DURING the summer the Naming Cere- monies were held for four new Motor Life-boats, the Manchester and, Salford, the Centenary gift of the Manchester and Salford Branch; the Milburn, the gift of the late Sir Charles Stamp Milburn and Mr. Frederick Milburn, of Newcastle-on-Tyne; the J. M. Archer, which has been presented and endowed by Mr. J. W. Archer, of Bournemouth ; and the Lord Southborough, which has been presented and endowed by the Civil Service Life-boat Fund. They are all Boats of the latest type, the Watson Cabin, 45 feet by 12 feet 6 inches, with 80 h.p. engines. The Motor Lifeboat Ethel Day Cardwell, which had previously been stationed at Teesmouth, has now gone to Port Erin in the Isle of Man, and a few days after her arrival a dedication ceremony for! the new Boat-house was held. j The "Manchester and Salford." The three days' bazaar in Manchester j and Salford, by which a sum of over; £10,000 was raised to build a Life-boat as a Centenary gift to the Service, was i held in May of last year. In November, j 1924, the Boat reached her Station at: Douglas, in the Isle of Man, and on 21st June of this year, she was formally j named Manchester and Salford, the ceremony taking place in Manchester, on the Ship Canal, at the Trafiord Wharf. | The Boat had left her Station on the I previous Thursday, and reached Man- j Chester on the Friday morning, having j spent the night at Liverpool. On the Saturday she was open to the public and was visited by many hundreds of people when she lay at the wharf-side " look- ing," as the Manchester Guardian said, " very small to contain so many won- ders." At the ceremony itself over 25,000 people were present. Among them were the crews of the Blackpool, Lytham, Southport and St. Annes Life-boats, in jerseys, belts and red caps, boys from Manchester Grammar School, which had presented the Douglas Boat with her searchlight, and girls from Manchester High School for Girls, which had pre- sented her with her line-throwing gun.

Sea Scouts and Boy Scouts manned the jetty and regulated the crowd, and a detachment of troops acted as a guard of honour. The singing was led by the Festival Chorus, including the Halle, Brand Lane and Hospital Choirs, con- ducted by Mr. R. H. Wilson, and accom- panied by the police bands of Manchester and Salford.

The City of Manchester, the Royal Borough of Salford, the Isle of Man and the Institution were all fully repre- sented—Manchester and Salford by the Lord Mayor of Manchester (Alderman F. J, West, C.B.E.), President of the Manchester and Salford Branch, who presided, the Mayor of Salford (Alder- man G. Billington), a Vice-president of the Branch, Sir William Milligan, M.D., J.P., Chairman of the Branch Committee and a Vice-President of the Institution, the Lady Sheffield, D.B.E., J.P., Hon.

Secretary of the Manchester, Salford and District Ladies' Life-boat Guild, Sir Edwin Stockton, J.P., Hon. Secre- tary of the Branch, Mrs. H. J. Wilson, Honorary Secretary of the Bazaar Committee, and Captain W. C. Bacon, J.P., Chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal; the Isle of Man by the Lieu- tenant-Governor, Major-General Sir William Fry, K.C.V.O., C.B., President of the Douglas Branch, and Lady Fry; the Institution by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, Captain H. F. J. Rowley, C.B.E., R.N. (Chief Inspector of Life- boats), Major C. R. Satterthwaite, O.B.E., R.E. (Deputy Secretary), and Mr. Edgar H. Johnson, F.C.I.S., Organizing Secretary for the North of England. Before the ceremony SirWilliam Milligan entertained the prin- cipal guests at luncheon, as well as the Life-boat Crews from Douglas and the other four Stations already mentioned.

