Inaugural Ceremony of the New Motor Life-boat.

H.R.H. THE PRINCE GEORGE, K.G., G.C.V.O., R.N., named the new motor life-boat at Shoreham Harbour, Sussex, on 15th March last. This is the eighth motor life-boat which he has named.

In 1928 he named the life-boats at Stromness and Longhope in the Ork- neys ; in 1929 the Southend-on-Sea, Essex, life-boat; in 1930 the life-boats at Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton- on-Sea, Essex ; in 1931 the Newhaven, Sussex, life-boat, and in 1932 the Aldeburgh, Suffolk, life-boat.

A life-boat station was first estab- lished at Shoreham in 1865, and it has rescued forty-eight lives. It was closed in 1924, owing to the silting of the harbour, but as, during the next five years, there was a great improvement in the condition of the harbour, and the harbour bar had disappeared, the station was reopened and a motor life- boat was placed there in 1929. This boat was of the Watson type, 40 feet by 11 feet, with a 40 h.p. engine, which had previously been stationed at Wey- mouth. This year this boat has been replaced by a larger and more powerful boat of the same type built for the station. She is 41 feet by 11 feet 8 inches. On service, with crew and gear on board, she weighs just over 15 tons.

She is divided into five water-tight com- partments, and is fitted with 145 air- cases. She has twin-screws, driven by two 35 h.p. engines. The engine-room is a water-tight compartment, and each engine is itself water-tight, so that it could continue running even if the engine-room were flooded. Her speed is just over 8 knots, and she carries enough petrol to be able to travel 139 miles at full speed without refuelling.

She carries a crew of eight, and in rough weather can take fifty people on board.

She has two cock-pits, a line-throwing gun, and an electric search-light, and is lighted by electricity.

This boat has been built out of a legacy of £4,000 received from the late Mrs. Rose Lord, of South Kensington, and a gift of £1,200 from Mr. W. Holdsworth Lunn and Mr. C. F. S. Perowne, this sum having been collected on board the steam yacht Argonaut and the B.M.S. Dunottar Castle.

The inaugural ceremony took place in the presence of some 3,000 people immediately after Prince George had opened the new lock at Shoreham.

The Lord Leconfield, Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex, presided, and after Commander E. D. Drury, O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R., chief inspector of life-boats, had de- scribed the boat, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Institution, pre- sented her to the branch on behalf of the donors and the Institution. The boat was accepted by the Right Hon.

the Earl Winterton, P.C., M.P., presi- dent of the branch, and was dedicated by the Bishop of Lewes (the Right Rev. H. M. Hordern, M.A.).

The Prince's Speech.

Before naming the life-boat, Prince George said : " I am very glad to be here to-day, and again to pay my tribute of admira- tion to the life-boat service. I have seen it now on many parts of the im- mense coast of the British Isles—in the Orkneys, on the East Coast, and once before on the coast of Sussex, when, two years ago, I named the Newhaven motor life-boat.

" The more I see of the service, of the men who man its boats, and of the men and women who as honorary workers take a generous part in the organization of the service on land, the more I realize what a great place the life-boats have in our national life.

" I have seen, too, how great every- where is the local pride in the life-boat, so that I can understand and share your satisfaction in Shoreham that you once more have a life-boat station. I am sure that with this new boat the Shore- ham life-boatmen will add new honours to the splendid record of the Sussex stations.

" Your part as men of Sussex in the life of the sea must be as old as England herself, but there is nothing in that long history of seafaring which does the county greater honour than the record of its life-boat stations. Since 1850 the life-boatmen of Sussex have res- cued 875 lives. They have won thirty- two medals for gallantry. A splendid record ! " In the honour of that record the whole county shares—the men who man the boats, the men and women who work for the service, the men and women who give to its funds. In that honour the generous donors of this new boat, and those whose names it bears, will now also have their share." (Loud applause.) A vote of thanks to Prince George was proposed by the chairman of the Shore- ham Urban District Council (Mr. E. T. Corbyn) and seconded by Mr. Harold Brown, J.P., chairman of the branch.

Prince George named the life-boat Rosa Woodd and Phyllis Lunn and wished her and her crew God-speed on every journey which they made to the succour of the shipwrecked. The boat was then launched and Prince George went afloat in her.

Among those present at the cere- mony were the Duchess of Norfolk, a vice-patron of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, the Duke of Norfolk, president of the Arundel branch, Mr. Holdsworth Lunn, one of the donors of the boat, Dr. Phyllis Lunn, after whom the boat is in part named, Mr. V. G. North, the honorary secretary of the Shore- ham Harbour station, the divisional inspector of coastguards and Lieut.- Colonel C. R. Satterthwaite, O.B.E., secretary of the Institution.

The singing was led by the choir of Lancing College and accompanied by the band of the Welsh Guards.