The United States (State Service.

Established 1848).

Since the publication of our extensive note on this Service in the November issue of The Lifeboat we have received the Annual Report of the U.S. Treasury for 1930, which provides two matters of interest to supplement that note.

Eight more 36 feet 6 inch. Motor Life- boats have been added to the 104 of this type already on the coast, five of them having reached their destination " after travelling many hundreds of miles under their own power in excellent condition without experiencing any breakdowns or trouble " ; and twelve more of these boats are to be built in 1931. There is here a striking simi- larity in the development of the smaller type of Motor Life-boats in the British and the U.S. Service, a type of which, however, the latter has long since made very extensive use.

But the most remarkable feature of the Report, especially for British readers, is that which contains at once an admis- sion and an appeal. The admission, almost startling in its courageous can- dour, is that " The Life-boats in a number of the States are very old, and are giving out to a perilous degree.

They have battled with the storms for many years, in fact, too long for safety.

It is imperative that they be replaced." And this reference to what is described as "-this unfortunate situation" is fol- lowed by the statement: " Then there are new stations to be supplied, and other stations of strategic importance not now having Life-boats that should have them if the best interests of com- merce and humanity are to be served.

It is to these ends that this earnest, soli- citous appeal is submitted." The italics are ours, and we do not think we shall be accused of over-emphasis. For it is surely remarkable that a State Depart- ment, entrusted by the people of the United States with the provision and maintenance of the Life-boat service, and spending thereon three or four times the sum expended by the Royal National Life-boat Institution, should not only admit the inefficiency of a number of its Life-boats, but should apparently feel impelled to utter a most earnest appeal for help in this predica- ment. Our knowledge of the internal working of the machinery of the Civil Service of the U.S.A., and of the weight which just sentiment on a matter of national and international importance may carry with the State in that great democracy, is insufficient to enable us to hazard a guess as to what effect this appeal is likely to have ; and, indeed, to be sure whether we are not witness- ing iere an appeal from the narrow limitations laid down by a Treasury, compelled to ration each department of State, to the generosity of the mil- lionaire who so often plays the part of the deus ex machina in American affairs.

But two points emerge from a con- sideration of the passage we have quoted. One is the admiration which we feel for the fins courage and seaman- like directness with which the Comman- dant, Admiral Billard, states his convic- tions as to the needs of the Service. The other is the feeling that, in spite of the difficulties with which the Institution is faced in securing the funds needed for the efficient maintenance of the Service, the voluntary system, in which it. was the pioneer over a hundred years ago, and which has been followed by the great majority of those countries which have established a Life-boat Service, is the one best suited to the provision of that service, at any rate, in the case of a maritime people.

Holland (Voluntary. Established 1821).

As many of our readers are aware, Holland, to its lasting credit, was the first country to follow the lead of Britain in the organisation of a Life- boat Service. Indeed, while the Institu- tion was formally founded on 4th March, 1824, as the result of Sir William Hillary's appeal to the nation in 1823, a number of public-spirited men formed the two Dutch Societies in November of the same year. The North and South Holland Society was founded at Amster-dam; another Association, the South Holland Society for the Rescue of the Shipwrecked, was formed at Rotterdam only a few weeks later. It may perhaps seem regrettable that a work so truly national in its scope and purpose should be controlled by two separate organisa- tions, but it is gratifying to know that they have worked in complete harmony during the century of their existence, this being facilitated by the fact that the North and South Holland Society, limiting its operations to a sphere less extensive than its name implies, pro- vides the Service from the northernmost part of the coast as far as Scheveningen, while the South Holland Society ad- ministers the Service southwards from that point.

The Annual Reports of the two Societies for the year 1929 give ample evidence of progress in every direction, and notably in the development of technical efficiency, whether in the con- struction of motor boats, the solution of the problem of launching boats on a flat beach, the adoption of wireless telephony, or, finally, the examination of the possibilities of co-operation be- tween aircraft and Life-boats in the rescue of life from shipwreck.

This latter problem led to a joint meeting of the Committees of the two Societies with the Military Air Depart- ment at Amsterdam in February, 1929.

This meeting came to the conclusion that the services of aircraft can be utilised in two ways, namely :— 1. For the purpose of taking observa- tions, and 2. For establishing a line connexion between the stranded ship and the shore, which latter possibility had already been proved by a trial near the Hook of Holland.

As, however, a line connexion be- tween the ship and the shore is useless when the distance exceeds 300 metres, and as at that distance it is generally possible to establish communication without the aid of an aeroplane, either by firing a line from the ship to the shore or from the shore to the ship, it is improbable that the aid of an aeroplane will often have to be called in, in order to establish a line connexion. It must also be borne in mind that at the short distance of 300 metres and less a Life- boat will generally be able to render effective service.