All the Churches took part in the religious ceremony. The opening prayer was said by the Rev. Herbert Cooper, Superintendent of the Wesleyan Mission ; the lesson was read by the Rev. Berendt Salaman, of the Great Synagogue, and the Boat was dedicated by the Bishop of Manchester, Dr. Temple. Although, following its usual principle of not participating in combined religious ser-vices, the Roman Catholic Church was not represented, a message was read from the Vicar Capitular of the Diocese of Salford, in which he said :— " Admiration and practical support from every patriot must be evoked by so magnificent a voluntary undertaking as this, which at once holds up before us the highest ideal of Christian charity and self-sacrifice, calls forth manly courage and heroism and is an incentive to that noble giving of means and service that God loves and rewards."After the opening hymn, the prayer and the lesson, Sir William Milligan made I a statement as to how the gift of the ' Boat had been made, and how Man- . Chester had contributed in the Cen- tenary year a larger sum than any other ;city, more than half as large again as i the sum received from the City of London, and representing 3| £. a head I of the population as compared with Liverpool's l±d. a head. Lady Sheffield then formally presented the Boat to Sir Godfrey Baring, who, in receiving her, ! expressed the deep indebtedness of theService to the people of Manchester and Salford. He then handed her to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man, who received her on behalf of the Douglas Branch.

Captain Rowley gave particulars of the Boat, her size and range of action, pointing out that she had so many air- cases that twenty holes might be knocked in each side, and she would still be able to go on with her work, that her engines could keep on running when submerged, and that she was of the Watson type, the most popular type on our coasts, and a type which origi- nated in the designs of a Salford man.

There followed the singing of the " Hallelujah Chorus " and the solemn dedication, and then Lady Fry, break- ing a bottle of champagne on the bows of the Boat, named her Manchester and Salford.

The music and the speeches were not only magnified by loud speakers so that all in the great audience of 25,000 people were able to hear, but were relayed by land-line so that wireless listeners-in followed the ceremony in Blackpool, Southport, Colwyn Bay, Crewe, the Isle of Man, and many other places.

The meaning and value of this notable ceremony could not be better expressed than they were by the Manchester Guardian in a leading article which appeared on the following morning.

" More than a Life-boat was launched in the heart of Manchester yesterday, when Church and State, Army and Navy, combined to give a fair and ceremonial send-off to the Manchester and Salford.

'Har pageanted passage into the Ship Canal set a seal on the city's link with the sea. . . . The queer sight of a great ship sailing among the haystacks out Lymm way becomes familiar, and the hoot of a liner outward bound on a three-thousand-mile voyage has long learned to chime with the owls at night in the Cheshire suburbs. And now the proud consciousness of being the fourth port of the Empire which these portents bring is well expressed in the Life-boat that is called after the city. The response to appeals for the Boat—a response greater per head of the population than any city can boast—is proof of a true realization that the dark lane of water which starts at the end of Deans- ate runs to the farthest ends of the leven Seas, and that a man and his goods may take ship among the tram- lines for the uttermost parts of the ocean. It was time the city gave a hostage to Neptune. This new craft, the latest of her kind, with room and security for a hundred souls in the worst seas our coasts have to face, will yet from its point of vantage at Douglas do work worthy of the spirit that begot her and, of the port whose name she bears." The "Milburn." Holy Island, off the coast of North- umberland, is only some eight miles in circumference, but it lies off a very dangerous coast, and it has two Life-boat Stations. Some miles to the south are the Fame Islands, with the Longstone Lighthouse, the scene of many wrecks; and in memory of the most famous of the rescues from them two of the Holy Island Life-boats have been named Grace Darling.

Not only is Holy Island one of the oldest Life-boat Stations on the coast, but it has a distinguished record. The number of lives rescued is 228. The present Coxswain, George Cromarty, has twice been awarded the Silver Medal of the Institution, and the women of Holy Island have been, specially thanked by the Institution for the gallantry which they have often shown in the difficult and sometimes dangerous work of launching.

This year a Motor Life-boat of the latest type, a 45-foot Watson Cabin Boat, with an 80 h.p. engine, was sent to take the place of the Pulling and Sailing Life-.

boat Lizzie Porter, which has been at the No. 1 Station since 1909 and has rescued 77 lives. The Pulling and Sailing Life- boat Edward and Eliza, which was built in 1900 and has rescued 28 lives, remains at the No. 2 Station.

