The following article has been written for The Lifeboat by an officer in the Salvation Army, while, the note attached to it gives some general particulars about the Norwegian Life-boat Service, which we haw received from its Secretary.

An article on the Norwegian Service appeared, in The Lifeboat for February, 1922.] HE has the biggest fist of any man I have ever met. It is massive, invul- nerably hard, and Samsonian in its grip.

When you shake his hand you cannot get right hold of it, and your own hand is lost in its expansive hold.

He is the Captain of the Salvation Army Life-boat Catherine Booth, Adjutant Jens Myhre by name, and his giant fist is the measure of the stoutness of bis heart. He is a very brave man, and the strength of his arm and the boldness of his heart have grown out of many years' wrestling with- the powers of the deep. Of true Viking strain, he has inherited the fearless- ness, endurance, and invincibility of that valiant race.

I had a chat with Adjutant Myhre in Oslo during the summer respite from wind and storm, when the opportunity was taken to renovate the Catherine Booth in readiness for the next winter's work, which would keep it almost continuously at sea, night and day, from October to April.

The noble fellows who man the Life- boats round the British coast put to sea in them only when there is a call of distress. The Catherine Booth is always out when the weather is bad, mostly within the Arctic Circle. In these northern seas a lot of fishing is done, and the rugged coast being extremely dangerous when fierce storms beat against it, the men who ply their calling there, are frequently in the great- est peril. For twenty-three years the Catherine Booth has been in commission, and something like fifteen hundred fishing-boats, damaged in the storms, have been towed to shore and thek crews, numbering in all about four thousand men, snatched from death.

Under full sail the Life-boat can do twelve knots. Designed and con- structed by the same man who built the Fram, that wonderfully sturdy and compact vessel in which Dr. Nansen, some years ago, went in quest of the North Pole, the Catherine Booth is able to carry fifty souls. It follows the fishing fleet and shepherds the craft in the open seas. Often the fishermen are caught in a gale and cannot reach the shore, and sometimes their boats capsize. At such times, when some of the fleet have failed to return, the fisher wives will stand so long on the shore waiting anxiously for their hus- bands' boats that they faint and fall.

What boundless joy there is when, at last, they see the Catherine Booth, manned by her Salvationist crew, towing the missing boats, perhaps as many as ten at one time! All along the coast, this gallant Captain told me, the Life-boat is regarded as the fishermen's friend.

When she arrives at a fishing station every flag is flown in her honour.

When she departs flags are again hoisted in salute. In the event of sickness in the fishing villages, the Liie-boat Captain has to be doctor. Similarly at sea, sick or injured sailors are taken on board and treated. The prompt and skilful aid rendered has in more than a few instances prevented the need for amputations.

Adjutant Myhre, with modest pride shining in his fearless blue eyes, in- formed me that he had served with the Catherine Booth for seventeen years, eleven of them as Captain. He is a born sailor and knows the merciless Arctic sea in all its moods. He followed the calling of a fisherman in those far northern latitudes before he joined the Salvation Army and became a Life- boat man. It was Ma habit to attend the Salvation Army's meetings at Honningsvaag, a fishing station about thirty-five miles nearer the Arctic regions than Hammerfest, which is the most northerly town m the world.

As a result, having himself been rescued from death at sea during a terrible storm, he sought the privilege of a place among the crew of the Catherine Booth.

After two years' service his ability and courage gained him the post of second officer, and eventually the Captaincy.

Adjutant Myhre is a skilful pilot, and during the brief summer months, when the life-boat is laid up, he under- takes commissions which bring in money towards the maintenance of the Catherine Booth. Often he has piloted British warships through the treacher- ous Norwegian waters.

The Adjutant related two among many of his experiences while battling with the storms. One particularly rough day the Life-boat had thoroughly scoured the seas, and the Captain and his men felt satisfied that all the fishing boats had safely reached harbour.

When evening came they were about to cast anchor •when, the Adjutant heard an inward voice say, " Turn round at once, and sail out again." A certain direction was indicated, and in this the nose of the boat was set.

After proceeding some distance the Life-boat Captain discovered a small open boat, containing a solitary man, helplessly drifting from land towards a rock which was continually swept by the waves. Kve minutes' delay or mismanagement of the Life-boat would have cost the life of the man, who had an anxious family awaiting his return.

In the nick of time he was saved from a terrible fate.

On the second occasion all the vessels but one were in harbour. Through the thickly falling snow the almost dis- tracted wife of the captain of the missing boat was intently gazing with a com- pany -of her friends and neighbours.

Once she caught a glimpse of the Life- boat, and for a moment hope revived; but when she failed to discern the fishing boat, owing to the thickness of the weather, dread filled her anxious heart, and she was carried home in a swoon.

A little later the Catherine Booth came safely to shore with both boat and crew, amid much rejoicing.

" If it had not been for the Army's Life-boat we should never have seen the shore again," declared the rescued men; and words such as those express the feelings of the many hundreds whom Adjutant Myhre and his com- rades have succeeded in bringing to their desired haven.

The Norwegian Society for the Rescue of the Shipwrecked has twenty-eight Sailing ketches, each manned by 4 men, so that their Crews number altogether 112. All these ketches are of the same design as the Catherine Booth, built by Colin Archer of Larvik, a Norwegian whose parents were English. He built the famous Fram, Nansen's ship, which also took Roald Amundsen to the Antarctic. These twenty-eight ketches keep constant watch round the Nor- wegian coast in the winter, rescuing the shipwrecked and helping and pilot- ing vessels when they get near the coast.

Their principal duty, however, is to follow the Norwegian Fishing Fleet during the big winter fisheries, rescuing fishermen who are unable to reach land, and helping and taking in tow fishing boats and other vessels in distress.

In this way, since the Norwegian Society was founded in 1891, and the first ketch was launched in 1893, there have been saved, up to the end of 1925, 2,620 lives, and in addition 82,270 men have been towed ashore, often under very difficult circumstances. Fully to understand the work and responsibilities of the Norwegian Life-boats it has to be remembered that Norway's fishing population numbers 102,332. The ketches help every year about 3,000 men in distress at sea, and the account of the work of the Catherine Booth may be taken as typical of the work of the other ketches and their crews..