THE 60-feet Barnett type of Motor Life- boat is the largest, fastest and most powerful in the Institution's Fleet, with the exception of the one Motor Life- boat designed and built for the special circumstances of service in the Straits of Dover, with its considerable aero- plane as well as steamer traffic.

The Barnett type was designed in 1923 by Mr. J. R. Barnett, O.B.E., M.I.N.A., the Institution's Consulting Naval Architect, and was named after him. It marked a very important development in Life-boat design, as it was the first of the Institution's Boats to have twin engines and twin screws.

Up to that time the motors had been strictly auxiliary. Every Motor Life- boat carried a full suit of sails, and it was an essential part of the construction of Life-boats with motors that their sailing qualities should not be impaired.

The Barnett Boat was the first Motor Life-boat dependent solely on its en- gines, and it Carries only a small stay- sail and trysail for steadying purposes.

It is a type of Life-boat intended only for Stations where long distances may have to be travelled and where the Life-boat can lie afloat. The first of the type was built in 1923, and, after making a tour round the British Isles, went to New Brighton, on the Mersey, where she is now stationed. Barnett Life- boats have also been stationed at Aberdeen, Plymouth and Padstow, and several modifications have been made since the New Brighton Boat was built.

The following description is of the later Boats :— The Barnett Life-boat is 60 feet long by 15 feet wide (except the Boat at Padstow, which is 61 feet by 15 feet), and has a draught of 4 feet 5£ inches.

She has a displacement of just over 44 tons, is divided into fourteen water- tight compartments, and is fitted with seventy air cases. She is the first type of Life-boat to be built with cabins, of which she has two, with seating room in them • for twenty-four people. In rough weather she can-take on board about 130 people altogether.

She is built with skin and keel of teak, ribs of Canadian rock-elm and stem and sternpost of English oak.

She has two six-cylinder 80-h.p.

engines in a watertight compartment.

Each engine is itself watertight, and will continue to run when the engine- room is -flooded and the engine itself entirely submerged, the air-intakes being well above the water-line even when the Boat is waterlogged. The exhausts of the engine, instead of being taken out at the side, as in earlier types of Motor Life-boat (and in the first of this type), are carried up two funnels amidships.

This method has been followed also in lateu types. The engines give a maxi- mum speed of 9J knots, the equivalent, in a boat of this size, to a speed of over 30 knoj s jn "an Atlantic liner. As with all the Institution's Motor Life-boats, there is a great reserve of power, so that the maximum speed can be maintained even in very severe weather. The boat carries enough petrol to be able to travel 310 miles at full speed.

She is fitted with a life-saving net amidships, into which the shipwrecked can jump—an idea borrowed-;from the Dutch Life-boat Service. She has a line-throwing gun, an electric search- light and an electric capstan, and is lighted throughout with electricity. She has a fire-extinguishing plant, worked from the deck, which can throw jets of Pyrene fluid to all vital parts of the boat, and she is fitted with an oil spray in the bows for spraying oil on the waves..