Porthdinllaen, Caernarvonshire, and Aberdeen.

THE new Porthdinllaen Motor Lifeboat was named on 12th August by Dame Margaret Lloyd George.

D.B.E., J.P., President of the South' Caernarvonshire Branch of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild; and the Aberdeen Motor Life-boat on September 17th by the Lady Maud Carnegie (H.H. Princess Maud).

There has been a Life-boat Station at Porthdinllaen since 1864, and it has a record of 187 lives rescued from shipwreck.

The new Motor Life-boat is of the Watson Cabin type, 45 feet by 12 feet 6 inches, with a 76 h.p. engine, of which type there are now thirteen on the coast. She has been built out of a number of legacies which, with the consent of the trustees, have been amalgamated. These legacies were received from Miss J. S. Manby, of Middlesex ; Mr. William Gates, of Shepperton, Middlesex; Mr. F. W. N. Lloyd, of Bromley, Kent, and the Misses J. C. and J. L. Owen, of Bodowen, Caernarvon.

The High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire, Mr. G. Hughes Eoberts, presided.

Commodore Sir Richard Williams- Bulkeley, Bt., K.C.B., R.N.R., a Vice- President of the Institution, was to have presented the Life-boat to the Branch, on behalf of the Institution, and Mr. J. E. Greaves, Lord-Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire and Chairman of the Branch, was to have received her.

Unfortunately they were both prevented at the last moment from being present, and their places were taken by Captain H. G. Innes, R.N., District Inspector of Life-boats, and Mr. Arthur Owen, Vice-Chairman of the Branch.

The Ceremony took place in glorious weather in the presence of some 4000 people, among these present being members of the family of two of the donors, the Misses Owen.

In opening the proceedings, the High Sheriff appealed to the inhabitants of South Caernarvonshire to be generous in their support of the four Life-boats which the Institution had placed on their coast, and which, between them, had rescued over 500 lives.

Captain Innes then gave particulars of the new Life-boat and of the legacies out of which she had been built, and said that the Station had a Crew of which it has every reason to be proud, and that it was fortunate in having in Captain Owen Evans an Honorary Secretary who was an experienced master-mariner and had himself been out in the Life-boat on service. Mr.

Arthur Owen, in accepting the Boat, said that she would be ready at any time of day or night to answer the call.

The dedication service was conducted by the Rev. H. Williams, Vicar of Nevin, and the Rev. John Hughes, Calvinistic Methodist Minister of Edeyrn. Dame Margaret Lloyd George then named the new Life-boat M.O.Y.E., these being the initials of the names desired by the donors, while the full names are inscribed on a plate inside the Boat. As soon as she had been named the Boat was launched.

After a Vote of Thanks to Dame Margaret had been proposed by Mr.

William Thomas, J.P., and seconded by Captain Watkin Williams, J.P., Dame Margaret presented to ex-Coxswain Evan Hughes, of Criccieth, the Certificate of Service which had been awarded to him by the Institution on his retirement after serving 26 years as Coxswain, 10 years as Second Coxswain, and 10 years as a member of the Criccieth Crew.

Captain Garro Jones, M.P., proposed, and Mr. Rees Thomas, J.P. seconded, a Vote of Thanks to the High Sheriff, The day before the Ceremony, a Garden Fete was given for the South Caernarvonshire Ladies' Life-boat Guild by Mrs. Wynne Finch, one of its Vice- Presidents. At this fete a meeting of the Guild was held, Dame Margaret Lloyd George presiding, and the officers were re-elected.

Gift from Mr. Lloyd George.

Since the Ceremony the Institution has received from the Right Hon.

David Lloyd George, O.M., M.P., a gift of £15 to provide the Line-throwing Gun for the Boat.

Aberdeen.

There has been a Life-boat Station at Aberdeen for over 70 years, but until 1925 it was maintained by the Harbour Commissioners. At the beginning of that year, at their request, it was taken over by the Institution, the Station consisting of two Life-boats and a Rocket Apparatus. Both boat-houses and other buildings were handed over to the Institution, and the Harbour Commissioners agreed to contribute annually £500 towards the maintenance of the Station.

The Institution at once decided to lay down for the Station a Motor Life-boat of the largest type, the 60-foot Barnett Twin Screw, costing over £14,000, and meanwhile sent two Pulling and Sailing Life-boats to the Station. The new boat was completed in October of last year, and an account of her journey of 565 miles from the building yard at Cowes to Aberdeen, against heavy head gales all the way, appeared in The Lifeboat for last February. She has been built out of a legacy from the late Mr. John Mackie, of York.

At the Ceremony on 17th September, on the River Dee, Lord Provost Lewis.

