ON 18th October the Motor Life-boat at St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly, saved a life, by acting as an ambulance. A girl of fifteen had developed acute appendicitis and an immediate operation was necessary. There is no hospital in the Isles of Scilly and only one doctor. The operation would have to be performed at Penzance. A gale was blowing, with rain squalls and a heavy sea, and there was no vessel in harbour large enough, to undertake such a voyage in such weather. The Institution's permission to use the Motor Life-boat was asked for by telegram, which reached the Secretary at ten at night at a private house, from which he immediately telephoned a telegram giving the permission.

The St. Mary's crew, meanwhile, had volunteered their services without reward. The Life-boat left at midnight and reached Penzance at 3.30 the following morning, where the girl was taken at once to the hospital and the operation was successfully performed.

The Life-boat returned at once to her Station, which she reached just before eleven in the morning, twelve hours after she had put out.

Next day the surgeon reported that the girl had arrived only just in time.

Had she come only two hours later it would probably have been impossible to save her life.

This is not the first time that the St.

Mary's Life-boat has done such a service.

On November, 1920, she took a sick man, for whom an immediate operation was necessary, from St.

Mary's to Penzance..