The new Boat is the third Motor Life- boat to be stationed in Northumberland, the other two being at Tynemouth and Blyth. She has been built out of a legacy which the late Sir Charles Stamp Milburn, Bt., left to the Institution to provide a Motor Life-boat for a Station on the coast of Northumberland. As, however, this sum was not sufficient to build a Motor Life-boat of the powerful type required for Holy Island, Mr. Frederick Milburn, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, gene- rously gave another £5,000.

The new Boat reached the Station in June, and on 27th August the naming ceremony took place. At low tide it is possible to get to the island from the mainland by vehicle, and the ceremony was fixed for 2.0 in the afternoon to allow of this being done.

Dr. Ralph Wilson presided, and the Boat was formally presented to the Insti- tution by Mr. A. W. Milburn, who was accompanied by Clara, Lady Milburn, the widow of Sir Charles Stamp Milburn.

Sir William Milligan, M.D., J.P., a Vice- President of the Institution and Chair- man of the Manchester and Salford Branch, received the Boat on behalf of the Institution and expressed the grati- tude of the Committee of Management to the two donors. He then handed her to Mr. Fred Hollingsworth, the Honorary Secretary of the Station, who, in accepting her on behalf of Holy Island, said that he had never known the slightest hesitation in responding to the call, and small though Holy Island was, there were times when he could have manned three Life-boats instead of one. The Vicar of Holy Island (the Rev. W. B. Hall) then dedicated the Boat, and Mr. David Askew, of Berwick-on-Tweed, named her Milburn.

Many people were present at the cere- mony, among them the Right Hon.

Walter Runciman, M.P., a member of the Committee of Management, who pro- posed the vote of thanks to the Chairman, Lieut.-Col. C. L. Eraser, V.D., R.A.M.C.

(T.), J.P., Honorary Secretary of the Berwick-on-Tweed Station, who pro- posed the vote of thanks to Mr. Askew, and Mr. James H. Dawson, who proposed the vote of thanks to the Officers and Crew of the Station, and, in the absence of the Honorary Secretary, had made all the arrangements ioi the ceremony.

The "J. W. Archer." Teesmouth is one of the youngest of the Life-boat Stations. It was estab- lished in 1911, the same year as the Station at the mouth of the Humber.

Before that time shipping entering and leaving Tees Bay was protected by the Life-boat at Redcar, to the south of the bay, and five miles from the present Teesmouth Station, and Seaton Career, to the north. Seaton Carew was closed in 1922, but Redcar remains, one of the oldest Stations on the coast, established twenty-two years before the Institution itself was founded. It is Redcar men who man the Teesmouth Life-boat, being brought to the South Gare Break- water, where the Boat lies, by a railway engine and van. The Station was opened experimentally in 1911, and one of the old experimental Motor Life-boats, which had previously been at Seaham, was sent there. She was a 42-foot Self-righting Boat, with a 30-h.p. engine. It was decided to make the Station permanent, and in 1917 the experimental Boat was replaced by a 40-foot Self-righting Boat with a 40-h.p. engine, the Ethel Day Cardwell, which has now been sent to Port Erin, in the Isle of Man. The present Boat is of the latest type, a Watson Cabin Boat, with an 80-h.p.

engine.

The new Boat has been bolh pre- sented and endowed by Mr. J, W.

Archer, of Bournemouth, with a gift of £20,250. She went to her Station in December, 1924, and the naming cere- mony took place on 15th July. Sir Hugh Bell, Bt., the ironmaster and colliery owner, and His Majesty's Lord- Lieutenant for the North Riding of Yorkshire, presided. After the opening prayer by the Rev. James A. Saxton, President of the Middlesbrough Free Church Council, Sir Hugh Bell spoke of the dangers of Tees Bay, recalling the time, in the days of the old Zetland Life- boat at Redcar, when one could see twenty ships and more wrecked between Teesmouth and Saltburn.

