Inaugural Ceremony by H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester, K.G.

THE new Padstow Motor Life-boat was named on 21st July by H.E.H. the Duke of Gloucester, K.G., the name given to her being Princess Mary.

The new boat is a gift to the Institu- tion, through the Earl of Inchcape, from the Peninsular and Oriental group of shipping companies, and was the first response to the appeal which the Prince of Wales made to shipping companies in 1928 to present Motor Life-boats. She is of the Barnett Twin-Screw Cabin type, and is one of the largest and most powerful Motor Life-boats on our coasts. She is 61 feet by 15 feet, with 14 water-tight com- partments, and 70 air-cases. She is driven by two 6-cylinder 80-h.p.

engines, which give her a speed of 9J knots, and she carries enough petrol to be able to travel 310 miles at full speed without refuelling. She can take 130 persons on board in rough weather.

She has two cabins, a searchlight, line-throwing gun, life-saving net and sprays for pouring oil on the waves.

A Dangerous Coast.

This Motor Life-boat replaces the Steam Tug Helen P.eele and the large Pulling and Sailing Life-boat which were previously stationed there. The Tug had been specially built in 1901 for Padstow to meet the special conditions of the dangerous rock-bound coast between Land's End and the Bristol Channel. There are few places on this coast where Life-boats can be stationed, and it was essential that the Life-boats at Padstow should be able to cover a big stretch of coast. This, with the help of the Steam Tug, they were able to do.* For the same reasons Padstow has now been equipped with a Motor Life-boat of the most powerful type.

Besides the Tug and the large Pulling and Sailing Life-boat, Padstow has also * A full account of the services of the Helen Peele appeared in The Lifeboat for September, 1929.

had a smaller Pulling and Sailing Life- boat for working the inner waters of the Bristol Channel, and this boat remains at the Station for the present.

She will later be replaced by a light Motor Life-boat, 35 feet 6 inches long.

Padstow has a long and distinguished record as a Life-boat Station. Its first Life-boat was placed there in 1827, and since 1856 its boats have rescued over 400 lives. No fewer than twenty-three silver and one bronze medal have been awarded by the Institution to Padstow men for gallantry in saving life from shipwreck. These lives have not been rescued without loss. In 1901, a Steam Life-boat which had just been stationed there capsized and eight of her crew were drowned. It was following this disaster that the decision was taken to build a Tug for Padstow.

At the Inaugural Ceremony on the 21st, Colonel C. R. Prideaux-Brune, President of the Branch, presided, and, on behalf of the Peninsular and Oriental group of shipping companies, Viscount Glenapp, the Earl of Inchcape's son, presented the Life-boat to the Institu- tion.

Captain Howard F. J. Rowley, C.B.E., R.N., Chief Inspector of Life- boats, then gave a full discription of the boat, and she was received by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Institution, who then presented her to the Padstow Station. In doing so, he recalled the splendid Life-boat record of Cornwall—2,931 lives rescued from shipwreck, and 5 Gold, 113 Silver and 18 Bronze Medals awarded by the Institution to Cornishmen for their gallantry.

Colonel Prideaux-Brune accepted the Life-boat on behalf of the Station, and she was dedicated by the Ven. M. B.

Williamson, M.A., the Archdeacon of Bodmin. The Rev. Charles Plank, the Vicar of Padstow, the Rev. S. Brown, of the Wesley an Church, and the Rev.

A. Knight, of the United Methodist Church, also took part in the religious ceremony.

The Cuke's Speech.

Following the dedication, the Duke of Gloucester named the Life-boat Princess Mary. In doing so, he said : " I am very glad to have this oppor- tunity of associating myself with the great work carried out by the Institu- tion which provides and maintains the whole of the Life-boat Service around our 5,000 miles of coast. This task has been carried out since 1824 by the voluntary service of our Crews and the voluntary support of the people of these islands. It has never been more efficiently performed than in these days, when the progress of science, especially in the development of the petrol engine, has given new strength to the perma- nent source of all effective human effort, which lies, of course., in courage, tenacity and self-sacrifice ; and nowhere do we find these qualities more splen- didly shown than among the fishing population on our coasts. (Cheers.) " I cannot imagine the launch of any ship, great or small, which better embodies the noblest aim of man than that of a Life-boat, to use the strength and skill acquired after many years of earnest training, in order to go to the help of fellow-men in peril of the sea, without asking or caring whether they be fellow-countrymen or not; and of the perils on this coast the names of Doom Bar and Hell Bay are eloquent proof.

" I must now draw your attention to the fact that we owe this Life-boat to the generosity of the great shipping group which operates all over the world under the chairmanship of Lord Inch- cape. As Lord Glenapp has reminded us, Lord Inchcape was the first to respond to the Prince of Wales's appeal, and the generosity of the response was in harmony with the traditions of the P. & 0. Company and the other great lines associated with that name.

(Cheers.) " When Lord Inchcape gave this Boat he thought that she could not have a better name than that of my sister, Princess Mary. When asked, she readily consented to the Boat being called after her. She asked me the other day, on her behalf, to wish God- speed to the Boat and her gallant Crew.

She feels sure that any calls that may be made upon it will be responded to with that bravery and efficiency which have characterised its predeces- sors. (Cheers.) " It is a happy coincidence that this month my family are nearly all closely linked with the Life-boat Service. The other day my eldest brother named the Dover Life-boat after Sir William Hillary, the founder of the Institution. To-day I am naming the Padstow boat after my sister. On Friday next my youngest brother is naming his fourth and fifth Life-boats at Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea. (Cheers.) "It is with the greatest pleasure that I name this Boat the Princess Mary." The Duke then pulled the cord which broke the bottle of wine, amidst loud cheers. When the cheers had ceased, he continued : "I wish her God- speed in her beneficent task, and I am confident that she will bring fresh lustre to the splendid record of the Padstow Crew, and link my sister's name happily with one of the noblest undertakings which has ever been dedicated to the service of mankind." (Loud cheers.) A vote of thanks to the Duke of Gloucester was proposed by Sir Godfrey Baring and seconded by Colonel Prideaux-Brune. After the ceremony the Duke went on board the Life-boat.

During the afternoon and evening Padstow was en fete, the grounds of Prideaux Place being thrown open to the public by Colonel Prideaux- Brune.

Among those present at the ceremony were: The Lord Lieutenant of Corn- wall (Mr. John C. Williams), the Mayors of Truro, Bodmin, St. Ives, Penryn and Lostwithiel, the Chairman of the Pad- stow Urban District Council, the Chair- man of the Wadebridge Urban District Council, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Protheroe Smith (Chief Constable of Cornwall), Admiral Sir Stuart Nicholson, C.B., M.V.O., D.L. (Hon. Secretary of the Bude Branch), Major and Mrs.

Denys Prideaux-Brune, Miss Prideaux- Brune, Lord and Lady Ravensworth, Captain E. P. Hutchings (Hon. Secretary of the Padstow Branch), Lady Hum- phreys (Chairman of the Plymouth Ladies' Life-boat Guild), Mr. George F.

Shee, M.A. (Secretary of the Institu- tion), and representatives of many other Branches and Ladies' Life-boat Guilds.

After the Ceremony Colonel Prideaux- Brune had the honour of entertaining the Duke of Gloucester to luncheon..