ON the afternoon of 29th October, a steamer arriving at Kingstown, on the south side of Dublin Bay, reported that a ship had gone ashore. A southerly gale was blowing, with a very heavy sea.

The Motor Life-boat was launched, and when she got out of the harbour, a ship was seen being driven towards the north shore of the Bay. She was the sailing ship Hamburg, of Hamburg, a vessel of nearly 2000 tons, which had left Australia with a cargo of wheat on 29th May, on her way to Cork. She had put into Falmouth, and on leaving there had met with very heavy weather, with south-westerly winds, had been driven northwards, and made for Dublin.

When the Life-boat reached her she was aground, so the Coxswain brought the Life-boat alongside, and the 46 men on board, and the ship's cat, were taken off.

The Hamburg is a training ship for the Mercantile Marine, and, besides her complement of officers and crew, carried a large number of apprentices. Three weeks later she was got off the sands and towed into Dublin. Her owners, Messrs.

Hans Heinrich Schmidt, sent the Insti- tution ten guineas "in sincere appre- ciation of its merits." This service to the Hamburg was quickly followed by a service to another German sailing ship, also of Hamburg, the four-masted pole-rigged ship Paul, This service took place the following day Jon the Welsh coast. The ship, which was on her way from Halifax, Nova I Scotia, to Milford Haven, had been set i to the eastward, and as a result of this j and the thick weather, she stranded near Ferryside, in Carmarthen Bay. The Ferryside Life-boat was launched shortly before 8.30, and reached the vessel an j hour later. A strong breeze was blowing ! with a rough sea and heavy rain. She i found that one of the ship's boats had got away with 11 people on board.

i They were transferred to the Life-boat,which then took the Captain and the remaining four men off the Paul herself, bringing them safely to Ferryside two hours later. The vessel became a total wreck.

It is of interest also to record that the returns of service of the Belgian Life- boat Service for 1925, which we have received from its Director-General, records a fine service to a German sailing ship by the Ostend Life-boat, only a month after these two services on our own coasts.

On 25th November, a violent gale from the north had sprung up on the Belgian coast, with hail and a very heavy sea. In the afternoon of that day the Ostend tug went out and escorted a Dutch vessel into safety. Then at five in the morning on the following day the tug towed out the Life-boat to a German three-masted barque, the Obotrita, which had lost her two anchors and had run aground. The gale, the darkness of the night, and the continual squalls of sleet made the rescue very difficult, but in the end the Life-boat succeeded in taking off the 18 men of the Obotrita's crew.

Thus, in four weeks, 80 German lives were saved on our own and the Belgian coasts..