By Commander Edward D. Drury, O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R., Chijf Inipsctor of Life-boats.

UNTIL 1921 Motor Life-boats could only | be placed at Stations where it was possible to build a Launching Slipway, or where the boat could lie safely at moorings. In that year an experimental Motor Life-boat was built, 35 feet by 8 feet 6 inches, weighing under 7 tons, and driven by a 35 h.p. engine. This was the first attempt made to provide a Motor Life-boat light enough to launch off a Carriage on the open beach. This boat was stationed first at Eastbourne, and is now at Kirkcudbright. She was followed by another boat of the same type, an improvement on the first, but still experimental, which was stationed at Scarborough in 1923. Finally, last year, another boat was built of the same type, but with important modifications, which constitute it a new class of this type. This boat was stationed at Hythe, and with her completion the Institution believes that the experi- ments have reached a successful con- clusion.

The Lightest Type.

The Hythe boat is 35 feet 6 inches bv 8 feet 10 inches. She has 115. air-cases, and 8 water-tight compartments. She is fitted with a new engine of 1 litre capacity, developing 35 h.p. at about 3,000 revolutions per minute, and giving a speed of 7J knots. During trials this engine ran for an hour with the engine-room full of water and the engine submerged. She carries enough petrol to be able to travel 116 miles at full speed without refuelling. She is a very handy boat. She has a very small turning circle and can make a half turn in eighteen seconds. She takes only twenty seconds to come to a dead stop from full speed. In another twenty seconds she can be moving at full speed astern. The Hythe boat is the first to have vertical relieving scuppers in the sides, instead of valves in the deck. Of these she has sixteen. Should a sea break on board, she could free herself in about twelve seconds—more quickly than any other type of Life-boat. If she were capsized, even with a hole in her bottom, she would right herself in four seconds. • In rough weather-she can take thirty people on board.

The light Motor Life-boat described above is of the self-righting type, and the great majority will be self-righters.

There are, however, a number of Stations where the Crews definitely prefer a Life-boat which, while not able to self-right, is more stable, and, there- fore, less likely to capsize. A light Motor Life-boat of the Liverpool type . has, therefore, been designed, which will be 35 feet 6 inches by 10 feet ; will be of approximately the same weight as the light Self-righting Motor Life-boats; and will be driven by the same 35 h.p.

engine, giving a speed of 7£ knots. The first boat of this new type is now under construction for Hoylake.

A 41-Foot Beach Boat.

There still remain, however, a number of Stations which present a double problem. Their launching conditions make it impossible to equip them with one of the heavier types of Motor Life- boat. At the same time, the conditions at sea require a larger and heavier type of Life-boat than the light 35 feet 6 inch boats. The Institution has therefore designed another type of Motor Life- boat which is a further development of the Norfolk and Suffolk type, and will be known as the Aldeburgh type. This new type will be 41 feet by 12 feet 3 inches. It will have twin screws and two 35 h.p. engines, which will give a speed of about 8 knots. The engines will be watertight, and will work independently, but they will be in one engine-room. The boat will carry 110 gallons of petrol, which will enable her to travel 130 miles at full speed.

Like the 45 feet 6 inch Watson cabin type, this new type will have no end- boxes, but a flush deck fore and aft.

She will have one large cockpit, with room for twenty-four men, under a large shelter,.which will also cover the engine- room. She will be a handy boat like the smaller and lighter self-righting boat, able to come from full speed to a stand- still in twenty-five seconds, and then from a standstill to full speed astern in another twenty-five seconds. Like the self-righting boat, she will have vertical relieving scuppers in the sides. Of these there will be eight. She will be able to take seventy people on board in rough weather.

Successful Experiments.

This boat will be much heavier than the 35 feet 6 inch boat. Her weight with gear and crew will be 16 tons.

She will, in fact, be too large and heavy for launching off a carriage. This type is intended for those Stations where the Life-boat is run down the open beach on skids. Such a boat has not only to be specially designed with an unusually flat bottom, so as to keep as nearly as possible upright while being launched, but has to be very solidly built to stand the bumping on the beach. Hitherto the heaviest Pulling and Sailing Life-boat to be launched in this way has weighed, with gear and crew, 12J tons. During last autumn trials were held at Aldeburgh (Suffolk) with the late Campbeltown (Argyllshire) Motor Life-boat, a 43-foot Watson boat weighing 16| tons. These trials were carried out on a semi- permanent Slipway of rollers laid on the beach. The boat had not been specially built for such launching, but the trials served the purpose of showing that a Motor Life-boat of this weight could be successfully launched off the open beach.

It is not too much to say that these new designs are the most important developments of recent years. The satisfactory completion of the experi- ments with a light 35 feet 6 inch type will enable motor power to be used at a large number of Stations where, up to the present, the launching conditions had made it impossible to place Motor Life-boats, and the Institution is now going rapidly ahead with the work of equipping them with motor power. Of the fifteen Motor Life-boats under con- struction at the end of the year, thirteen were of this light type. Twelve of these are self-righters and the other is the light Liverpool type which is being built for Hoylake.

The 41-foot Aldeburgh boat for launch- ing off the beach will also make it pos- sible to place Motor Life-boats at several important Stations, at which, up to the present, it has been necessary to retain Pulling and Sailing Life- boats, owing to the difficulties of launching..