Unfortunately, ill-health prevented Mr. J. W. Archer himself from being present, and his son, Mr. Charles W.

Archer, F.R.C.S., presented the Boat to the Institution in his name. She was received by Sir William Milligan, M.D., : J.P., a Vice-President of the Institution, and Chairman of the Manchester and Salford Branch, who, in the name of the Committee of Management, thanked : Mr, Archer for his magnificent gift and formally handed the Boat to Mr. W. M.

Friskney, Joint Honorary Secretary of ' the Station. Canon Lawson, M.A., Rural : Dean and Vicar of Middlesbrough, and the Rev. E. W. T. Greenshields, Chaplain of the Missions to Seamen, then dedi- cated her, and Mrs. Charles W. Archer named her J. W. Archer.

Among those who were present were the Mayor and Mayoress of Middles- brough (Councillor and Mrs. E. Turner), the Mayor of Hartlepool, the Mayor of Thornaby-on-Tees, and Mr. John H.

Amos, Honorary Secretary of the Middlesbrough Branch. The Mayor and Mayoress of Redcar (Alderman and Mrs.

B. 0. Davies) were prevented at the last moment from being present.

The Hartlepool Motor Life-boat and the Pulling and Sailing Life-boat from Redcar both came from their Stations to welcome the new Life-boat. The guests were brought down the river from Middlesbrough on the steamer Sir Hugh Bell, belonging to the Tees Conservancy Commissioners, and, before being taken back by the steamer, were entertained to tea by the Commissioners at the Fifth Buoy Lighthouse.

The new Boat was not long in perform- ing her first service. On the morning of 25th August she was called out to the rescue of two men in a motor launch.

Their engine had broken down, a half gale was blowing from the north-east, and they were in a perilous position, shipping water and being carried inshore.

The Life-boat reached them in time to rescue both men and to take the launch in. tow.

The "Lord Southborough." The first Margate Life-boat Station was established in 1860, the second in 1889, and the two stations have the very fine record of 504 lives rescued and forty-two vessels and boats helped into safety.

The first Station has had, up to the arrival of the Motor Life-boat this year, four Life-boats. The first was at the Station only six years. She was followed by two Life-boats, both called The Quiver, as they were built out of funds raised by the magazine of that name.

One served from 1866 to 1883, and the second from 1883 to 1898. Between them they rescued 131 lives and saved five boats and vessels.

In 1898, when the second Station was opened, a new Life-boat was also sent to the old Station. They were both Pulling and Sailing Life-boats of the Self- righting type, 40 feet long, with twelve oars, and both built that year. The Boat ior the old Station was named Eliza Harriett, the Boat for the new, Civil Service No. 1, as she had been built and endowed for ever out of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund. These two Boats remained at Margate until this year, when the Civil Service No. 1 was replaced by a Watson Cabin Motor Life-boat, the Eliza Harriett remaining at the No. 1 Station. The Boat-houses are on either side of the pier.

In their twenty-seven years these two Boats have done splendid work. The Civil Service No. 1 has rescued 212 lives and saved twenty-two vessels and boats, the Eliza Harriett 152 lives and fifteen vessels and boats, a total of 364 lives and thirty-seven vessels and boats.

The new Boat is of the latest type—the Watson Cabin. She is 45 feet long by 12 feet 6 inches wide, and has an 80 h.p. engine. She has been both pre- sented and endowed out of the Civil Ser- vice Life-boat Fund, and has been named after the Lord Southborough, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., K.C.S.I.,the Fund's Chairman and Honorary Treasurer.

The Fund was established in 1866, and has so far contributed to the Life- boat Service £67,750, out of which seven Life-boats have been built and endowed.

