Boats for Plymouth and Aberdeen.

IN October, 1924, the Institution laid down two more Motor Life-boats of the Barnett Twin-Screw type for Plymouth and Aberdeen. The first reached her Station on July 1st, and the 2nd on October 30th. The first of this type, it will be remembered, was completed in the summer of 1923, and made a tour round the British Isles before going to her Station, at New Brighton, on the Mersey. Another Life-boat of this special type—intended only for Stations where long distances may have to be travelled, and where the Life-boat can lie afloat — was laid down in November, 1925, for Stromness, in the Orkneys.

Like the New Brighton Boat, the Plymouth and Aberdeen Boats are 60 feet by 15 feet, with a draught of 4 feet 5J inches, and are driven by two 76 h.p.

engines, which give them a speed of 9£ knots, and a great reserve of power, enabling them to maintain their maxi- mum speed under severe conditions of weather. Their tonnage has been slightly increased—44 tons as compared with 40; and as a result of experience with the New Brighton Boat several modifications have been made. Both the engine-rooms and the two cabins have been enlarged, the latter having room for between fifty and sixty people.

The petrol capacity has been increased by 100 gallons, with the result that these two Boats will have a radius of action, at a cruising speed of 8 knots, of no less than 250 miles, a hundred miles more than the radius of action of the New Brighton Boat.

The most noticeable outward change is that the exhausts of the engines, instead of being taken out at the side, as in the case of the New Brighton Boat, are carried up two funnels amidships, giving these Boats the appearance of steamships rather than motor-boats.

This change has been made because it has been found, with the exhausts at the side, that occasionally, when the engines are stopped, water gets back into them through the exhausts. This could have been prevented by taking the exhausts out at the stern, but this would have meant a great deal of piping running through the hold, and it was therefore decided to carry them straight up from the engine-room through the deck.

Each of these new Boats is provided, like the New Brighton Boat, with a Line-throwing Gun, a Searchlight, a Life-saving Net stretched amidships, a powerful electric capstan, and a fire- extinguishing plant which is worked from the deck and can eject a jet of Pyrene fluid to all vital parts of the Boat.

The Stromness Boat, though of the same type, will be smaller (51 feet by 13 feet 6 inches), and will be driven by two 60 h.p. engines..