It was intended to resume the series of " Honorary Workers of the Institution," in which twelve articles have already been published, the last appearing in TheLifeboat for August, 1927 —with an article on the work of Mr. Ernest Woolfield, Honorary Secretary of the Kessingland Station, but Mr.

Woolfield's reminiscences of the high seas and of Life - boat work on the east coast are so interesting that it seems much better that he should tell his story himself.

He has been Honorary Secretary at Kessingland since 1911.

7 n September, 1930, he resigned and wrote: "Having to give up active Lifeboat work is very sad MR. ERNEST Honorary Secretary breathto me, but I am now unable to stand exposure such as to my mind an Honorary Secretary of a Station Branch, who is a sailor, should be prepared to do." But he is still Honorary Secretary.

It has been impossible to find a successor to him, and he is very kindly carrying on. Mr. Woolfield was awarded I was born at Shenstone, Staffs, the only son of John Woolfield and greatnephew of Thomas Robinson Woolfield, who, with the first Lord Brougham, was one of the founders of the popular town of Cannes. Owing to a breakdown in health my father came to the east coast, residing at Sizewell Gap, Suffolk, from 1879 till 1889.

My earliest memory of a shipwreck was in the great gale, 18th January,WOOLFIELD, Kessingland, Suffolk.

Inscribed Binoculars in 1922, and the Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum in 1930. Mr. Woolfield also holds the Silver Medal of the Royal Humane Society for a gallant and resourceful action in saving life on land.

One day in 1905 he heard of a well-sinker being in a deep well overcome by foul gas. He borrowed a cycle, rode to the scene a mile away, tied a wet towel round his mouth, was lowered in the well-sinker's bucket, and got the man out. It was thought that the man was dead, but Mr.

Woolfield started artificial respiration, and, after about 40 minutes, breathto ing was restored.

Mrs. Woolfield is Honorary Secretary of the Kessingland Ladies' Life-boat Guild, which, although Kessingland has a population of little over 2,000, is one of the most active Guilds in the country. In 1929 she was awarded the Goid Brooch which is given for long and distinguished honorary service.

1881, when the barque Palestine, of West Hartlepool, was driven on to the beach at Sizewell as if she were a small boat. Her two lower topsails were immediately blown out of the bolt-ropes over the cliffs. The crew were able to drop from the bowsprit on to the beach.

I became a cadet on H.M.S. Worcester, and when I was home for Christmas leave in 1886, there was a gale from thesouth. During the night the wind veered to the north-east and blew very heavy with blinding snow squalls. At about 1 A.M. a Coastguard woke us up with the news that a vessel had stranded on the Inner Shoals 100 yards from the beach in front of our house. My father and I turned out and went to the Coastguard Rocket House. There were only three Coastguards at the Station and we had to carry the gear required— rockets, lines, whips, tripod, etc.—as we could not get the rocket cart out of the house. Three rocket lines were fired over the vessel, but no sign or signal was given from the crew. We could only wait, 'crouched behind boats on the beach. At about 2.30 A.M. we were joined by two fishermen and a coach- man.

Daylight came at last, and we could see that there were two men in the maintop and one man in the foretop of the wreck, a brig (which proved to be the Magnet). At about eight o'clock the masts of the brig went over the side. I ran through the snow and sand and hauled in one of the three rocket lines until I saw a man in the breakers. Then I ran into the sea and caught him, but the next wave carried us both'away. We were washed up and down the beach until my father, who had also rushed into the sea, caught us, and with help we both got up the beach.

The man proved to be a Russian Finn, the only one saved from the , wreck.

Shortly after I received a personal letter of thanks from Thomas Gray, Secretary to the Board of Trade.

A Coxswain Washed Overboard.

Soon after 3 A.M. we saw flares to the south (we learnt afterwards that it was the schooner Day Star, of Ipswich), and my father persuaded the coachman to go on horseback to Dunwich and give information to the Life-boat authorities.

