THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 91 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 100 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to February 28th, 1931 62,533 The Life-boat Service in 1930.

THE year 1930 was, after the first month, free from the terrible storms which made 1929 memorable, but the need for an ever-vigilant Life-boat Service was again shown, and once more the Service was fully equal to the demands made upon it. In fact, though the year was much calmer, the number of lives rescued was actually a little larger than in 1929, and the record of rescues, month by month, shows that, in summer as in winter, there is scarcely a week in which, somewhere round our coasts, the services of the Life-boats are not required.

Their busiest time was in the wild, weather of January. There were gales on sixteen days, and the wind in the English Channel rose to 103 miles an hour. During that month there were 34 launches, and the Life-boats rescued 54 lives. In September there were 31 launches, and 53 lives rescued ; and in December 30 launches and 41 lives rescued. These are the figures of rescues by Life-boats. They rescued 298 lives during the year, and in addition the Institution gave rewards for the rescue of 67 lives by shore boats and in other ways. Altogether 365 lives were rescued —one for each day of the year, and 30 boats and vessels were saved or helped to safety. Since the Institution was founded in 1824, up to the end of 1930, it has given rewards for the rescue of 62,487 lives—an average of 11 lives a week for nearly 107 years.

Four Medal Services.

The year was marked by a number of fine services. The outstanding service was performed by a Scottish Motor Life- boat, the one stationed at Longhope, in the Orkneys, for which Coxswain John Swanson was awarded the Silver Medal, while two other services only less note- worthy were performed by English Motor Life-boats, for which Bronze Medals were awarded to Coxswain Robert Hood of Hartlepool, and Cox- swain Frederick Barnes of Selsey. The Institution also awarded three Bronze Medals for one of the finest shore-boat services of recent years, the rescue by three Irish fishermen of the crew of a sinking steamer. The rescue was carried out in an open boat, and the rescuers themselves were in imminent peril of losing their own lives.

The Longhope service was fully described in the issue of The Life-boat for last March, and accounts of the other three services will be found elsewhere in this issue.

Services to Foreign Vessels.

Although the majority of the 365 lives rescued were British, the Life-boats again showed that they are a great international as well as a great British service. Altogether 16 foreign vessels, belonging to nine different countries, were succoured, and 71 lives were rescued from them. Three of the vessels were French, three Swedish, two German, two Danish, two Belgian, one was Norwegian, one Japanese, one Greek, and one belonged to the Free City of Danzig.

Loss of Life.

Unfortunately the year was not free from loss of life in the Service. During a launch of the Filey Life-boat, at the end of August, to the help of a vessel which had gone ashore in a fog, a member of the Crew was run over by the Life-boat Carriage and killed. The man left a widow and two daughters.

The widow has been granted a pension as from the date of the accident, and a weekly allowance for one of the two daughters, who is under sixteen.

During a gale at the end of December, the Motor Mechanic at Aranmore, Co.

Donegal, the son of the Honorary Secretary, was blown over the end of the pier and killed, when he had gone to see if the boarding-punt was secure. He was unmarried, and had no dependent relatives, so that no pension wTill be given, but a memorial tablet is to be erected.

New Motor Life-boats.

The year was noteworthy for the sending to the coast of the first Life- boat which has been designed and built in order to go to the help of aeroplanes which come down at sea. This boat, named Sir William Hillary, after the founder of the Institution, is stationed at Dover, where she will serve the double purpose of protecting the aero- | plane traffic and the heavy passenger steamer traffic across the Straits. She is 64 feet by 14 feet, with two 375 h.p.

engines, giving her a speed of between 17 and 18 knots, and is the largest and fastest Motor Life-boat in the world.

Altogether twelve new Motor Life- boats were completed and sent to their Stations. Of these boats, six went to the English coast, Dover and Hythe (Kent), Berwick-on-Tweed, Newhaven (Sussex), Weymouth (Dorset), and Tor- bay (Devon) ; three went to Wales, Moelfre (Anglesey), and Fishguard and Tenby (Pembroke) ; one went to Scot- land, Lerwick (Shetland Islands) ; one to Ireland, Ba)lycotton (Cork) ; and one to the St. Mary's (Isles of Scilly). At the end of the year there were ninety Motor Life-boats in the Institution's Fleet 'of 194 boats ; and another fifteen were under construction.

Help of the Royal Family.

The Institution received during the year remarkable proof of the personal and generous interest which the Royal Family have taken in the work of the Life-boat Service since its foundation.

Their Majesties, the King and Queen, as Patrons of the Institution, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, as its President, and H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, as Patron of the Ladies' Life- boat Guild, attended a Variety Matinee in London in aid of the Institution.

H.R.H. the Prince of Wales named the new Motor Life-boat at Dover ; H.R.H.

the Duke of Gloucester named The Princess Mary, the new Motor Life-boat at Padstow ; H.R.H. Prince George named new Motor Life-boats at Walton- on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea ; and H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught issued a special appeal to those regiments in the Army of which he is Colonel or CoIonel-in-Chief..