ON 27th May, H.R.H. the Prince George, K.G., named the new Motor Life-boat stationed at Aldeburgh, Suffolk. This is the seventh Motor Life-boat to be named by the Prince.

The Aldeburgh boat is the first of a new type specially designed for Stations where conditions at sea require a fairly large and heavy type, but where it is impossible to station the Barnett or Watson Cabin type, as the boat has to be light enough to be launched off the beach. She is 41 feet by 12 feet 3 inches, and on service, with crew and gear on board, she weighs 16J tons. She is divided into seven water-tight com- partments, and is fitted with 135 air- cases. She has twin screws, and is driven by two 35 h.p. engines. They are in a water-tight compartment and are themselves water-tight, so that they would continue running even if the engine-room were flooded. Her speed is just over 1 knots, and she carries enough petrol to be able to travel 116 miles, at full speed, without refuelling.

In rough weather she can take eighty-five people on board, and she carries a crew of ten men. She has a line-throwing gun and an electric search-light, and is lighted by electricity. She has replaced a Pulling and Sailing Life-boat of the Norfolk and Suffolk type, the City of Winchester.

The new boat has been built out of a legacy from the late Mrs. Jane Elizabeth King, of St. Leonards-on-Sea, in memory of her son-in-law, the late Mr.

Abdy Beauclerk.

There has been a Life-boat Station at Aldeburgh since 1824, and the Station has the splendid record of 413 lives rescued since 1851, and nine Silver Medals awarded for gallantry.

Prince George flew from London and was welcomed on landing by Sir Courtenay Warner, Bt., C.B., J.P., the Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Com- mittee of Management of the Institution, and Captain Frederick C. V. Vernon Wentworth, C.B., R.N., President of the Aldeburgh Branch. At Aldeburgh itself he was received at the Moot Hall by Mrs. Arthur Galsworthy, J.P., the Mayor. Among those present at the Ceremony were the Mayors of the Suffolk Boroughs, the Aldermen, Coun- cillors and Town Clerk of Aldeburgh, and Mr. J. F. Lamb, of Cambridge, a member of the Committee of Manage- ment of the Institution. The Navy was represented by H.M. Destroyer Scimitar.

The Mayor opened the proceedings, and Mr. W. E. F. Cheesman, on behalf of the relatives of Mrs. King, presented the Life-boat to the Institution. In doing so he said that Mr. Abdy Beauclerk,after whom the boat was to be named, was a constant visitor to Aldeburgh from thirty to forty years ago. He loved the place, and in particular sailing on the river. In 1893 he saw the Aldeburgh Life- boat go out to the help of the Russian barque Venscapen, and so impressed was he by the bravery and seamanship of the Life-boat Crew that he always after- wards wished that he might some day be rich enough to give the Institution a sum sufficient to build a Life-boat.

He died in 1912 with his wish unrealized, but at the request of his widow, her mother, Mrs. King, left £5,000 to the Institution to accumulate in order to provide a Life-boat for Aldeburgh. The new Motor Life-boat, therefore, came to Aldeburgh as a reward for the bravery of its Crew thirty-nine years before, a Crew in which was the present Coxswain, Mr.

Pead.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., accepted the Life-boat on behalf of the Institution.

He expressed its gratitude to the donor for her splendid gift, spoke of the services of the Life-boatmen of Aldeburgh, which " were written in gold on the records of the Institution," and paid a warm tribute to the work of Mr. Walter Riggs, the Honorary Secretary of the Station.

Sir Godfrey then formally handed the Life-boat to the Branch, and she was received by Captain Vernon Wentworth, R.N., the Chairman. After Captain E. D. Drury, O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R., Chief Inspector of Life-boats, had described the boat, she was dedicated by the Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich (the Right Rev. Walter G.

Whittingham, D.D.), who was accom- panied by Canon S. W. Goldsmith, M.A., as chaplain. The hymns which were sung before and after the service were led by the choir of Aldeburgh Church.

Before the Prince named the Life- boat, Sir Courtenay Warner, Bt., pro- posed and Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., seconded a vote of thanks to him, and the Earl of Stradbroke, K.C.M.G., C.B., C.V.O., C.B.E., D.L., J.P., Vice- Admiral of the Suffolk coast, proposed and Mr. Ross Taylor, M.P., seconded a vote of thanks to the Mayor.

The Prince's Speech.

The Prince, in naming the Life-boat, said :— " I am very glad to be present this afternoon to name this Motor Life-boat.

This is the seventh of these Ceremonies in which I have taken part, and when to-day's Ceremony is over there will not be a Motor Life-boat from Aldeburgh to the Thames which I have not had the pleasure of naming.

" You at Aldeburgh have a Life-boat record of which you may well feel proud. You have had a Station for 108 years, for as long, that is, as there has been a Life-boat Service on our coasts. Since 1851 your Life-boats have rescued 413 Jives. Nine times your men have won the high honour of the Institution's Silver Medal for their gallantry. I congratulate you on that splendid record. (Cheers.) " But you have had to pay the price for that achievement. To save lives you have given lives, and I think that on this occasion we should remember with special honour and gratitude those brave Life-boatmen of Aldeburgh who lost their lives on service.

" In the pride of your record the whole county of Suffolk shares. No county in the British Isles has been more active and more generous in Life- boat work. Some of the earliest experi- ments were carried out on this coast.

Suffolk for many years had its own Life-boat Association, and that Associa- tion began its work many years before the Royal National Life-boat Institu- tion itself was founded.

" The Life-boats of the county have rescued over 2,900 lives. What a wonderful record ! When one remem- bers not only those 2,900 lives actually saved from death, but the thousands more—the families, the wives and children—saved from want and sorrow, the people of Aldeburgh and of Suffolk may well feel both thankful and proud at the recollection of what their Life- boatmen have done.

" With this new boat, the first of a new type, I am confident that you will add new honours to your record. The generous lady whose gift it is, and her son-in-law whose name it will bear, will share in the work you do and the honours you win. I have very great pleasure in naming this boat Abdy Beauclerk. I wish the boat and her crew ' God-speed.' " (Loud Cheers.) The Prince then broke a bottle of Empire wine on the bows of the Life- boat.

After the Ceremony the Prince went afloat in the Life-boat and was pre- sented, in memory of his visit, with a model, made by an Aldeburgh man, of the Marigold, one of the three ships which Aldeburgh built and manned and sent to fight the Spanish Armada.

At a meeting of the Committee of the Aldeburgh Branch on 16th August, Captain Vernon Wentworth presented to Mr. Riggs a silver salver, with the signatures of the Committee in facsimile, as a mark of their gratitude for all that he had done in connexion with the Ceremony and the placing of a Motor Life-boat at Aldeburgh..