At first they were unable to get a crew at Dunwich, and sent a man to South- wold. The Southwold boat was launched ; later the Dunwich boat was launched, and both boats proceeded to Thorpe Ness. Craig, the Coxswain of the Southwold boat, was washed over- board, but fortunately some of his crew were able to save him. The Southwold boat reached the wreck first, and found great difficulty in approaching owing to heavy broken water, but after many efforts she was able to save all the crew with the exception of one old man in the rigging.

In the meantime the Dunwich boat had arrived and on the Coxswain, Isaac Dix, giving an undertaking that he would not leave the man, the Southwold boat ran for Aldeburgh as the rescued men were in a very exhausted state.

The Dunwich boat was for a consider- able time unable to veer down to the vessel, but rat last Dix performed one of the .finest deeds man could do. He let his boat come over the vessel's rail; one of the Life-boat crew jumped into the rigging and rescued the last man; the boat hauled back clear of the wreck, and then ran straight on to the "beach.

Ten Days of Gale.

In 1887 I joined the four-masted barque, Falls of Halladale, of Glasgow.

She was a very fine ship, but was some- what noted for the amount of head winds and bad weather she would encounter. On one passage from Cal- cutta to New York we had a fine run down the Indian Ocean until we sighted Cape Agulhas ; it then came on to blow and it was nearly a month later that we rounded the Cape. For ten days the ship lay with no sail whatever but a tarpaulin in the weather-jigger rigging to keep her head to the sea, her decks being full of water almost the whole of that time. Deckhouse doors, boats and standard compass were, smashed. We readied New York a little under six months after leaving Calcutta. My old shipmate and fellow-apprentice, James Sherren,* the eminent surgeon, recently wrote to me as follows : " When I think of what we went through—well, girls could go to sea now ! " After leaving the Falls of Halladale I went into steam. Whilst I was in the s.s. Weardale, at Malta, a.fireman tried to get on board by climbing along a wire spring from the quay to the ship, but • Mr. James Sherren, C.B.E., F.E.C.S., late Vice- President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

lost his hold. I tried to save him by jumping from the forecastle head, but failed to get him owing to the mud at the bottom of that part of the harbour.

This occurred about one in the morning.

I think it was during the winter of 1892 that the sailing ship Firth of Cromarty stranded on the rocks at the foot of the South Foreland. This, again, was a case where the L.S.A. cart could not be taken, so we had to carry all the gear for the Life-saving Appa- ratus over rocks covered with seaweed, often having bad falls into the sea between the. rocks, resulting in many cuts and bruises. A very heavy gale was blowing ; the ship rolling badly ; and the sails were thundering overhead.

Rocket' lines were fired over the ship, and the crew were hauled off by means of the tail block and whip. We were unable to use the hawser, and the breeches buoy was worked by the whip only. Each member of the crew was hauled through the broken water.

One poor boy was washed out of the breeches buoy and lost, but after some hours we saved all the other members of the crew.

One hears many strange tales of the sea, and I am sure Honorary Secretaries of Station Branches in particular will be interested in the following. The Kessingland Life-boat was launched in answer to flares from the smack A.J.W.

on the night of llth October, 1919.

While the Life-boat was being hauled through the broken water the haul-off warp parted and she was nearly driven back to the beach, but sails were got on her and she went away with the wind on the starboard quarter till past Pakefield Gat. Then, as nothing could be seen, she was brought to the wind, close hauled. After she had been sailing in this direction some ten minutes the tack of the fore-lug became unhooked from the bumkin (the cause for this unknown) and the Crew lowered the sail to rehook it. While the sail was down the boat turned so that she had the wind on her port side (the opposite side). The Second Coxswain inquired of the Coxswain if they should pull the boat round again or shift the lug sail over. The -Coxswain replied, " If she wants to go this way, let her go." Some five, minutes later cries were heard and the smack was found, sunk, with her crew of four men clinging to the masts. They were rescued.

When I asked the Coxswain and some of, the Crew for an explanation of the tack of the sail coming unhooked, they solemnly replied : "It was to be ! " " It was to be ! " * * An account of this very fine service,, for which the Coxswain and Second Coxswain were awarded Silver Medals, and each member of the Crew a Bronze Medal, appeared in The JAfeboat for February, 1920..