As it is, perhaps, not obvious to the layman that there is no use in establish- ing a line connexion at a greater dis- tance than 300 metres, it is worth pointing out that at greater distances the sagging of the heavy line from which the weight of a drowning person is suspended becomes so great that he is pulled through the water, and this process, if carried out over a long dis- tance, is fatal to the " rescued." Cases may, nevertheless, occur in which air- craft might be able to render good service, and the Dutch Societies are therefore grateful for the co-operation which they have received from the Air Defence Department, which has given approval to instructions issued to the Societies' representatives on the coast, whereby the latter are authorised, sub- ject to certain conditions, to call in the aid of aircraft, if necessary, for the saving of shipwrecked persons.

The Report of the North and South Holland Society adds the following comments :— " Our local Committees and repre- sentatives will, however, not proceed to call in the aid of an aeroplane unless it has been ascertained that this is really necessary. They will have to bear in mind that the aircraft coming to their assistance will not only have to fly to the point where aid is required against a very severe storm, but will also have to land later on in the same severe weather.

" The daring achievement of airmen in the case of the Salento on the 26th November, 1928, has rightly aroused the admiration of many ; during the severe storm which was raging at the time, they established a connexion, and the Italian Government recognised the courageous act of Flight Captain van Weerden Poelman, First Flight- Lieutenant van Dorst, Flight-Sergeant Bosch and Flight-Sergeant-Major v. d.

Hoek. But they and the persons who, though unacquainted with the needs of the Life-boat Service, called them up, did not know that to establish a con- nexion with the Salento, which, lay 1,200 metres from the coast, could lead to no result. The knowledge thus gained is, however, now in the hands of our local Committees and representa- tives, and we therefore hope that if the aid of aircraft is asked for. it will be requisitioned by our local Committees and representatives." BEACH MOTOR LIFE-BOATS : GIRDER TRACKS.

The North and South Holland Society has decided to introduce the beach Motor Life-boat, of the type which is in use in the Danish Life-boat Service, namely, a wooden Life-boat provided with a 25 h.p. petrol motor, the pro- peller of which turns in a tunnel formed by two heavy wooden keels.

This Life-boat weighs about 4 tons.

The character of the coast in Denmark enables these Boats to be launched without the use of a carriage. That is not possible in Holland. The beach Motor Life-boat must, therefore, be conveyed along the beach on a carriage, which demands great pulling power when the conditions are unfavourable.

" In consequence, the Society is now engaged in carrying out trials for the launching off a carriage, which is in- creased to the desired weight by means of iron, and the rear axles of which are provided with the girder tracks of the ' Roadless Traction, Limited,' of Houns- low, which have been found satisfactory by the English Life-boat Society for the -transportation of heavy boats.

" This arrangement ensures only very slight subsidence even on soft ground.

For these trials we obtained a set of the girder tracks in question. In places where, owing to the absence of horses or the difficulty in obtaining them quickly, motor tractors are necessary, these will probably have to be more powerful for launching the beach Motor Life-boats than those which we now use. For this reason we are on the lookout for a tractor of this kind. The English Life-boat Society has had a tractor constructed for the same pur- pose according to its own specifications.

The acquisition of a beach Motor Life- boat with the requisite pulling power for its tractor is, therefore, a problem which is still under consideration." WIRELESS TELEPHONY.

In view of the Institution's adoption of wireless in the case of Motor Life- boats at remote and isolated stations, the following from the Report of the North and South Holland Society will be read with interest:—• " In considering the equipment of two of our Motor Life-boats, the Brandaris, of Terschelling, and the Dorus Rijkers, of Helder, with wireless telephony receiving installations, we approached the Director of the Govern- ment Testing Station for Coastal Light- ing at Scheveningen, with a view to being included in the arrangement which is in operation between wireless telephony transmitting and receiving stations on lighthouses and lightships.

We received the greatest assistance from the Director of the said Testing Station, Mr. P. van Braam van Vloten, and Mr. Ir. P. J. G. van Diggelen, and also from the Direction of Pilotage. As a result, the two Motor Life-boats referred to are provided with telephony receiving sets, which are made in accordance with the instructions of the Government Testing Station, in a very substantial design by the Nederlandsche Seintoestellenfabriek. They are chiefly N.S.F.4 sets with flexible wiring, and are provided with an on and off switch, a regulating resistance and a built-in voltmeter for adjusting the filament voltage of the receiving valves. The set is watertight and arranged in a metal box. The wave-length range is 150-300 metres.

