Inaugural Ceremony of the new Motor Life-boat.

H.R.H. THE DUKE of KENT, KG., on 27th June named the motor life-boat at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. This is the ninth motor life-boat which he has named. The other eight have been the life-boats at Stromness and Long- hope in the Orkneys, Walton and Frinton, Clacton-on-Sea and Southend- on-Sea in Essex, Newhaven and Shoreham Harbour in Sussex, and Aldeburgh in Suffolk.

A life-boat station was established at Weston-super-Mare in 1882 and its life-boats have rescued fifty-eight lives.

There are three life-boats on the coast of Somerset, and this is the first motor life-boat to be placed there. She is of the light Liverpool type, 35 feet 6 inches by 10 feet, and on service, with crew and gear on board, she weighs 7 tons. She is divided into six water-tight compart- ments, and is fitted with 115 air-cases.

If a sea breaks on board, she can free herself in 12 seconds. She has one screw, driven by a 35 h.p. engine in a water-tight compartment. The engine itself is water-tight, so that it could continue running even if the engine-room were flooded. Her speed is 7J knots, and she carries enough petrol to be able to travel 115 miles without refuelling. She carries a crew of seven, and can take thirty people on board in rough weather.

A Donor of Five Life-boats.

This boat has been built out of a legacy to provide five life-boats received from the late Mr. C. C. Ashley, who died at Mentone in 1906. One of these five life-boats, the Fiji and Charles was built in 1907, and stationed at Redcar, York- shire, where she served until 1931, rescuing forty-one lives. Her name has now been transferred to the motor life-boat at Weston-super-Mare.

The naming ceremony was held at Knightstone Harbour, in the presence of some thousands of people, from all over Somerset. The Duke was met, when he landed at Bristol air-port, by the Lord Mayor of Bristol and the Right Hon. the Marquess of Bath, K.G., P.C.

C.B., Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset, and before the ceremony he was en- tertained to luncheon by Mr. J.

Jackson-Barstow, D.L., J.P., the chair- man of the branch. The British Legion provided a guard of honour.

The chairman of the Weston-super- Mare Urban District Council (Councillor J. G. Western) presided, and the new life-boat was presented to the Institu- tion by Mr. Charles S. Weir, LL.B., on behalf of the donor. She was received by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Institution, who then presented her to the Weston-super-Mare branch.

Mr. J. Jackson-Barstow, D.L., J.P., chairman of the branch, received her, and after she had been described by Commander E. D. Drury, O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R., chief inspector of life-boats, she was dedicated by the Rev. Prebendary G. L. Porcher, rector of Weston-super- Mare.

The Duke's Speech.

Before naming the life-boat the Duke said : " I am very glad to be here to-day.

This fine new motor life-boat will be the ninth which I have had the pleasure of naming. I have seen the life-boat service on many parts of our coasts, in the Orkneys, in Essex and in Sussex, but this is the first time that I have taken part in one of these ceremonies in the West Country.

" You have here a dangerous coast to guard, a coast with few harbours. You are at the entrance to what is still the second and was for long the principal port on the west coast of England— Bristol, the birthplace of our great steamer traffic to America.

" The life-boat stations on the coast of Somerset and the coast of Wales which watch, over the shipping in the Bristol Channel have, since 1850, rescued 684 lives. That is a record of which all who live near the Bristol Channel have every right to be proud.

(Applause.) " It is just over two years since I was last present at the naming ceremony of a life-boat. Since then I have travelled thousands of miles by sea.

But the more that I have seen of the seas and ports of the world, and the more, too, that I have seen of our own coast, the greater is my feeling of admiration for our life-boat service, for the way in which it is organized and, above all, for the men who man its boats. (Applause.) " It is of them that we ought to think first on such an occasion as this, but I should like to pay a tribute not only to them, but to all in Weston, and to all in the county of Somerset, men and women, who are members of the life- boat service.

" This is the first motor life-boat to be stationed on the coast of Somerset, and I am sure that the people of the whole county will follow its career with interest and pride. I ask you also, when I name the boat, to remember with gratitude its donor, Mr. Ashley.

He died nearly thirty years ago, but his name has lived on in the five life- boats which he gave to the Institution, and will live on in the motor life-boat at Weston-super-Mare.

" I name this life-boat Fifi and Charles, and I wish her and her gallant crew God-speed in their work of rescue." (Loud Applause.) A vote of thanks to the Duke of Kent was proposed by the Marquess of Bath, and seconded by the chairman of the Urban District Council, and a vote of thanks to the chairman, the committee and honorary secretary of the branch, and the Ladies' Life-boat Guild was proposed by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., and seconded by Lieut.- Col. C. R. Satterthwaite, O.B.E., secretary of the Institution.

The crew were presented to the Duke by Mr. E. J. McKaig, the honorary secretary of the branch, and the Duke went aboard the life-boat..