St. Peter Port, Boulmer, Cloughey and Clogher Head.

DURING September four Inaugural Cere- monies of Motor Life-boats took place, making a total of twenty-two such cere- monies held this year. The accounts of the other eighteen appeared in the last issue of The Lifeboat.

St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

This Ceremony took place on 5th September, when the Lieutenant- Governor of Guernsey, Major-General Lord Euthven, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., on behalf of His Majesty the King, named the new Motor Life-boat Queen Victoria. The Institution was repre- sented by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Manage- ment, Lieut.-Colonel C. E. Satterthwaite, O.B.E., Deputy Secretary and Com- mander E. D. Drury, O.B.E., E.D., E.N.R., the Chief Inspector of Life- boats. The Admiralty was represented by the destroyer H.M.S. Sardonyx, from Portsmouth.

The new Life-boat is one of the largest and most powerful in the Insti- tution's fleet. She is of the Barnett (Stromness) type, 51 feet long, with two 60 h.p. engines, giving her a speed of nearly 9 knots. She carries enough petrol to be able to travel 120 miles at full speed without refuelling. She has eight watertight compartments and 160 air-cases ; is provided with a cabin,, and can take 100 people on board in rough weather.

With the King's permission she has been named Queen Victoria, as the result of the Institution's decision in 1887, the year of the Queen's golden jubilee, to place on the coast and main- tain in perpetuity, a Life-boat bearing her name. The first Queen Victoria was stationed at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, in that year. She was a Pulling and Sailing Life-boat of the self-righting type. In 1902 she was replaced by a 35-feet Life-boat of the same type, and this boat remained at Bembridge until 1922, when she was transferred to Porthoustock, Cornwall. She has now been withdrawn from service. These two Life-boats have rescued 156 lives.

Their most notable service was carried out during the War, when, by a strange coincidence, the second Queen Victoria, then stationed at Bembridge, was called out to the help of the military transport Empress Queen, which had stranded in a fog on the 3rd February, 1916. A whole gale was blowing and a very heavy sea running. The Coxswain was injured, and the Queen Victoria badly damaged, but the work of rescue went on. Four times the Life-boat went out to the wreck, rescuing 110 men, a cat and a dog. For this service the Coxswain received the Institution's Silver Medal for gallantry.

The Ceremony took place on the States barge, to which the Life-boat -was moored, and the speeches were carried by amplifiers to the crowds on shore.

The Guernsey Evening Press wrote of it: " The Ceremony will live long in the memory of the islanders who saw and heard it. It will be visualised as a ceremony in which 10,000 joined in hymns and" affirming the prayer . . .

the greatest community singing ever heard in the island by far." The singing was accompanied by the band of the Royal Guernsey Militia, and the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry provided a guard of honour.

Mr. H. H. Randell, Chairman, of the St. Peter Port Branch, presided at the Ceremony, and after the Chief Inspector had described the Life-boat, she was formally presented to the Station j Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., who paid a tribute to the help which the Institution had received from the Guernsey Com- mittee. The Institution had provided Guernsey with the best Life-boat pos- sible and he knew that her Crew would not be found wanting when the hour of trial came.

The Life-boat was accepted by the Bailiff, Mr. A. W. Bell, who traced the island's history of shipwreck and life- saving. The island accepted the Life- boat as a sacred trust. He then for- mally handed the boat to Mr. H. H.

Randell, Chairman of the Branch, who, in receiving her, spoke of the pride Stanton, who had served for 50 years.

Mr. J.'M. Craster, J.P., thanked Lord Grey on behalf of the Branch, and the Rev. H. B. Dolland, M.A., thanked the Duke of Northumberland. After the singing of the National Anthem, the Life- boat was launched and gave a display of life-saving with the Holy Island and Alnmouth Life-boats.

The Ceremony was followed by a sale of Work in the Life-boat House, and in the evening there was a dance in aid of the funds of the Branch.

Cloughey, Co. Down.

