FOLLOWING on the Barnett Twin-Screw Life-boat, and the Watson Cabin Life- boat, both Life-boats specially designed to be able to carry out services at a considerable distance from their Stations, the Institution has now designed another new type, which will be known as the Ramsgate Life-boat, since the first of the type has been sent to that Station.

It is 48 ft. by 13 ft., with a 76 h.p. engine, and will carry a crew of nine. It combines features of both the Watson and the Norfolk and Suffolk types, and has been designed for the special condi- tions of the Goodwin Sands. These special conditions are that the Ramsgate Life-boat often has to travel considerable distances on service, and at the same time to work over sands, and the combination is between a cruising type and the shallow draft type which has always been the choice of the Life- boatmen whose work is carried out among the sandbanks off the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk.

With the stationing of a Motor Life- boat at Ramsgate ends that long and gallant co-operation between the Rams- gate Life-boats and the Board of Trade tugs, which has been the means of rescuing so many lives. From 1863, when the Institution placed its first Life-boat at Ramsgate, until 1922, the Station was managed jointly by the Institution and the Board of Trade, the Institution supplying and maintaining the Life-boats, while the Board of Trade bore the cost of maintaining the Station and rewarding the Coxswain and Crew, and placed a tug at the disposal of the Life-boat for towing her out to vessels in distress. In March, 1922, the Institu- tion, at the request of the Board of Trade, took over full financial responsi- bility for the Station, but the Ministry of Transport, which at the same time relieved the Board of Trade of its other duties in connexion with Harbours, continued until December 31st, 1925,to supply the tug. So, after sixty-three years, the alliance for life - saving between the Ramsgate Life-boats and Ramsgate tugs has now come to an end.

In these sixty-three years nearly 1300 lives have been saved.