SIXTY years ago last September, and fifty years ago this December, life- boats were capsized and lives were lost.

Sixty years ago it was the life-boat at Kingstown, Co. Dublin, which capsized.

Her second coxswain died of his in- juries, and three men of a crew she had rescued were drowned. Fifty years ago it was the life-boats at Southport and St. Annes, Lancashire, which cap- sized, with the loss of 27 lives, when going out to the help of the barque Mexico, whose crew the Lytham life- boat rescued. An eye-witness of each of these disasters has written recalling it.

Kingstown, Co. Dublin.

"W.A.H.-W." has written to the chairman of the Kingstown branch : "The Supplement to The Life-boat (Literature of the Life-boat) which was kindly sent me, by referring to the Boy's Own Paper, brought back to my mind an occurrence of sixty years ago, when I was saved from a life-boat, not by one. On Saturday, 30th September, 1876, the Leonie, laden with timber, in an easterly gale, let go her anchor off Bray esplanade north- east of the Martello tower (now gone) to save her going ashore. Fearing her cable would part at any moment, the Kingstown life-boat was summoned and took the crew off. The life-boat then tried to sail home, but the huge beam seas capsized her abreast of the mouth of the Bray river. She remained bottom aloft, and all those on her were washed adrift. When the mast broke she righted, but no one in her, and was driven ashore broadside. I ran down to have a close view and I think actually had my hand on her gunwale, when a shout: ' Come away out o' that,' made me run back. The next breaker sent her up the shingle over the spot I was standing on. Only for that shout this letter would never have been written, so I send you the enclosed donation to your local branch of the R.N.L.I. in memory of the giver of that ' shout.' " Southport and St. Anne's.

Of the disaster at Southport and St.

Annes, Mr. H. Royal Dawson, late honorary financial secretary of the Bridlington branch, writes : " I see that the next issue of The Life-boat will be in December. I am hoping it will contain some allusion to the Great Gale of 9th December, 1886 (fifty years ago), when disaster over- came the St. Annes and Southport life- boats. The whole crew of St. Annes were drowned, and eleven men out of the thirteen of the Southport crew were lost, including Chief Coxswain Thompson. Only two men, Harry Robinson, and the second coxswain, John Jackson, were saved, the latter saving his life by putting his mouth to an air valve (so it was said) and cutting himself clear of all gear in the capsized boat. Even now, I see a vivid picture (I was a boy at the time) of the barque Mexico driven inshore, embedded in sand close to the pier; and away in the distance on the storm- swept shore (before the Marine Park and lake were thought of), the capsized life-boat lying, while the boat-house was turned into a mortuary to re- ceive the bodies prior to an inquest.

Coxswain Thompson was always to be found at his post at the boat-house.

As a schoolboy, at boarding-school, I spent some tune off and on in his company, and I stood outside his shop in Lord Street as that long and sad procession of eleven coffins was taken to the Southport Cemetery, and laid together in an open grave as their last resting-place. I hope to send you a small donation towards the upkeep of the monument to their memory at the cemetery, near the date of this anniversary." To these recollections of Mr. Royal Dawson it may be added that a fund of £30,000 was raised for the widows and families of the 27 men who lost their lives. The St. Annes part of the fund was closed last year, as the last an- nuitant had died. The Southport part of the fund is still paying allowances to four people. One of the four is Harry Robin- son, one of those two survivors of the Southport crew of 9th December, 1886.

Another is the widow of the other sur- vivor, second-coxswain John Jackson..