Naming Ceremony of the new Ramggate Motor Life-boat.

THE naming ceremony of this, the first of a new type of Motor Life-boat, took place on 14th April last in the Inner Harbour at Ramsgate. The full cost of the Boat, nearly £8,500, was borne by the Prudential Assurance Company, which in making the gift said : " It is made by us partly to assist your Institution in the great efforts being made in connexion with its Centenary year, and partly as a recognition of the benefit which this Company and its policy-holders derive when some of the latter are rescued from the perils of the deep." At the ceremony the Life- boat was formally presented to the Institution by Mr. Edgar Home, the Deputy-Chairman of the Company, while Mrs. Home christened her Prudential.

The Chair was taken by the Mayor of Ramsgate (Alderman W. Coleman, J.P.), and those present included Sir William Burn, K.B.E., F.I.A., General Manager of the Prudential, and other members of the Company. Ramsgate itself was fully represented, nearly all the members of the Town Council being present, and also Captain Francis S. Symons, the Harbour Master and Honorary Secretary of the Branch. The neighbouring Stations of Margate and Deal were represented by their Honorary Secre- taries and Coxswains, and the Institution by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, the Hon. Esmond Harmsworth, M.P. for Thanet and a member of the Committee of Management, Mr. George F. Shee, M.A., Secretary, and Captain Howard F. J. Rowley, C.B.E., R.N., Chief Inspector of Life-boats.

Prominent among the special guests were five old and weather-worn Life- boatmen, the youngest of them being 79 years of age, the survivors of the Rams- gate crew which went out to the Indian Chief in 1881, Ramsgate's most famous service, and one of the greatest in the annals of the Institution. Besides the guests on the platform and in the special enclosure, thousands of people lined the side of the harbour, which had been decorated with flags, as also had all the vessels lying in it.

In his opening speech the Mayor said that the citizens of Ramsgate were justly proud of the Life-boat Crew, which had many times proved their valour, fortitude and self-sacrifice. In the name of his colleagues on the Council and of the whole town he wel- comed the representatives of the Pru- dential Assurance Company and the Institution, and thanked them for their magnificent gift to Ramsgate.

Mr. Edgar Home then formally presented the Life-boat to the Institu- tion. She was received by Mr. Harms- worth, who, in handing her to the Branch, expressed the regret of the Institution that Dame Janet Stancomb- Wills, D.B.E., the President of the Ramsgate Ladies' Life-boat Guild, was prevented by illness from being present to receive the Life-boat on behalf of the Branch.

Description of the Boat.

Mrs. Richardson, Dame Janet's sister, expressed the gratitude of the Branch to the Institution and the Prudential Assurance Company, and Captain Row- ley then gave particulars of the Boat.

She was, he said, the result of 100 years of experience in designing Life-boats, and was the 697th Life-boat which the Institution had built. She was also in great part the result of the " obstinacy and conservatism of that well-known body of men, the Ramsgate Life-boat Crew." When a Life-boat was first offered to Ramsgate the Crew insisted that she should be of the Self-righting type. They were not wholly satisfied with the Watson cruising type of boat, nor with the Norfolk and Suffolk type, which was constructed for operations in similar waters to those off Ramsgate.

The result was that certain features of both the Norfolk and Suffolk type and the Watson type were combined in another and new type of Boat—the Ramsgate type, and that was the Boat which had now been handed over to the town.

She was 48 feet long, with a beam of 13 feet 1 inch, and a draught of only 3-5 feet—a remarkably shallow draught for such a heavy Boat. It was, however, imperative that a Life-boat on this coast should have a shallow draught, which, in conjunction with her line-throwing gun, with a range of 80 yards, made it possible for her to reach any vessel likely to get upon the Goodwin Sands.

She was built of East India teak instead of mahogany, the wood more often used for Life-boats, because teak would last better in a boat which had to lie afloat. Her total bulk was fifty-five tons, which, as she weighed twenty tons, left her a margin of thirty-five tons buoyancy. Her carrying capacity was 195 persons. That was to say, supposing weather conditions would allow that number to be taken on board, it would just put her awash.

116 Water-tight Compartments.

She had a free board of 15 inches, which meant that the 195 persons would just sink the Boat 15 inches.

She was divided into 116 water-tight compartments (more than a battle cruiser had), and one could go on stoving them in as long as one liked, and the Boat would not sink. She had i an engine developing 76 horse-power, so constructed that the engine-room could be completely submerged and the engine would go on working. The Boat's speed was 8'16 knots, and with a fuel storage of 100 gallons .of petrol she had a radius of action of sixty miles.

The Rev. E. L. A. Hertslet, the Vicar of Ramsgate, standing on the foredeck, then conducted the short service of dedication, and after the hymn, "Eternal Father, strong to save," had been sung, Mrs. Edgar Home christened the Boat with a bottle of champagne. A maroon was fired, and the Life-boat made a short cruise round the harbour.

In moving a vote of thanks to all who had taken part in the ceremony, Mr. Shee said that he felt sure that none of the beneficent works with which the Prudential Assurance Company had associated themselves would give them more pride than their Life-boat. There were no Life-boatmen anywhere on the coast who had done greater honour to themselves and to the Service than the Ramsgate Crews. All felt it a great honour that there were present at the ceremony those few old men, the heroic survivors of that epic service, the rescue of the crew of the Indian Chief, which deserved to be recorded in the annals of the town as the noblest achievement of Ramsgate men. Some time before the Vicar of Ramsgate had suggested that on the tablets of honour at the Town Hall should be included the names at least of the Coxswains of the Life-boat.

There were none who better deserved that honour from their fellow-townsmen.

Councillor Mrs. F. Dunn seconded the vote, and both the Mayor and Mr.

Home replied, the latter saying that the Prudential Assurance Company would follow with great interest and pride the future doings of the Ramsgate Crew.

Hospitality of the Prudential.

After the ceremony the Prudential Assurance Company entertained the principal guests, about 120 in all, to luncheon at the Granville Hotel, among them being the Coxswain and Crew, and the five survivors of the Crew of 1881.

Mr. Home presided, and in proposing the toast of the Institution spoke of the dangers and hardships of the Life- boatman's work, carried out as it was in such weather, and at such times and seasons, that few but the men them- selves could know what those dangers and hardships were.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, replied and, after thanking the Prudential Assurance Company for their generosity, said that he hoped that for many years the Life-boat bearing the Com- pany's name would fulfil her mission of mercy.

The toast of the Prudential Assurance Company was proposed by the Mayor and responded to by Sir Joseph Burn, General Manager of the Company, who said that in all his experience he could not recall any event which had made a deeper impression on him than once when he saw the Ramsgate Life-boat return from a wreck with the rescued men on board. That was a sight which he would never forget. The mere mention of a Life-boat thrilled the ! people of our island in a way in which hardly any other service could thrill them. In conclusion he said that there were 26,000,000 policy-holders in the Prudential and every one of them would feel some proprietary right in the new Life-boat which bore the Company's name.