THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 108 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 75 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to - 62,866 February 29th, 1932 The Life-boat Service in 1931.

ALTHOUGH, during 1931, there were no exceptional gales round the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, Life-boats were launched on service 276 times, and rescued 212 lives. In this figure are included eleven lives rescued -by the Aberdeen Life-saving Apparatus which is maintained by the Institution. In addition, fifty-nine lives were rescued by shore boats and in other ways, for which rescues awards were given by the Institution, making a total of 271 lives rescued. Life-boats also saved or helped to safety twenty-six boats and vessels.

The busiest month was March, when forty-nine lives were rescued, but the noticeable feature of the year was the number of lives rescued during the summer. The number rescued during the first four months of the year was 104, while during June, July, August and September the number was 107.

Up to the end of 1931, from its founding in 1824, the Institution gave rewards for the rescue of 62,756 lives.

Services to Foreign Vessels.

Life-boats went to the help of seven- teen foreign vessels, belonging to nine different countries, and forty-nine lives were rescued from them. Four of the vessels were French, two American, two Spanish, two Dutch, two Latvian, two Swedish, one Danish, one German, and one Greek. Of the four French vessels, one was a naval cutter, the Mittin. The Motor Life-boat at St. Peter Port, Guernsey, rescued her crew of seventeen men and saved the vessel, and for this service the Institution received the thanks of the French Government.

The Two Finest Services of the Year.

The two finest services of. the year were both performed by Scottish Life-boats in the month of February, the Pulling and Sailing Life-boat at St. Andrews, Fifeshire, and the Motor Life-boat at Thurso, Caithness-shire.

The St. Andrews boat rescued the crew of ten men of the steam trawler Loch Long, of Aberdeen, and the Thurso boat the crew of four of the schooner Pet, of Chester. Both services were carried out during the night, and both wrecks lay among rocks, with heavy seas breaking, where it was very difficult and dangerous for the Life-boats to reach them. The Life-boats were brought safely through these dangers by the skill and courage of their coxswains.

Coxswain Fenton, of St. Andrews, and Coxswain McPhail, of Thurso, were each awarded the Institution's Bronze Medal.* A second service clasp to the Bronze Medal x which he already holds was awarded to Mr. J. J. Davies, Sen., the Bowman of the Motor Life-boat at Cromer, for going overboard from the Life-boat to the help of a drowning man, in February, when a fishing boat, which was making for home in a heavy sea, capsized.* A Life-boat Service Inland.

One of the most interesting services of the year was carried out inland. During the floods at Eskdale at the beginning of September, one of the Whitby Life- boats was taken a mile and a half inland, and launched on the flooded road at Ruswarp. She rescued from the win- dows of houses five people, including a bedridden woman of ninety. The Life- boat herself was damaged, and one of her crew was injured.f Sixteen New Motor Life-boats.

No fewer than sixteen new Motor Life-boats were completed and sent to their stations. This is the largest number ever built in one year. Nine of these boats went to the English coast, Bridlington, Redcar and Scarborough in Yorkshire; Padstow and Penlee in Cornwall; Hastings (Sussex) ; Lytham (Lancashire); Hoylake (Cheshire); and Aldeburgh (Suffolk) ; three to Scotland, Dunbar (Haddingtonshire) ; Girvan (Ayrshire); and Kirkcudbright (Kirk- cudbrightshire) ; three to Ireland, Clogher Head (Co. Louth); Cloughey (Co. Down) and Youghal (Co. Cork); and one to Ramsey in the Isle of Man.

A New Type of Motor Life-boat.

Of the sixteen new Motor Life-boats, thirteen were of the new type, 35 feet 6 inches long, which is light enough to be launched off a carriage or the open beach. This new type has enabled the Institution to use motor-power at a large number of Stations where the launching conditions had made it impossible to * These three services were fully described in The Lifeboat for last June.

f This service was fully described in The Lifeboat for last December.

place the heavier types of Motor Life- boat. There still remain, however, a number of Stations which present a double problem. Their launching condi- tions make it impossible to provide them with one of the heavier types of Motor Life-boat. At the same time, the con- ditions at sea require a larger and heavier type than the light 35 jgj} 6 inch boats. Another type has there- fore been designed which is a develop- ment of the Norfolk and Suffolk type, and will be known as the Beach.

(Aldeburgh) type. It is 41 feet by 12 feet 5 inches, with two 35 h.p. engines, giving a speed of eight knots. It weighs 16 J tons with gear and crew on board, whereas the 35 feet 6 inch boats weigh under 7 tons.

The Beach type will be launched on a semi-permanent slipway of rollers laid on the beach, as it is too heavy to be launched off a carriage. The first of the type went to Aldeburgh in Decem- ber, and. if this experimental boat is a success, it will make it possible to place Motor Life-boats at several important Stations where up to the present the difficulties of launching have made it necessary to retain Pulling and Sailing Life-boats.

Inaugural Ceremonies of Motor Life-boat*.

Twenty-two Inaugural Ceremonies of Motor Life-boats were held during the year : nine in England, five in Scotland, five in Ireland, one in Wales, one in the Isle of Man, and one in Guernsey.

Among those who took part in these ceremonies were H.R.H. the Princess Royal (H.R.H. Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood), H.R.H. Prince George, President Cosgrave, of the Irish Free State, and General Richard Mulcahy, Minister of Local Government and Public Health in the Irish Free State, the Right Hon. the Viscount Craig- avon, P.C., D.L., M.P., Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, the Lieutenant- Governor of the Isle of Man, the Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, the Duke of Montrose, Chairman of the Scottish Life-boat Council and a Vice- President of the Institution, the Duke of Northumberland, the Viscount Grey of Fallodon, K.G., P.O., a Vice-President of the Institution, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, and Commodore Sir Richard Williams Bulkeley, Bt., K.C.B., R.N.R., Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey and a Vice-President of the Institution..