A Year of Conspicuous Services.

THE storms in the latter part of 1927 have supplied the answer, if any were needed, to the question which is sometimes asked whether the gradual replacement of the sailing ship by steam and oil-driven vessels, the improvement in the lighting of the coast, and the scientific development of the various means by which mariners are warned of their proximity to danger have not made the sea practically safe for seafarers, and rendered the Life-boat Service a costly and almost unnecessary organisation, even for the people of these Islands.

They have reminded us of the truth of Sir William Hillary's words, in his Appeal to the Nation in 1823, " So long as man shall continue to navigate the ocean and the tempests shall hold their course over its surface, in every age and on every coast, disasters by sea, shipwrecks and peril to human life, must inevitably take place " ; and the calls of distress of many ships which the terrible weather of the last three months of the year placed in jeopardy proved that the Life-boat Service is as necessary now as when the founder of the Institution appealed to his fellow-countrymen to establish that Service.

But the storms of 1927 showed something more than this. They have proved that, given the occasion, the Coxswains and Crews of the Life-boats to-day are no whit behind their forefathers in the highest qualities of courage and seamanship, and in the tenacity which holds on to the task in hand, hour after hour, in the teeth of the bitter gale, in the face of repeated failure, and in spite of serious injury to the point of collapse, a tenacity faithful even unto death.

The year 1927 will be memorable in the records of the Institution by reason of four services, two of which will rank among the greatest in the history of lifesaving from shipwreck, while the other two would, in any other year, have stood out as of conspicuous merit.

The Life-boats which took part in these four services were the Pulling and Sailing Life-boat at Moelfre, Anglesey, and the Motor Life-boats at St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, Cromer, and Southwold. The great service of the Moelfre Life-boat on 28th and 29th October to the ketch Excel, in the course of which one of the Crew died from exposure, and the service of the St.

Mary's Life-boat to the Italian steamer Isabo, were fully described in the last issue of the Journal, and the accounts of the service of the Lowestoft Motor Life-boat to the sailing smack Lily of Devon on 21st November and the service of the Motor Life-boats at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, Cromer, and Southwold to the Dutch oil tanker Georgia on 21st and 22nd November, will be found elsewhere in this issue. The exceptional nature of those services, in the dangers faced and the gallantry displayed, is recognised by the awards which were made. For these four services the Institution has given three Gold Medals—the highest award in its power to bestow—four Silver Medals and thirty-two Bronze Medals— one of the Silver and three of the Bronze being awarded to the crews of shoreboats which took a gallant share in the rescue of the crew of the Isabo.

The Three Gold Medallists.

The three Gold Medals have been awarded to Second Coxswain WILLIAM ROBERTS and Captain OWEN JONES of the Moelfre Life-boat, and Coxswain HENRY GEORGE BLOGG of the Cromer Life-boat.

These are the first Gold Medals to be awarded since 1922. The last year in which three were awarded was 1914, on the occasion of the famous service to the hospital ship Rohilla, and there had then been no award of three Gold Medals in one year since 1851.

Coxswain Blogg was awarded the Gold Medal in 1917, and he has the rare distinction of being the only living man who has twice won this, the highest honour of the Service. Only seven other men have received the honour twice, and the last occasion on which it was won a second time for an actual service was in 1848.* The four Silver Medals have been awarded to Coxswain WILLIAM FLEMING of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, who already has the Gold and Bronze Medals, Coxswain MATTHEW LETHBRIDGE of St.

Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Coxswain ALBERT SPURGEON of Lowestoft, and Mr.

CHARLES JENKINS, of Bryher, Isles of Scilly, who, as Coxswain of a motor boat, played a conspicuous part in the service to the Isabo. Coxswain FRANK UPCRAFT of Southwold, whose Life-boat played a gallant part in the service to the Georgia, is among those who have been awarded the Bronze Medal.

Those four services in a very striking way epitomise the qualities, value and developments of the Service. They illustrate the developments of recent years : of the six Life-boats which took part in them five were Motor Life-boats. They illustrate the international value of the Service : of the four vessels from which lives were rescued, two were foreign.

