Modern Motor Life-boats of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

By ]. R. Barnett, O.B.E., M.Inst.N.A. (Blackie & Sons, Ltd. 5s. net.) THE author of this book is the head of the famous Clyde firm of yacht builders, Messrs. G. L. Watson & Co. He is also the consulting naval architect of the Institution. He succeeded his friend and partner, the late Mr. G. L. Watson, in that post, being appointed to it in January, 1905, immediately after Mr.

Watson's death. In the previous year the first experiments with a motor- driven life-boat had been made, when a 12 h.p. two-cycle motor was fitted in a 35-feet pulling and sailing life- boat. In 1909 the first life-boat built for motor power went to her station.

Thus, Mr. Barnett has been the Institution's chief adviser on construc- tion during the whole of the period which has seen a fleet of 281 pulling and sailing life-boats and four steam life- boats transferred into a smaller but much more powerful fleet of (as it is at the moment) 120 motor life-boats and fifty-six pulling and sailing life- boats ; which has also seen that first experimental motor life-boat, with its 12 h.p. engine, develop into the 51-feet twin-screw motor life-boat, with two 60 h.p. engines, a speed of 9 knots and a radius of action of 60 miles at full speed, which bears Mr. Barnett's name.

From Oars and Sails to Motors.

As he says himself, " the present-day designs are not the work of one man— they have been developed gradually." But no single man has contributed more to the transformation of the pulling and sailing life-boat of thirty years ago into the motor life-boat of to-day than Mr.

Barnett, and none can write on the subject with fuller knowledge or greater authority. Moreover, his is the first book on the subject. There is no other book which describes in detail the design and construction of the modern motor life-boat. It is brief and beautifully simple—a book by the expert which anyone can under- stand.

Design.

The book begins with a general introduction. It concludes with a chapter on the crew and the outfit of the boat. Between these Mr. Barnett covers his subject in five short chapters.

The first deals with design and the essential differences between life-boats and other boats.

Coast life-boats of whatever type are in many respects different from any other boat.

They are broad in proportion to their length, and have at the best comparatively shallow draught. The bow requires to be buoyant, to lift the head when launched bow on at a good speed down a slipway; and the bow sections require to be shaped to avoid hammering when driving into a head sea.

The same chapter deals with the special tunnels for protecting the pro- pellers, a very important feature in the motor life-boat; the steering ; the relieving valves, or scuppers, in the side of the boat which have replaced recently the relieving tubes in the bottom of the boat, with the result that a 35-feet 6-inches boat can now empty herself in five or six instead of thirty seconds; the water-tight bulkheads and air-cases; and the increase in buoyancy and range of stability which has made the modern motor life-boats safer and better sea boats than their predecessors.

The next chapter deals with the different types of life-boat suitable for different types of coast. Mr. Barnett divides them into two main classes, deep-water boats and shallow-water boats. Then comes a chapter on the rigorous tests which a life-boat has to undergo before she is passed from the building yard as fit for service, and no chapter shows more clearly what scrupulous care is given to the con- struction of a life-boat nor how much she is expected to endure. Anyone reading that chapter will realize why it is that the life-boat triumphantly faces conditions of weather before which larger ships have succumbed.

Wood versus Steel.

Then comes a chapter on construc- tion, the different woods used in build- ing a life-boat and the way in which they are used. Except for steel bulk- heads in the larger types, the Institu- tion's life-boats are built of wood, and Mr. Barnett clearly sums up the experience of many years in favour of wood.

A well-built boat with double-skin diagonal planking will come through the severe trials a life-boat is called on to undergo better than a steel boat. The steel plating is com- paratively thin and even when galvanized it is liable, sooner or later, to corrosion. Not only may it get ripped on rocks, but the riveting is apt to give out if she is pounding on sandbanks, as often occurs. The double skin is more yielding under such conditions, and notwithstanding their hard work these wood-built life-boats last in good condition for many years.

Finally there is a chapter on the Institution's engines—petrol motors of the four-stroke cycle type, which are completely enclosed and water-tight, so that they can run when submerged.

The book is illustrated with many photographs, beautifully reproduced, with plans of all types of the modern motor life-boat and diagrams showing power curves, stability curves and flooding tests. For those who want more technical information than is to be found in Mr. Barnett's chapters there is a table with full particulars of each type of boat.

" A Sense of Dignity and Power." In conclusion there are two sayings of Mr. Barnett's which we should like to quote, for they show the wise, and one might almost say devout, spirit in which he approaches the problem of designing a life-boat. The first is : There is no finality to the design. Even now developments and changes are in sight.

No standard can ever be arrived at.

The second is : As a life-boat has a, dangerous duty to perform, it follows that the design is not easy to produce. . . . Further, it is a noble service which a life-boat is intended for, so the design ought to convey a sense of dignity and power, also it should be pleasing to look at, with beauty of proportions and form, and even colour. In fact, it should in every way be appropriate for the duty intended, . . ..