The Ceremony at Cloughey, Co.

Down, took place on 19th September.

The Right Hon. the Viscount Bangor, O.B.E., Speaker of the Senate of Northern Ireland, presided. Major Sir Maurice Cameron, K.C.M.G., a mem- ber of the Committee of Management, presented the Life-boat to the Station.

She was welcomed on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland by Mr. J. H. Robb, K.C., M.P., Parliamentary Secre- tary to the Ministry of Education, dedicated by the Right Rev. J. C. Paton, M.C., D.D., Moderator of the General Assembly, and named by Lady Dixon, D.B.E., First Vice-President of the Belfast Ladies' Life-boat Guild.

Among those present were the Right Hon. the Viscount Craigayon, D.L., M.P., Prime Minister, the Right Hon. H. M. Pollock, D.L., M.P., Minister of Finance, the Viscountess Bangor, and Sir Thomas Dixon, Bt., H.M.L.

The new boat is of the light self- righting type, of which twelve have been sent to the coast this year, three of the twelve going to Irish Stations. She weighs only 6f tons, is 35 feet 6 inches long, and is driven by a 35 h.p. engine, giving her a speed of 1 knots. She carries enough petrol to be able to travel 116 miles at full speed without refuelling. This type of Life-boat can empty itself of water more quickly than any other type. If a sea breaks on board she can free herself in twelve seconds. 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.

She has been built out of a legacy received in 1898 from the late Rev.

W. S. F. Maynard, of Gressingham, Lancashire, and has been named William Maynard, after his father, who, for upwards of forty years, was minister of the Marine Church at Liverpool.

This is the second Life-boat named William Maynard to be built out of this legacy. The first, a Pulling and Sailing Life-boat, was also stationed on the Irish coast, at Skerries, Co. Dublin, from 1903 until 1930, and rescued seventy lives.

There has been a Life-boat Station at Cloughey since 1885, and its Boats have rescued 189 lives.

In opening the Ceremony, Lord Bangor reminded his audience that Ireland needed a Life-boat Service for the protection of her own seamen and fishermen, as well as for the protection of the crews and vessels passing their shores from other parts of the world, and that of twenty-one launches on service last year, eight were to the help of Irish vessels. He also asked Irishmen to remember that they could visit no other country except by sea and to realize what it meant to them that the Institution maintained over forty Life- boats for the protection of shipping on both sides of the Irish Sea.

After the Boat had been described by the District Inspector, Sir Maurice Cameron presented her to the Station.

He recalled the service of the Cloughey Pulling and Sailing Life-boat when the brig Helgoland, of Plymouth, went ashore and sank on the night of 11th January, 1924, in a strong gale with a heavy sea and blinding hail and sleet.

The Coxswain was away. The Second Coxswain, his brother, lay dying. A third brother was watching by his bedside. That brother put duty before everything else. He went out, he took charge of the Life-boat, and the Helgo- land's crew were rescued, largely through his skilful and daring seaman- ship. That man, Andrew Young, would be the Coxswain of the new Motor Life- boat.

The Boat was received by Mr.

E. H. S. Nugent, D.L., J.P., Chairman of the Branch, and was then dedicated by the Moderator of the General Assembly, assisted by the Rev. W. F.

Wilkinson, M.A., Rector of Kirkcubbin, and the Rev. David Palmer, B.A., Honorary Secretary of the Station.

In welcoming her on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, Mr. J. H. Robb appealed to the people to do all in their power to support the noble activities of the Life-boat Service.

Lady Dixon then named the Life- boat, William Maynard.

