ON the evening of Christmas Day the Life-boat at St. Ives was launched in response to signals from the Godrevy Lighthouse. The Boat was launched over the soft sand with considerable difficulty, some of the seventy-five launchers going into the sea up to their necks. She reached the lighthouse and found that one of the light-keepers was dangerously ill. A W.S.W. gale was blowing, with a very heavy sea, and it was a perilous task getting the sick man on board the Life-boat, but the Coxswain handled her very skilfully, and the man was embarked and brought to St. Ives without mishap. There is little doubt that the Life-boat saved his life, for in no other way could he have been got ashore.

Extra monetary rewards were given to the Coxswain, Crew and helpers, and the Trinity House made a special donation of £50 towards the cost of the launch as a mark of their apprecia- tion of the service.

This is by no means the first time that a Life-boat has performed such a service. In December, 1914, the Girvan Life-boat took a doctor across to see a sick man on Ailsa Craig, and twice in 1923 the Motor Life-boat at St. Mary's was called out to help in cases of illness.

In March of that year she brought ashore one of the light-keepers of the Bishop Rock Lighthouse, who had been taken ill, and who was got aboard the Life-boat, with the help of a line, in a heavy swell. In November the same Life-boat took a sick man, on whom an immediate operation was necessary, from St. Mary's to Penzance, as the I regular communication between the islands and the mainland had broken I down.

It is also of interest to mention that the Institution has an arrangement with the War Office by which the Humber Life-boat can be called out in case of any illness or injury at the forts at the Humber mouth.