A NEW motor life-boat, the gift of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, has been completed this year and stationed at Walmer, Kent. There are now six motor life-boats on the coast built out of the Fund—three on the English coast, at Walmer and Margate (Kent), and Southend-on-Sea (Essex); one on the Scottish coast, at Whitehills (Banffshire), and two on the Irish coast, at Donaghadee (Co. Down) and Kingstown (Co. Dublin). With the exception of Kingstown, which will cease to be a Civil Service station when the present life-boat conies to the end of its term of service, all these life- boats are endowed, and when the time comes will be replaced by new motor life-boats out of the Fund. The Fund also contributes £1,000 a year to the maintenance of its life-boats and pays the rewards given to the crews. Since the Fund was established in 1866 it has contributed £94,367 to the Insti- tution, and has provided twenty-two life-boats, including the new Walmer boat. Its life-boats have rescued 1,303 lives and have saved, or helped to save, sixty-five boats and vessels from de- struction.1 i A complete list of the Civil Service life-boats was published in The Life-boat for November, 1932.

A life-boat station was established at Walmer in 1856, and a life-boat station at North Deal, close by, in 1865. These two stations have been under one branch of the Institution, the Goodwin Sands and Downs branch.

The North Deal station was closed last year, when it was decided to place a motor life-boat on this part of the coast.

With a motor life-boat one station only was required, and Walmer was chosen, as having the better facilities for launching.

859 Lives Saved.

These two stations are the nearest to the dreaded Goodwin Sands, and they have a magnificent record. The Walmer life-boats have been launched on service 181 times and have rescued 254 lives. The North Deal life-boats have been launched on service 419 times, and have rescued 859 lives.

Thus the record for the Goodwin Sands and Downs branch is 600 launches, 1,113 lives rescued from shipwreck.

Although there are so many wrecks on the Goodwin Sands, it has so far been impossible to station a motor life- boat on this dangerous part of the coast, because the conditions at sea required a fairly large and heavy type of life-boat, and at the same time the boat had to be light enough to be launched off the open beach. The larger motor life-boats, weighing over 20 tons, were too heavy to launch.

The light type of motor life-boat, weighing 7| tons, which can be launched off the beach, was too light for the con- ditions at sea. This is the reason why for several years there have been powerful motor life-boats at Margate (where there is a launching slipway), and at Ramsgate (where the life-boat lies afloat), but there has been no motor life-boat at either of the stations opposite the Goodwin Sands. A special type of motor life-boat has now been designed to meet this difficulty. It is known as the Beach type, and the new Walmer life-boat is of this type. She is 41 feet by 12 feet 3 inches, and on service, with crew and gear on board, she weighs just under 16 tons.1 The " Charles Dibdin." This life-boat will bear the same name as the life-boat which was stationed at North Deal in 1905, and remained there until the station was closed in 1931—Charles Dibdin, after the founder of the Civil Service Life- boat Fund, and a former secretary of the Institution.

Mr. Charles Dibdin, F.R.G.S., was a great-grandson of Charles Dibdin, the famous song-writer. He was born in 1849 and was a civil servant in the Savings Bank Department of the General Post Office. In 1870 he be- came the honorary secretary of the Civil Service Fund, which he had been chiefly instrumental in founding four years before. In 1883 he left the Civil Service to become secretary of the Life-boat Institution, and he remained its secretary until his death in 1910, at the age of sixty-one. He did not, however, give up his work for the Civil Service Life-boat Fund when he left the Civil Service, but continued to act as its honorary secretary until shortly before his death, so that he held that honorary post for nearly forty years.

The new Walmer life-boat is the fourth to bear his name, all being gifts from the Civil Service Life-boat Fund.

1 A full description of this type, with a photograph and plans, will be found on page 173.

The first was stationed at Tynemouth in 1875. It served there until 1888, when it was replaced by another life- boat bearing the same name. This boat served until 1905. These two life-boats rescued eighteen lives. The name Charles Dibdin was then given to a life-boat built in 1905 for North Deal. This famous boat served for twenty-six years, until the North Deal Station was closed in 1931. She was launched on service 186 times.

She rescued 395 lives. Thus there has been a Civil Service life-boat in the Institution's fleet bearing Mr. Dibdin's name for fifty-six years, and these life- boats have rescued 413 lives.

The Naming Ceremony.

The naming ceremony of the Charles Dibdin was held on 21st September in the presence, in spite of very bad weather, of hundreds of people. Among those who took part in it were the Right Hon. the Lord Southborough, P.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., K.C.S.I., chairman of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund and a vice-president of the Institution, Lady Southborough, the Right Hon. the Marquess of Read- ing, P.C., G.C.B., G.C.V.O., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., Captain of Deal Castle, the Bishop of Dover (the Right Rev. J. V.

