the course which she has followed for nearly a century, and will not relax her efforts in this humanitarian work; her phalanx of Life-boatmen, as modest as they are determined, will maintain those traditions of self-sacrifice which are held in honour among all the mem- bers of the great and world-wide family of sailors..