Major C. Blakiston-Houston, D.L., M.P., proposed, Mr. D. D. Reid, M.P., seconded, and Mr. M. McDonald, Chair- man of the Branch, and Mr. Thomas Richardson supported the following resolution: " That this County greatly appre- ciates the action of the Royal National Life-boat Institution in placing this new Motor Life-boat at Cloughey, and pledges itself to use every endeavour to increase the interest in the heroic work of the Life-boatmen on this coast, and thereby to raise the sum required (£1,100) to maintain the two Motor Life-boats and one Pulling and Sailing Life-boat on the coast of County Down." A Vote of Thanks to Lady Dixon was proposed by Sir Maurice Cameron and seconded by the Hon. Lady Kennedy, Honorary Secretary of the Belfast Ladies' Life-boat Guild. Sir Thomas Dixon acknowledged the Vote. A Vote of Thanks to Sir Maurice Cameron was proposed by Sir Robert Kennedy, K.C.M.G., and seconded by Mrs. R. J. McMordie, C.B.E., J.P. A Vote of Thanks to Lord Bangor was proposed by Mr. H. G. Solomon, District Organ- izing Secretary, and seconded by Mr.

John Kirkpatrick, C.C.

After the Ceremony the Life-boat was launched.

Clogher Head, Co. Louth.

The Clogher Head Ceremony took place on 22nd September. Sir George Shee, Secretary of the Institution, pre- sented the Motor Life-boat to the Branch. General Richard J. Mulcahy, Minister of Local Government and Public Health, welcomed the Boat in the name of the people of the Irish Free State, and Mrs. Mulcahy named her.

The new Boat is of the same type as the Cloughey Boat, already described, and is one of two boats, both of this type, built out of a legacy from the late Dr. Vernon Blunt, of Birmingham.

The other is also stationed on the Irish coast, at Youghal, Co. Cork.

Clogher Head has had a Life-boat Station since 1899, and its Life-boats have rescued fourteen lives.

The whole population of the village was present at the Ceremony and visitors came from nearly fifty miles round.

Colonel Thornhill presided, and after the District Inspector had described the Life-boat Sir George Shee formally presented her to the Station. In doing so, he said that Ireland, with eighteen Motor Life-boats in its fleet of twenty- two Life-boats, had a bigger proportion of motor boats than any other part of the British Isles. He paid a tribute to the splendid courage of Irish Life-boat- men who, since 1850, had rescued 3,146 lives from shipwreck.

Mrs. R. 0. Hill, wife of the Honorary Secretary of the Station, received the Life-boat, and she was dedicated by the Very Rev. Canon Lyons, P.P., V.F., on behalf of Cardinal MacRory, who was unable to be present, assisted by the Rev. Father Macdonald, P.P., and the Rev. Father Cooey, C.C.

General Mulcahy then welcomed the Life-boat on behalf of the people of the Irish Free State. The Institution, he said, was deserving of the best thanks of Ireland for the provision for life- saving which it had made on the Irish coast. The Government was very glad to avail itself of the Institution's unique experience and to be associated with it in its work. He -was very glad that the Irish people were giving it increasing support. While Ireland might not be able to supply all the capital needed to build Life-boats, boat-houses and slip- ways, he hoped that it would soon be paying for the yearly maintenance of its Stations. General Mulcahy then paid a tribute to Sir George Shee's work as Secretary of the Institution.

Mrs. Mulcahy named the Life-boat Mary Ann Blunt.

A Vote of Thanks to Canon Lyons and General and Mrs. Mulcahy was proposed by Sir George Shee and seconded by the Yen. Archdeacon T. R. Branskill, M.A.

The Mayor of Drogheda (Councillor D. J. Blood) proposed and Mr. Robert Murdock seconded the following resolu- tion :— " That this County greatly appre- ciates the action of the Royal National Life-boat Institution in placing this new Motor Life-boat at Clogher Head, and pledges itself to use every endeavour to increase the interest in the heroic work of the Life-boatmen on this coast, and thereby to raise the sum required (£500) to maintain the two Life-boats on the coast of County Louth." A Vote of Thanks to Sir George Shee was proposed by Colonel Thornhill and seconded by Mr. James Davis, and a Vote of Thanks to Colonel Thornhill was proposed by Mr. H. G. Solomon, the District Organizing Secretary. The Life-boat then went out with a number of the visitors on board..