By George F. Shee, M.A., Secretary of the Institution.

I HAVE received a copy of a pamphlet giving a brief historical survey of the work of our sister society in France, from the pen of Commandant Granjon de Lepiney, Officier de la Legion d'Honneur, the late Secretary of the society, who, on his retirement, has joined the Committee. M. de Lepiney contributed an important article on the French Life-boat Service which was published in the November, 1922, issue of The Lifeboat, and the present review necessarily travels over a great deal of the same ground, especially in dealing with the earlier history of the Society.

But M. de Lepiney's great experience as an administrator, coupled with his technical equipment as a sailor, has enabled him to present an account of the present position of the Societe Centrale which is characterized by that grip of the essentials of the subject, and that netlete—to use the appropriate French word—which so often distinguishes French reports. The brochure was published at a moment when the Society had invited representatives of the other Life-boat Societies and Lifeboat Organizations to a second International Conference in Paris, and it therefore presents an up-to-date survey of its activities.* For the benefit of those who cannot refer to The Lifeboat of November, 1922, I may say that the Society was founded in 1865 as a result of Government initiative. In 1861 an inquiry had been set on foot by a committee representative of the Navy, Commerce, the Treasury and Public Works, to consider the organization of a general system of lifesaving.

It was presided over by the Inspector of Roads and Bridges—the Minister of Transport of those days—a curious coincidence, for that was the office held by M. de Bernieres, who, in 1765, invented what must be regarded * I have dealt with the proceedings at this Conference in another article.

as the first Life-boat. This boat was thoroughly tested on the Seine in 1775, and apparently satisfied every requirement, but, in the words of Sir John Lamb, the late Deputy-Chairman of the Institution, it was never " put to practical use," probably owing to the lack of interest in maritime affairs which at that time prevailed in France.

The investigation led to the decision that central control was essential to success, and it is curious to note that our experience with regard to the tendency of local organization to fall into decay was repeated in the case of France. For in 1865, the year of the foundation of the Societe Centrale, there were on the 1,500 miles of the French coast a number of mortars and seven Life-boats belonging to different societies, some of which had fallen into decay owing to the lack of inspection and the absence of an authority which would inspire and control the organization of a national effort.* Government Grant without Government Control.

From the first, the principle of organization has been that while the formation and control of the general service of life-saving should be entrusted to a private Society, the Government should accord not only the patronage of the three chief departments concerned, namely, Marine, Finance, and Public Works, but a subsidy towards the maintenance of the respective Stations ; and our French friends appear to have found the solution of the problem, which has always been regarded as insoluble in Britain, as to how a Government grant can be given without Government control. For, while the Ministers of Marine, Finance, Commerce, and Public Works are all Vice-Presidents of the Society, one cannot trace that there is any Government control, as the whole of the administration is in the hands of a committee elected by the subscribers.

This committee includes the chairmen * The first issue of The Lifeboat, March, 1852, records the melancholy fact that " The four Life-boats established here [Isle of Man] by the exertions of the late Sir William Hillary . . . have been allowed to fall into decay, and hardly a vestige of them remains." of the three most important shipping companies, namely, the Compagnie Generale Transatlanticrae, the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes, and the Compagnie des Chargeurs Reunis, which strongly support the work of the Society.

The history of the Society falls naturally into two periods, that of Pulling and Sailing Life-boats, and that in which Motor Life-boats were adopted. While the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION began its experiments with Motor Life-boats in 1904, and now has sixty-eight on the coast and eighteen more under construction, the French Society began its experiments with Motor Life-boats in 1910, and now has twenty-nine boats on the coast. The French Society provides, in addition to Life-boats, the whole of the rocket apparatus on the French coast, although this is manned by the personnel of the Customs; and it has greatly increased the efficiency of the whole organization by providing, at its own cost, numerous lines of telephonic communication.

Like the Institution, the French Society has had to deal from time to time with exceptionally difficult problems, such as the provision of life-saving on the coasts of the Camaigue, and in the Estuary of the Gironde, where either broad stretches of shallow sloping shores made it extremely difficult for any Life-boat to bring succour to the light-draught fishing-boats which work in the neighbourhood, or where the sparsity of the population conspired with the danger of the coast to present the formidable problem of providing an adequate crew for the special kind of Life-boat needed for the locality.