By arrangement with the Committee of the Fund, when it presents and endows a Motor Life-boat, this takes the place jof two Pulling and Sailling Life-boats, so that there are now actually five Civil Service Life-boats on the coast, two of them, those at Margate and at Kings- town, in Ireland, being Motor Life-boats, and the other three, at North Deal, Montrose and Maryport, Pulling and Sailing Life-boats. The two other Stations at which there have been Civil Service Life-boats are Douglas, Isle of Man, where the Boat presented by Man- chester and Salford is now stationed, and Walmer, Kent, which was closed in 1912. During the fifty-eight years of the Fund the Civil Service Life- boats have rescued 1,134 lives.

The new Life-boat, although she only went to her Station in March of this year, has already had an eventful career.She was completed early last year and was on exhibition at Life-boat House, Wembley, during the six months of the British Empire Exhibition. There, tens of thousands of people went aboard her. Then in July of this year she went to Boulogne, to represent the Life-boat Service at the Centenary Celebrations of the Boulogne Life-boat Society, and a week before the Naming Ceremony she was inspected by delegates of the Belgian Life-boat Service, who had come over to study our latest type of Motor Life-boatThe Motor Life-boat at New Brighton, which went a tour right round the British Isles in 1923 before going to her Station, has travelled further. , The Life-boat which did a road tour through the Midlands last year of 2,400 miles has possibly been seen by as many people. But it is safe to say that no British Life-boat has had aboard her people from so many different countries.

The Naming Ceremony took place on 5th September, at the life-boat House, on Margate Pier. The pier itself was packed with people, thanks to the kindpermission of the Chairman and Board of the Margate Pier and Harbour Com- pany, who not only made enclosures for the specially invited guests, but lent their fine string orchestra to play during and before the ceremony. It was esti- mated that with those who watched from the sea front, about 30,000 were present.

The actual ceremony began at noon, but before that the Mayor (Councillor T. D. Wood), accompanied, among others, by the Hon. George Colville, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Institution, Mr.

T. W. Gomm, Honorary Secretary of the Margate Branch, Coxswain S. Clay- son and members of the Margate Crew, went in procession to the memorial erected to the nine of the crew of thir- teen of the eurf-boat, Friend of AH Nations, who lost their lives when the boat capsized in December, 1897, on her way to help a vessel in distress.

Both the Mayor and Mr. Gomm laid wreaths on the memorial. In the pro- cession, and later on at the Naming Ceremony, were the four survivors of the disaster.

At the ceremony, Mr. W. J. Mercer, J.P., the Chairman of the Branch, pre- sided. Lord Southborough himself pre- sented the Boat to the Institution on behalf of the Civil Service Fund. Mr.

Colville received her on behalf of the Institution and formally handed her to the Mayor of Margate, the President of the Branch. The Rev. David Railton, M.C., M.A., the Vicar of Margate, dedi- cated her, and Lady Southborough named her. The singing was led by thechoristers from the Parish Church, under the Choir Master, Mr. H. E. Smallcross, and among those present at the ceremony were the Mayoress of Margate, the Rev.

M. Pryor. D.D., Vicar of Holy Trinity, Margate, and Honorary Canon of Canter- bury, Mr. W. Fortescue Barratt, Honorary Secretary of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, and several members of its committee, the Chief Constable of Margate, Mr. Kerbey Cleveland (Presi- dent of the Margate Rotary Club), Captain M. H. Friend, M.C., and Alder- man J. P. Coleman, who proposed andseconded the Vote of Thanks to Lord and Lady Southborough, and other members of the Committee of the Margate Branch, Mr. T. W. Gomm, Honorary Secretary of the Branch, Mr. J. B. Hartland, Hono- rary Assistant-Secretary, Mr. G. C.

Boult ng, whose help contributed | greatly to the record success of Life- j boat Day, and the Honorary Secretaries j and Coxswains of the Stations at Rams- • gate, North Deal, Kingsdowne and ; Folkestone.