" Alongside the Coxswain, near the steering wheel, a ' Brown ' loud speaker is fitted, protected against water; below deck the use of headphones makes it possible to listen-in when the sounds on deck are not clear enough.

" The price of these sets, of special design, and without the loud speakers is about £90 per installation.

" It is gratifying to report that these two installations, which, together with further accessories, will cost about £250, are being paid for by the sum contri- buted by pupils of secondary schools in the Netherlands, and handed over to the North and South Holland Life-boat Society in December, 1929.

" The wireless telephony installations render it possible for the Brandaris and the Dorus Rijkers, after leaving their har- bours, to receive reports from the Coast- guard Station which is in telephonic communication with the Local Com- mittee of the Life-boat Society. The adoption of wireless telephony on our Life-boats may result in the rescue of shipwrecked persons who might other- wise be lost. It may also prevent a Life-boat making unnecessary trips.

"As a Life-boat may also wish to send a report to shore, a transmitting and receiving installation for wireless telephony will be fitted on board the latsst Life-boat, the Neeltje Jacob and also on board the InsuKnde.

THE WRECK OF THE " PRINS DER NEDERLANDEN." The South Holland Society's Report for 1929 contains a very interesting reference to the disaster which overtook the Steam Life-boat Prins der Neder- landen on the 16th January, 1929, in the attempt to save the crew of the Latvian steamship Valka, which had stranded on the Maasvlakte.

" The eye-witnesses on the Valka were too far away from the spot where the Life-boat capsized to make any accurate observation—J to| mile accord- ing to the Captain—and in addition they themselves were going through anxious hours on the ship, which was being battered by the breakers.

" Nevertheless, interest attaches to the statement of the Captain that Coxswain Van der Klooster twice succeeded, by stsaming against the high breakers, in getting close to the ship. On both occasions it was impossible to establish any permanent connexion with the ship owing to the violence with which the boat was thrown up and down. After these two attempts, deeper water was sought farther out to enable the Boat to turn, and, by running before the breakers, to get behind the sandbank again, so as to repeat the attempt.

Notwithstanding the good seamanship on the part of the Coxswain in avoiding turning the Boat in the breakers, the last attempt to run before the latter proved fatal to the Boat. She was struck broadside on and capsized.

" No definite reason for her being thus struck broadside on can be given, and it is a question whether it was due to the violence of the elements, either alone or in conjunction with a sudden defect in the engine room, or the steering gear, or an accident to the Coxswain.

" The examination of the Life-boat, carried out by the Navigation Inspec- tion Department, gave no indication of any defect in the equipment or the Boat's engine.

" The excellent service which she had rendered during many years with her sister ship the President ran Heel, under very dangerous conditions, is a proof of the sound construction of this first type of mechanically-driven Life-boats, at a time when internal combustion engines had not yet been fully developed.

[The Prins der Nederlanden was built in 1908. Her late Coxswain, who was drowned in the disaster in January, 1929, took part in the rescue of the crews of four British vessels, 72 lives in all.] " Nevertheless, from the explanations furnished by Professor Vossnack, it is evident to us that according to the more recent ideas regarding the con- struction of Life-boats, greater sea- worthiness is secured by the present rounder cross-section of the Koningin Wilhelmina type of motor boat. The enormous dynamic moment which arises and promotes capsizing if the Boat turns broadside to the surf has less effect in a Boat designed on these lines. In addition, two motor-driven propellers revolving in tunnels considerably en- hance the safety of the Boat.* * This fact was fully established by the exhaustive experiments carried out for the French Life-boat Service by the Director of the Naval Testing Docks in Paris, and carefully described in the paper submitted by La Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages to the Second International Conference on the World's Life-boat Service, held in Paris in 1928. It may be added that the results thus established by observation and experiments " As a result of these considerations, orders were given for the construction of two twin-screw Motor Life-boats, for which Professor Vossnack undertook to prepare the plans and the specification, and also to give his general supervision to the construction.

[These two Boats, President Jan Lcls and President J. V. Wierdxma, went to the Hook of Holland in August of last year, and the second Steam Life-boat was then withdrawn.] " Near the Signal Station at the Hook of Holland a powerful military search- light has now been erected, by which ships stranded at the entrance to the New Waterway can, if necessary, be lit up at night in order to assist the rescue work." Germany (Established as State Service, 1852.

Voluntary since 1865).