The French Society has, however, successfully overcome these difficulties, and has also developed a very complete arrangement for the control of the work of local Committees, who are, of course, assisted by the visits of Inspectors of Life-boats.* * I am informed that it has not been found possible to establish Branches inland or indeed anywhere but at Life-boat Stations. In this matter, the fact that we are an island people has helped us to bring home the claims of the Life-boat Service to men and women in every part of the United Kingdom.

Pensions Scheme.

It is interesting to note that in 1917, the same year as the Institution, the French Society adopted a scheme of pensions for the widows and orphans of those who might lose their lives in the Service. At the same time, stringent rules were laid down to guard against unfit men being included in the Crew, a provision as necessary in the interests of the men themselves and the Crew of which they form a part, as of the Life-boat Service generally.

The French Society has faced financial difficulties boldly, especially since the War, and decided to place the whole of its funds at the disposal of the construction of boats, slipways, etc., being confident that this policy would secure, as it would deserve, the generous support of the public.

The loss of the Afrique in 1920 led to some criticism of the Society, but, as is so often the case, the criticism was quite unfounded, and Government inquiry definitely established that the Society was not concerned with wrecks on the high seas, but was and is responsible only for work near the coasts, for which it provides Life-boats suited to this purpose.

In 1924 the Society extended its operations to the coasts of Morocco, where it provides two Motor Life-boats and three Pulling and Sailing Life-boats.

It now has 108 boats, of which, as we have seen, twenty-nine are motordriven, and it can point to over 27,000 lives rescued from shipwreck.

The report shows that the French Life-boat Service is full of vigorous activity, keenly alive to the developments which the progress of science afford and ever anxious to provide the best machinery for the great Service which it administers.

But our French friends would be the first to agree that the best organization of a Life-boat Service would be of little avail unless it could rely upon brave, vigorous and skilful crews. In the words of Sophocles : ovSeV / OUTG TTupybs o&Tf vavs which we may translate : " In vain your forts, in vain your ships, Without the men to man them." A Magnificent Service.

And so I give here, very briefly, the epic story of the magnificent service carried out by the Coxswain and Crew of the Paul Tourreil Life-boat, of the He d'Yeu, in 1917. On 26th January that boat was called out to the rescue of a Norwegian steamer which had been torpedoed. She succeeded in rescuing the shipwrecked crew of seven.

But the return proved to be a task of almost insurmountable difficulty in the teeth of the gale and the strong current running, and Devaud, the Coxswain, decided to anchor and to await the turn of the tide. While the boat was at anchor the wind increased to a violent gale, and at 9 P.M. the cable, chafed through by the rocks, broke, while a furious snowstorm added to the dangers of the situation. The Crew took to their oars again, but were compelled by exhaustion to hoist sail in order to try to reach Belle He. As the gale continued to increase the sail had to be taken in, and the Life-boat was at the mercy of the waves. Three men died of exhaustion during that night. The following day it proved possible to make sail again, but the Crew were not able to reach Belle He, and it was not till mid-day on 28th January that the Life-boat succeeded in reaching land near Concarnau. The Coxswain, Devaud, had been at the tiller for fortyeight hours, with a temperature of 10° below zero—18° of frost (Fahrenheit) in English measure—with the waves constantly breaking over the Life-boat and adding to the sufferings of the crew and the seven shipwrecked Norwegians. Six of the Life-boat Crew and six of the Norwegians succumbed to this tremendous ordeal.* In his speech at the dinner given to the delegates to the Life-boat Conference in Paris on 27th June, Sir Godfrey Baring * One is reminded of the terrible experience of the Padstow crew of the Edmund Harvey on 14th and I5th December, 1901, when in the service to a French steamer they were in tow of the Helen Peele for forty-four hours, soaked to the skin, " their eyes almost blinded with salt . . . and their hands, faces and feet swollen almost beyond recognition " in the bitter cold of a furious nor'-easterly gale.

Fortunately none of the crew of fifteen succumbed.

quoted this superb example of courage and devotion, and said, " All honour, M. le President [Vice-Admiral Touchard, Chairman of the Societe Centrale] to your splendid Coxswain Devaud and to the men who participated with him in this superb effort of desperate courage and stark endurance. They showed, once again, of what the men of our coastal populations are capable. In a word, they proved themselves true Life-boatmen." In offering to the Societe Centrale our congratulations and our cordial good wishes for the further success of its efforts, we find a source of heartfelt satisfaction in the reflection that as years go on there is in the coastal population of the civilized world a magnificent reserve of these qualities of hardihood, devotion, and manly self-sacrifice which are embodied in the Life-boat service, the Chivalry of the Sea..