THE 45-feet 6-inches Watson (Cabin) Motor Life-boat was the first type of Motor Life-boat in the Institution's fleet to be provided with a cabin, and the first of the type was built in 1923.

This Life-boat is a development of the famous Watson Life-boat, which was designed by the late Mr. G. L.

Watson, of the Glasgow firm of yacht builders, Messrs. G. L. Watson & Co., who was appointed the Institution's Consulting Naval Architect in 1887.

In 1890 Mr. Watson designed two Life- boats, one 43 feet by 12 feet 8 inches, weighing nearly 11 tons, which was a sailing Life-boat, and the other 38 feet by 9 feet 4 inches, weighing 4 tons 14 cwt., which was a pulling Life-boat. These two boats were the fore-runners of the stable, non-self- righting Life-boat of to-day.

The Watson (cabin) type was, as first designed 45 feet by 12 feet 6 inches, but in 1926 she was lengthened by 6 inches, in order to get an easier run on the water-line and a little more speed. Her displacement in service conditions is 2o| tons, and she has a mean draft of 3 fee.t 8 inches. She is divided into seven water-tight com- partments, and is fitted with 142 air- cases and ten relieving scuppers. She has a forward and an after cockpit, both fitted with shelters, with room in them for twelve people, and a cabin which will take twenty people, with sitting accommodation for ten. The cabin is fitted with an electric fan, which can be used to ventilate the hold as well as the cabin In rough weather she can take ninety-five people on board.

She is built with a double skin of mahogany, keel of teak, ribs of Cana- dian rock-elm and stem and stern posts of English oak.

She is driven by two four-cylinder 40 h.p. engines. They are in a water- tight compartment, and each engine is itself water-tight, so that they would continue running even were the engine- room flooded and the engines themselves entirely submerged, for the air-intakes are well above the water-line, even when the boat herself is water-logged.

The exhausts are carried up a funnel amidships. Her maximum speed is 81 knots, which, having regard to her speed-length ratio is equivalent to a speed of nearly 34 knots in a vessel of the size of the Mauretania.

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.

This type carries 108 gallons of petrol and the engines' consumption is 7J gallons an hour at full speed, so that she can travel 116 miles at full speed without refuelling.

She carries a staysail and trysail, which can be used either with the engine running or as an auxiliary power in the event of any failure on the part of the engines.

She carries a crew of eight men, has a line-throwing gun, an electric search- light and a mechanical capstan, is lighted throughout with electricity, and has a fire-extinguishing plant, worked from the deck, which can throw jets of Pyrene fluid to all vital parts of the boat.

There are twenty-nine Watson (Cabin) Motor Life-boats in the In- stitution's fleet, stationed at Holy Island (Northumberland), Teesmouth (Yorkshire), Cromer (Norfolk). Mar- gate (Kent), Yarmouth (Isle of Wight), Porthdinllaen (Carnarvon- shire), Douglas (Isle of Man), Portrush (Antrim), Dunmore East (Waterford), Humber (Yorkshire), Clacton (Essex), Newhaven (Sussex), Selsey (Sussex), Fowey (Cornwall), Penlee (Cornwall), St. Mary's (Stilly Islands), Tenby (Pembrokeshire), Angle (Pembroke- shire), Fishguard (Pembrokeshire). Piel (Barrow), Lancashire, Longhope (Ork- neys), Aith (Shetlands), Thurso (Gaith- nessshire), Cromarty (Cromartyshire), Montrose (Angus), Dunbar (Hadding- tonshire), Donaghadee (Co. Down), Rosslare Harbour (Co. Wexford), and Courtmacsherry (Co. Cork).

The original Life-boat of this type, stationed at Tenby, is now in the Institution's reserve fleet..