They illustrate the readiness of the population of our coasts, even those who are not trained and equipped for the work of life-saving, to answer the call of the shipwrecked : in one of the services a conspicuous part was played by three shore-boats.

Above all they afford proof, if such proof were still needed, of the superb qualities of the men who man the Institution's Life-boats. They illustrate their splendid endurance : of the six Life-boats, one was out for thirteen hours, another for seventeen, another for twenty-one and another for twentyeight, all at the height of bitter winter gales. They illustrate their splendid courage and unrivalled seamanship : four of the Coxswains had to take sudden decisions in circumstances in which delay would probably have been fatal to the men whom they were attempting to rescue ; they chose the courses of immediate action and greatest risk, and in each case the risk was triumphantly surmounted. While the highest tribute should be paid to the courage of the * Coxswain Fish, of Ramsgate, won the Gold Medal in 1881, and received a Bar to it in 1891, but the Bar was awarded on his retirement.

Coxswains and Crews who took part in these services, and who unhesitatingly risked the destruction of their Life-boats and the loss of their own lives, it is still more important to emphasise the qualities of seamanship in both Coxswains and Crews, and the qualities in the design and construction of the Lifeboats, which made it possible for these risks to be taken without disaster.

The Cost of Saving Life.

The value of lives rescued can hardly be estimated in terms of money, nor can payment be made, on any commercial standard, to those who risk their own lives in order to save others. That is | why the Institution has always felt it right to speak of the sums which its j Crews receive for their services not as j pay but as rewards. At the same time 1 it is as well that attention should be drawn to the large sum which each year the Institution expends in the form of rewards and other payments to Coxswains and Crews, and in rewards to those, whoever they may be, who rescue life from shipwreck round our coasts ; for this sum is a considerable part of the Institution's expenditure, and it goes entirely to those who take part in the actual work of rescue.

The two groups of services in October and November illustrate in a striking way this side of the Institution's activities. During the eight days of October which culminated in the terrible gale on the night of the 28th and 29th, and during the severe gales on 21st and 22nd November, twenty-two Lifeboats were launched, and the total number of lives rescued, including those rescued by the shoreboats from Bryher in the service to the Isabo, was 84. In awards to the rescuers and to the launchers of the Lifeboats, and in compensation to the Moelfre Crew, who were incapacitated by their long and terrible struggle, the Institution has paid some £1,300. In addition it has pensioned the widow of the Moelfre Life-boatman who died from exposure, and given her an allowance for a grandchild dependent on her.

This pension, if purchased as an immediate annuity, would cost some £700.

It may be fairly added to the capital payments resulting from the gales. Thus, for those ten days of gales the Institution made payments, to those who actually took part in the work of rescue, amounting to £2,000.

The Record of Rescues.

During the year there were 262 launches, and 354 lives were rescued from shipwreck as compared with 456 in 1926. In the last three months of the year, with the very heavy gales which came at the end of each of these months, there were 104 launches and 116 lives were rescued by Life-boats, a third of the total for the whole year. Of this total 217 were rescued by Life-boats and the remaining 137 by shore-boats and in other ways. During the year 23 boats and vessels were saved or helped to safety. The number of lives for whose rescue rewards had been given by the Institution since its foundation up to the end of 1927 is 61,168.

As in previous years, the majority of lives rescued were those of British seamen and fishermen, but, as already mentioned, two of the four principal services of the year were to foreign vessels, and, altogether, services were rendered to fourteen foreign vessels of eight different nationalities, 79 lives being rescued from them. Of these foreign vessels five were French, two Dutch, two Swedish, one Italian, one German, one Belgian, one Danish, and one from the Unites States of America.

Building of Motor Life-boats.

In other ways 1927 was a busy year. New Motor Life-boats were built for Piel (Barrow), Lancashire ; Eastbourne, Sussex; and Rosslare Harbour, Co. Wexford—this last being the first boat in the Institution's Fleet to be fitted with wireless. A new Life-boat Station was established in the Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway, in the west of Ireland, and 11 Motor Life-boats were under construction at the end of the year. The Life-boat Fleet at the end of the year numbered 211, of which 63 were Motor Life-boats..