IT is with very great regret that we record two Life-boat disasters on the French coast during the present year.

In one of them two Life-boats of La Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Nau- frages were wrecked with the loss of fifteen lives, and in the other a Life-boat of the Societe des Hospitaliers Sauve- teurs Bretons, with the loss of five lives.

The following telegram of sympathy was sent from the Institution to the French Society and a similar one to the Breton Society : " Profondement emus nouvelles du double desastre canots sauvetage avec perte grande partie d'equipages nous vous envoyons temoig- nage sympathie plus sincere en calamite qui a ete si souvent le prix des efforts des sauveteurs heroi'ques de nos Societes soeurs.—BARING, Chairman; COLVILLE, Deputy Chairman ; SHEE, Secretary." The weather was fine on 23rd May, and a number of fishing boats went out from Penmarc'h, on the coast of Finis- tere, some way to the south of Brest.

It is a low coast sown with innumerable reefs. Towards mid-day a sudden and violent storm rose from the south, and the boats returned, but one of them with six men on board was seen to capsize when still over a mile away from the shore. The Life-boats at Kerity and Saint Pierre-Penmarc'h were imme- diately manned. Both are Pulling and Sailing Life-boats, the Kerity boat being a self-righter. Several of the regular crew of each. Boat were at sea, but volun- teers at once came forward. The tide was not high enough for the Boats to float in the little harbours, but they were quickly launched, the women helpers | wading in up to their waists as they pushed the Life-boat carriages out.

While the Boats were being rowed out another fishing boat with seven men on board was wrecked in the same place as the first.

The Kerity Boat had to pass through a channel between two rocks, and found there a sea coming from several direc- tions, and of such violence as her crew had never before experienced. She met a huge breaking wave, on which she rode with perfect ease, but the next wave lifted her by the port bow and flung half her crew into the sea. Those who were still on board helped their comrades to get back, but before the Boat was under full control again, another wave struck her and this time she was completely capsized, all her crew being thrown into the sea. Seven were drowned. The remaining five were rescued by a fishing boat. The Boat herself was swept ashore, turning over several times.

Wreck of the Second Life-boat.

The other Life-boat was about 120 yards behind. She was struck by the same wave which, a few seconds before, had wrecked the Kerity Boat, and was seen to stand up with her bow in the air almost vertically. The entire crew of twelve was flung into the sea, and the Life-boat fell back on her keel, and drove towards the shore. Four only of her crew were saved by a fisherman in a dinghey, who had put out to change the anchorage of his fishing-boat.

Of the Boats themselves, the self- righter was so slightly damaged that it was possible to repair her at the Station. The other was of so stable a type that she did not capsize, but in driving to the shore she was badly holed passing over the reefs.

This disaster is the worst in the history of the French Life-boat Service. Fifteen Life-boatmen lost their lives, and the entire crews, twelve men in all, of the two wrecked fishing boats, disappeared.

Twenty-seven lives were lost, but to the honour of French seamen and the French Life-boat Service it has to be recorded that " scarcely had the first bodies been buried, when numbers of sailors of Penmarc'h came forward to fill the vacant places . . . and the nearest relative of each victim insisted eagerly oil being chosen." It was found impossible to refuse them, and, as the only, way out of the difficulty, it was decided to increase the number of the enrolled members of the crews. It is the practice of the French Service to enrol, in addition to the Coxswain and Second Coxswain, two complete crews of ten men each, making a total for each Boat of twenty-two men. At Kerity and Saint Pierre-Penmarc'h, as a result of this terrible disaster, with the loss of twenty-seven lives, the enrolled crews now number twenty-four.

The Breton Disaster.

The other disaster took place earlier in the year. On the night of 23rd Feb- ruary a Spanish steamer, Cristina-Rued®,, of Bilbao, was wrecked on the lie de Re, off La Eoehelle. She lay there half submerged, with a very heavy sea breaking round her, and her crew lashed to the rigging. Two of the ship's boats were launched, and one of them, with one man on board, reached the shore and gave the alarm. Attempts were first made by fishermen in their own rowing boats to reach the wreck, and they picked up two of the crew who had left the steamer on a raft. Three Life- boats were then launched, the Motor i Life-boat at La Bochelle, Le Com- ] mandant Viort, belonging to the Breton 1 Society, and two Pulling and Sailing ( Life-boats of the Central Society. A Motor Life-boat of the Central Society j was also called out, but was put out of action by striking a barge just after being launched.

| None of the three Life-boats succeeded in getting near enough to rescue the crew of the Spanish steamer, and Le Commandant Viort, manoeuvring in the broken water with the wind and sea abaft, was caught under the stern by an enormous wave. As the wave receded the Boat had not enough water and struck violently on the bot- tom. She capsized and was swept ashore, with four members of her crew.

Two were alive; two were dead. The Coxswain was shortly afterwards washed ashore alive. The same evening the dead bodies of the other three members of the crew were recovered.

This was on the Wednesday. On the following morning the steamer broke in half. Several members of the crew of twenty had already put off from her on rafts and been dragged ashore alive by living chains of men, women, and even children, but the majority perished..