In his opening address Mr. Mercer ! said that Margate was one of the most 1 important Life-boat Stations on the ! coast, for every day and in all weathers ' vessels of every nation were passing on I the way to London by the treacherous sandbanks of the Thames. They now had a Motor Life-boat of the latest type, able to face, with the minimum of risk, the heaviest gales and the roughest seas. But there was always grave risk ; and he recalled the disaster to the surf- boat Friend of All Nations. Mr. Mercer then spoke of the work of life-saving before the days of the Life-boat Service, when the fishermen of Margate went out to the rescue in open boats called luggers. It was a lugger named Lord Nelson, which in 1803 rescued 100 lives from the Hindustan when she went ashore on Margate Sands.* In formally presenting the new Boat to the Institution, Lord Southborough referred to the great record of the Civil Service Fund, and thanked his col- leagues of the Fund for the honour which they had done him in choosing his name for the Boat. He reminded them that it was a name taken from a town in Kent, and said that the Boat was a second link between him and Margate, for as a boy he had been at a Margate School. He then presented the Boat to the Institution with the hope that for many years to come she would do noble work in the service of those who faced the perils of the sea.

Mr. Colville expressed the gratitude of the Life-boat Service to the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, not only for this new Boat, but for the seven Life-boats in all which the Fund had presented and endowed. He then spoke of the value of the Motor Life-boat, with its greater power, speed and range, and formally entrusted the new Boat to the Margate Station. The Margate Crew, he felt sure, now that they had this new instrument for saving life, would excel their gallant deeds of the past.

After the Mayor had accepted the Boat in the name of the Branch, the Vicar of Margate went on board and conducted the Dedication Service, offering the Boat "to the service of God and humanity." Lady Southborough then broke a bottle of champagne on her stern, naming her " The Lord Southborough," and wishing her all success, and the Boat was launched to the sound of ringing cheers, the Vicar going with her.

Life-boat Day was held in Margate on the same day, and the Boat cruised * In this connexion it is worth recalling that it was at Margate that Lionel Lukin tested the Witch, the second of the two boats which he converted into " unimmergible boats," sailng her down to Margate from the Tower in eight hours. His first boat had been tried at Ramsgate in 1786.

about during the afternoon. The Day raised the record sum of over £303 as compared with £162 in 1924.

Port Erin, Isle of Man.

i THE Ethel Day Cardwell, the Life-boat j which had been at Teesmouth since 1917, was withdrawn from that Station, to be replaced by the new Watson Cabin Motor Life-boat, on 5th December of last year, and was sent to the store- yard on the Thames to be reconditioned.

She is a Motor Life-boat of the self- righting type, 40 feet long, with an engine-of 40 h.p., and the record of her seven years at Teesmouth is 29 lives I rescued.

On 1st August she left the Thames to go by sea to her new Station, Port Erin, in the Isle of Man, where she replaces a Pulling and Sailing Life-boat. She arrived on 10th August. On 12th August the new Boat-house. which has been built for her was formally opened by the Governor of the Isle of Man, and the Boat was launched. Mr. Qualtrough, the Honorary Treasurer of the Branch, was in the chair, and Canon Lucas con- ducted the dedication ceremony. A great many people were present and over £30 was collected. Port Erin is the youngest of the five Stations in the Isle of Man, having been established in 1883, and its record up to the arrival of the Motor Life-boat was 27 lives rescued.

A feature of the new Boat-house is that it has a tipping cradle. That is to say, the slipway does not run right to the floor of the Boat-house, but ends about 10 feet below it, and the floor itself is tipped down to meet the slipway when the Boat is launched. This device is used at a number of Stations where the House and Slipway have to be built in confined space. At Port Erin, for example, if the slope of the slipway had been continued up to the height of the floor of the Boat-house, the Boat-house would have had to be built further back, which was impossible owing to a road; and if, with the Boat-house in its present position, the floor had been a continua- tion of the slipway, it would have been so low that at high tide in bad .

weather the Boat would have been awash..