The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held on 13th June last, when it was reported that in the previous year thirty-three persons had been rescued from shipwreck in con- nexion with eight casualties, thirty of the rescued persons being saved by the Life-boats and three by the Rocket Apparatus. It should be noted that in Germany, as in the United States and in France, the same organization supplies the Life-boat Service and the Rocket Apparatus. This is indeed the case with most of the Foreign Life-boat Services.

The total number of lives rescued by the instrumentality of the German Society since its foundation in 1865 is 5,236." There are now 115 Stations, 2 having been closed in the previous year. Of the total number, 76 are in the Baltic, and 39 in, the North Sea. Sixty-one Stations are provided with both Life- boat and Rocket Apparatus ; there are 39 Stations with a Life-boat only, and 15 with the Rocket Apparatus only.

Of the 115 Boats there are now 27 Motor Life-boats, 12 of which are decked boats, namelv, 2 steel twin- with models in a tank were confirmed by the practical tests carried out by the Institution in comparative trials of single-screw and twin- screw Motor Life-boats —Ed. The Life-boat.

screw boats, 5 steel single-screw boats, and 5 decked wooden boats; and there are 15 wooden open boats, all with motors installed. Three new open Motor Boats have been placed at North Sea Stations, and a decked twin-screw Motor Boat, the Bremen, at Norderney.

She is a 49 feet by 12 feet 6 inches Boat with a steel (Siemens-Martin) hull.

The propellers are protected by tunnels, as in the case of the Institution's Motor Life-boats. The Boat has numerous watertight compartments. It is pro- vided with electric light and a wireless telephony apparatus, with a radius of fifty miles. There is also an electric searchlight, electric foghorn, and a life- saving net. The exhaust of the two motors passes through the iron mast.

This Boat replaces the single-screw Boat previously placed at that Station, which has been transferred to Travemiinde, where it will lie afloat in complete readiness to render prompt service to casualties to aircraft in connexion with the big Flying Station at that port.

The new Boats are provided with Diesel engines.

The engines of the twin-screw Motor Life-boat Bremen develop 144-146 h.p., and give a speed of 11 knots.

It is interesting to note that the German Society, in spite of the meagre- ness of its funds, thought it worth while to send models of its newest Motor Life-boats to the Antwerp Exhibition.

The Report also refers to the adoption of the line-throwing pistol, invented by Mr. Sander, an engineer. This line- throwing pistol appears to have given so much satisfaction that the Society pro- pose to substitute it for the Rocket Apparatus on the coast as and when occasion arises.

The German Society now has twenty- four Station Branches, and thirty-eight Financial Branches. A considerable part of the revenue is raised by what may be called Flag Days; but the greater proportion of the support comes from shipping and shipbuilding centres.

The Report deplores the fact that although considerable progress has been made in technical development, there was a fall in the number of subscribers.

It concludes with an appeal to the public to help the Society to maintain its'great humane work on the basis of the voluntary self-sacrifice of the Crews and the voluntary contributions of public-spirited men and women.

Spain (Voluntary, with a Subsidy from the State. Established 1880).

At the present time the Society possesses 59 Stations. The latter com- prise 48 unsinkable self-righting and self-draining boats, of which 16 have motors on improved systems. It has also 81 line-throwing apparatuses of the Spandau, Boxer, Lyle, Dawson and Evans systems.

The Superior Council of the Society has, since its foundation in 1880,recorded and given awards for the saving of more than 12,000 lives, and presented 18 Gold Medals, 998 Silver Medals, 2,785 Bronze Medals, and £7,155, exclusive of the amount of the monetary awards emana- ting from special foundations.

It has, since its foundation in 1907, res- cued, by means of its boats and life-lines, the crews of 120 sea-going vessels, of which 15 were English, 10 French, 7 Italian, 1 Portuguese, 6 Norwegian, 1 Danish, 2 Russian, 1 Austrian, and 3 of the United States.

Belgium (State Service. Established 1832).

During 1929 the Belgian Life-boat Service rendered services to five vessels, two being Dutch and three Belgian, and rescued 66 lives. The Life-boats which carried out these rescues were those at Ostend, Middelkerke and Zeebrugge.

The Belgium Fleet now has two Motor Life-boats, which were built by a German firm in 1926. These boats are, with slight modifications, the same as our own Watson Cabin Life-boat, com- plete plans of which were supplied by the Institution to the Belgian Marine Administration. It is particularly in- teresting to note that these boats were built in Germany as part of the War Reparations, and we doubt if any pay- ment made under this head has been more appropriate, and more likely to help in healing the wounds of war, than these two Lifa-boats, provided by an ex- enemy country in order to help Belgium in saving those, of whatever nationality they may be, who are in peril of ship- wreck on her coasts..