By Walter Riggs, Hon. Secretary of the Aldeburgh Branch.

THERE has been a Life-boat Station at Aldeburgh in Suffolk for over a century.

The earliest record of it which the Institution has, is that in 1824, the year in which the Institution itself was founded, the Suffolk Shipwreck Association ordered a Life-boat to be built and placed at Sizewell. In 1851 the Station was moved to Aldeburgh, five miles farther south, and since 1905 it has had two Life-boats.

Few Stations have as fine a record.

The Aldeburgh Life-boats have rescued 413 lives.

In this record the most conspicuous part has been played by the Cable family, which, for five generations, has served in the Life-boat. Two of its members have lost their own lives in attempting to save life from shipwreck, and four— three of them brothers—were killed in the War.

Two Cables Drowned on Service, The first of the Life-boat Cables was Thomas Cable, who served for some thirty-five years, from the time when the first Life-boat was placed at Sizewell in 1824 until he lost his life on service, at the age of fifty-eight, on the 21st December, 1859.

The weather was bitterly cold that day and a strong south-west gale was blowing.

The Life-boat Pascoe was launched to the help of a Whitby brig, Unity, but when she was crossing the shoal a heavy sea struck her and she capsized.

She righted herself, with one man still in the boat and others clinging to the life-lines. Four of these men succeeded with his help in getting aboard her, and she drifted northwards for a mile and a half and then, came ashore. The remainder swam for shore, but three of them, among them Thomas Cable, were drowned.

Four years before, his son Thomas, who was then 35 years old and for fifteen years had been a member of the Crew, was drowned, not when out in the Life-boat, but in a very gallant attempt to swim out to a wreck. This was on 3rd November, 1855. A Swedish brig, Vesta, had been driven ashore in a very heavy gale. A number of men went through the surf to the rescue of the brig's crew, with lines round their bodies. Among them was the Honorary Secretary of the Branch, Mr. Newson Garrett, who was awarded the Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum for his gallantry on this day.* Mi.

Garrett was swept off his feet and rescued by Thomas Cable. Cable—who, as the Institution recorded at the time, had " on several occasions distinguished himself by his courage"— then attempted to swim out to the brig, and the line which he took with him was got on board her by means of a grapnel, but the part which he was holding broke, and though seven of the nine men of the brig were saved, he himself was seen no more.

The first Thomas had two other sons, one of whom, William, went to Australia as a farmer, while the other, Robert, served in the Life-boat for about 30 years, and was one of the crew of the Pascoe who succeeded in swimming ashore when she capsized. Thus, of these first four Cables, three served in the Life-boat, their total length of service being some 80 years, and two of the three lost their lives on service.

We come now to the third generation.

The second Thomas had two sons and three daughters, and it was James Cable, one of his sons, who had the most distinguished career of all the Lifeboat members of the family. He was Coxswain for 30 years, from 1888 to 1917, and was three times awarded the Silver Medal of the Institution. The first time was in December, 1891, in recognition of several gallant services * AD account of this service 'was quoted in The Liftbcat for February, J925, from the reminiscences of Dame Millicent Fawcett, Mr, Newson Garrett's daughter. and in particular the rescue of seventeen men from a Norwegian barque, Winnifred, which, on 11th November of that year, in a whole S.S.W. gale, had lost her main and mizzen masts, struck a sandbank and filled with water. A very heavy sea was breaking on the shoal, and it was only with great difficulty that the 17 men were rescued, some being taken from the jib boom and others hauled through the surf.

For this service James Cable was also awarded a Medal by the Norwegian Government.

Three Services in One Day.

Just three years later, in December 1894, he was awarded a Clasp to his Silver Medal " for his continued gallant services." This award followed three fine services by the Aldeburgh Life-boat in the previous month, all on the one day. During a violent storm the Lifeboat was launched to a vessel which had lost her masts and appeared to be water-logged. She was a Finnish barque, the Venscapen. The Life-boat got under her lee and took off the fourteen men on board. Ten minutes later the derelict struck on the outer shoals and went to pieces. As the sea on the shoals was so heavy the Life-boat did not attempt to return to Aldeburgh, but ran for Harwich. On the way she fell in with the pilot-cutter Fox, of Hull, with seven men on board, her sails, boat and anchors gone, and her pumps broken. The Life-boat took her into Harwich. A little later, at 5 in the afternoon, the Life-beat was again launched, and she was out until midnight searching for a vessel reported in distress, but she found nothing except a large quantity of wreckage. For the service to the Venscapen James Cable was presented with a cup by the Finnish Government.