Macmillan, O.B.E., D.D.), the Hon.

Mr. Justice Charles, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Institution, the Mayor of Deal, the chairman of the Walmer Urban District Council (Major H. C. Owen, O.B.E., M.C.), and Mr.

A. T. Matthews, J.P., chairman of the branch and Cinque Ports Deputy for Walmer. The singing was led by choirboys from St. Mary's and St.

Saviour's and accompanied by a Royal Marine Band from the Royal Naval School of Music, by. permission of Brigadier G. Mathew, C.B., A.D.C.

Royal Marines.

Mr. A. T. Matthews opened the pro- ceedings. He paid a tribute to the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, and said how glad he was that the name of Charles Dibdin, so long associated with North Deal, would still remain in the life-boat fleet. He earnestly hoped that all who lived in that part of Kent, not only at Walmer, but at Deal and Kingsdown and elsewhere, would look upon this new life-boat as their boat and would give it their support.

Lord Southborough.

Lord Southborough then presented the life-boat to the Institution. In the course of his speech he said : " We stand here on the edge of a colossal cemetery. You may well re- flect on the thousands of lives that have met death just off this coast since the day when those treacherous sands formed part of Earl Godwin's domain. Here of all places is the important station for a life-boat, and it goes without saying that she should be of the most modern pattern." Lord Southborough then gave some particulars of the Beach type of life- boat, and the record of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund. He continued : " I have said all that modesty admits on behalf of the donors, except perhaps that the Civil Servants of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, who make small but adequate contributions to the Fund, number some 50,000 ser- vants of the Crown. This marks the love of the Briton for those who go to sea." (Applause.) " Then we turn to Charles Dibdin— a conspicuous example, the man whose name is to be given to this splendid boat. He was not the Charles Dibdin who lived early in the last century, the famous writer of songs of the sea and of seamen, ' Tom Bowling'; the man, in fact, who taught that every lass loved a sailor, but that the tar had a wife in every port. Surely that would indeed be an embarrassment in these days of cheap and rapid transport.

No, our Charles Dibdin was the song- writer's great-grandson. He was a Civil Servant, and practically the founder of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund. The strains of his forebears' sea songs must have run through his veins, and he took a remarkable step.

He left the Civil Service to become the secretary of the Life-boat Institution, and he held that position until his death, when the Institution expressed their heartfelt sorrow at the loss of their highly-esteemed and much-be- loved secretary, who had held his important office to the great advantage of the Institution for the long period of twenty-seven years, during which he had given himself with unstinted de- votion and the utmost loyalty to the interests of the life-boat service which he loved so well. There is the Charles Dibdin, whose name and splendid work we desire to commemorate to-day.

" Some day, in years to come, there will assemble on this beach men and women other than ourselves, but whose mission will be the same. They will review the history of this Charles Dibdin, then in the evening of her days.

We may be sure that that record will be memorable and honourable, both her own and that of her gallant crews.

With these thoughts we will now dedi- cate the boat to her noble service,'and invoke the blessing of God upon her life and work. Sir Godfrey Baring, on behalf of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, I have the honour to present this vessel to the Royal National Life-boat Institution." (Applause).

Sir Godfrey Baring, in accepting the life-boat on behalf of the Institution, thanked the Civil Service for their splendid generosity and spoke of the great record of Kentish life-boatmen.

Captain W. R. Coleman, honorary secretary of the branch, accepted the life-boat, and Lieut.-Commander P. E.

Vaux, D.S.C., R.N., district inspector of life-boats, described the life-boat.

The Bishop of Dover then dedicated the boat, assisted by the Rev. Canon Tonks, M.B.E., Vicar of Walmer, and the service of dedication concluded with the singing of " Eternal Father, strong to save." A vote of thanks to Lord and Lady Southborough was proposed by Lord Reading, who said that one of the reasons politicians were so interested in the life-boat service was, no doubt, because they themselves were so often " at sea" and " in danger of ship- wreck." He was very glad to be among those taking part in this cere- mony. They were helping in the noblest work—the . work of saving human life. The vote was seconded by the chairman of the Walmer Urban District Council, and Lord South- borough responded.

Mr. Justice Charles proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Matthews and the Bishop of Dover, and paid a tribute to Mr. Matthews's whole-hearted devotion to the work of the service. The vote was seconded by the Mayor of Deal, who said that sorry though the people of Deal were that they no longer had a life-boat of their own, they would always be ready to do all that they could to support the work of the Institution. Both Mr. Matthews and the Bishop of Dover replied.

Lady Southborough then named the boat Charles Dibdin, Civil Service No. 2, with the words: " May God bless her and all who sail in her; " and the boat was launched..