President of the Branch, presided ; Lady Maud Carnegie named the Boat, being accompanied by Lord Carnegie; and the Institution was represented by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, the Duke of Montrose, Chairman of the Scottish Council, Lady Findlay, Honorary Secretary of the Council, Mr. George F. Shee, M.A., Secretary of the Institution, and Commander E. D. Drury, O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R., District Inspector of Life-boats.

Among those present were the Lady Provost, the Marquis of Aberdeen and Temair, P.O., K.T., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire and a Vice-President of the Institution; the Very Rev. Sir George Adam Smith, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Aberdeen University, Lady Smith, Sir John H. Irvin, K.B.E., and Lady Irvin.

The religious service was conducted by the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, D.S.O., M.C., B.D., Minister of the West United Free Church, Aberdeen, and the Rev. A. W. Scudamore Forbes, B.D., Minister of the West Parish Church, Aberdeen; a musical programme was played by the band of the 4th Gordon Highlanders, a barge anchored in the river being its bandstand; the singing was led by the Fisher Girls' Choir, conducted by Councillor Allenby; and a detachment of Girl Guides formed a guard of honour. It was estimated that besides the 500 invited guests there were over 10,000 people present on both sides of the river and in boats. The speeches and singing were broadcast, and were made audible to the great audience by means of amplifiers placed up and down the river bank.

In handing the Life-boat to the Branch in the name of the donor, Mr.

John Mackie, and of the Institution, Sir Godfrey Baring said that the Institution recognized the great importance of the Aberdeen Station, and as soon as this Station was placed in its charge, the Institution decided to provide it with a Motor Life-boat of the largest and most powerful type. He had no doubt that the Aberdeen Crew, with this magnificent instrument for saving life, would worthily carry on the great traditions of Scottish Life-boatmen.

Crew and Life-boat, in fact, had already proved themselves in the service to the trawler Ben Tore only a few days before.

The Rev. A. W. Scudamore Forbes then dedicated the Life-boat to the service of God, and Commander Diury gave a full description of her.* In accepting the Lifeboat, Lord Provost Lewis said that Aberdeen deeply appreciated the generosity of the Institution and the courage and foresight with which it faced its great responsibilities. None knew better than they in Aberdeen what the Life-boat Service meant to the seafaring community.

Lord Provost Lewis then pointed out that a fifth of the whole Life-boat Fleet was stationed on the coasts of Scotland. If Scotland was to do its duty and preserve the independence of * A full description of the sister life-boat at Plymouth appeared in the last issue of The Lifeboat.which it boasted, then it should contribute a fifth of the total of £250,000 annually needed to provide and maintain the Service. Instead of £11,000, the sum at present contributed, it must raise £50,000. Aberdeen, for its part, must raise to the last penny its proportionate share of that sum of £50,000.

It could not do less. It ought to do more.

The Lord Provost then introduced Lady Maud Carnegie, who, stepping forward, pulled a ribbon which released the bottle of champagne. As it broke over the bow of the Life-boat she named her Emma Constance and wished her God-speed.

A Vote of Thanks to Lady Maud Carnegie was proposed by the Duke of Montrose, who pointed out that for every ship lost at sea ten or twelve were lost on shore, and appealed to rich and poor to support the Service. The Vote was seconded by Sir John Irvin and supported by the Marquis of Aberdeen and Temair. In replying on behalf of Lady Maud Carnegie, Lord Carnegie said that Lady Maud had come that afternoon to the Dee to name the new Life-boat, not as a stranger to the river, but as one who had known it from near its source all her life.

Lady Findlay proposed a Vote of Thanks to the Lord Provost. In seconding this Vote, Mr. Shee described the arrangement which was made between the Harbour Commissioners and the Institution, and paid a tribute to the work of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild of Aberdeen which that day was holding a Life-boat Day.

At the end of the Ceremony the Life-boat made a trip up and down the river with visitors on board, and with Line-throwing Gun and breeches buoy gave a demonstration of Life-saving.

Service to the " Ben Tore." Eleven days before the Inaugural Ceremony, on 6th September, the Aberdeen Motor Life-boat was called out at 10-30 at night to the help of the Aberdeen steam-trawler Ben Tore which had gone ashore on the rocks in a dense fog. There was a breeze with a moderate swell, which was breaking heavily on the rocks. Using the searchlight to find her way among the partially submerged rocks, the Life-boat got close enough to the trawler for her crew of six to jump on board. All landed safely except the skipper, who fell into the sea but was safely hauled aboard the Lifeboat.

The Life-boat then backed out from among the rocks, and reached her Station again just an hour after she had left it..