James Cable's Second Clasp was awarded him in 1900 for two services that year. At 10 o'clock on the night of 15th February the Life-boat was launched in a heavy S.W. gale with a tremendous sea, and crossed the shoals, but could find no vessel. She anchored and burned lights, but it was not until 4 in the morning that these signals were answered and she found the s.s. Hylton, of London, riding at anchor, with 21 men on board. Her rudder and propeller had gone, the hatches had been washed off and one of her boats smashed by the seas which were breaking clean over her. As the weather was moderating the Life-boat put two men on board, and went to Lowestoft for tugs, returning with them. The steamer was then towed into safety.

The second service was on 4th October, when a German barque, Antares, went aground on the Shipwash Sands in a southerly gale. It was very difficult and dangerous to get alongside as there was no shelter for the Life-boat and the waves were breaking right over the barque, but at the third attempt James Cable took the Life-boat right through the breakers and got near enough for the crew of the barque to jump into her. Besides the Clasp to his Silver Medal, James Cable was presented with a Silver Watch by the German Emperor for this service.

James Cables's Many Awards.

In addition to the awards already mentioned, James Cable was presented by the Mayor and Corporation with a Silver Tobacco Box for going out in his own boat and rescuing four men, and his record for saving life from drowning is only less remarkable than his Lifeboat record. He holds the Royal Humane Society's Medal for saving life from the shore, and has three times received its Vote of Thanks on Vellum for similar services, while among his other awards is a Silver Cigarette Case presented by a lady, three of whose daughters he saved, at various times, from drowning. An account of his services would not be complete without reference to the fact that in 1891 he was one of four Coxswains chosen as judges in the trials of the Institution's different types of Sailing Life-boat which were carried out at Lowestoft in 1892, and lasted over two months.

One of the most noteworthy feats of the Aldeburgh Life-boat during James Cable's Coxswainship was on the occasion of the wreck of the barque Indian Chief, on the Long Sands, in an E.N.E. gale on January 5th, 1881. The Aldeburgh Life-boat, as well as the boats at Harwich and Clacton, was called out, but she reached the sands to find that the survivors of the crew had already been rescued by the Ramsgate Life-boat, which had been towed out to the sands.

The Aldeburgh boat then ran for Harwich, but shortly after her arrival news was received of a vessel ashore on the Maplin Sands. She put out again at once and reacted the Maplins to find that the Clacton boat had rescued the crew, so she returned to Harwich. It is not always the successful services which are the greatest.

The Aldeburgh boat had saved no lives, but in a winter gale and bitterly cold weather she had travelled in the hope of saving them, something like ninety miles. Of the crew who manned her that day, James Cable, the Coxswain, and five others are still alive, one of them being Tom Cable, a cousin of James Cable. Of the Ramsgate Crew which, in that memorable gale, rescued the survivors of the Indian Chief, four also are still alive.

Robert Cable, the second son of the first Thomas, had two sons and eleven daughters. One of his sons, Tom, has just been mentioned, the other, Bob, was also in the Crew, and for many years Bowman, retiring only last year.

Born in September, 1855, he first went to sea at the age of twelve, in a fishing-smack. He joined the Life-boat Crew in 1881 and was appointed Bowman in 1905, so that when he retired last year he had done 45 years' service. In that time he helped to rescue over 170 lives.

It was the fourth generation of Cables which was of military age when the War came. Of Bob Cable's five sons, three were killed serving in the Army, and of James Cable's three sons, one was killed. Two of these four Cables who lost their lives were members of the Life-boat Crew. Of those who remain of the fourth generation, one of Bob Cable's two surviving sons is in the Crew and both of James Cable's.

Already one of the fifth generation, one of James Cable's three grandsons, is serving, and another, twelve years of age, is only waiting until he is old enough. Thus there are four Cables in the Crew to-day, while ex-Coxswain James Cable, and ex-Bowman Bob Cable, though too old to go afloat, still serve the Life-boat, the one as head launcher and a member of the Committee, the other as a launcher.

Such is the long and splendid record, a record still not finished, of the Cable family. One interesting thing in this record still remains to be pointed out— the number of foreign vessels from which the Cables have helped to rescue lives.

The second Thomas lost his life on a service to a Swedish brig. Of the six vessels for services to which James Cable was decorated, three were foreign.

Of the 37 services in which Bob Cable took part, no fewer than 15 were to foreign vessels.