THE Viscount Wakefield of Hythe, G.C.V.O., C.B.E., LL.D., who is vice- president of the Hythe, Kent, branch, has presented to the Institution the whole cost, amounting to £9,669 2s. 9d., of the new motor life-boat which was stationed at Hythe this year and the new boat-house which had to be specially built for it.

The life-boat is of the beach type, 41 feet by 12 feet 3 inches, specially designed for stations where conditions at sea require a fairly large and heavy type, but where it is impossible to station the Barnett or Watson cabin type, as the boat has to be light enough to be launched off the beach. On ser- vice, with crew and gear on board, she weighs 16J tons. She is divided into seven water-tight compartments, and is fitted with 135 air-cases. She has twin screws, and is driven by two 35-h.p. engines. They are in a water- tight engine-room and are themselves water-tight, so that they could continue running even if the engine-room were flooded. Her speed is just over 7j knots, and she carries enough petrol to be able to travel 116 miles, at. full speed, without refuelling. She carries a crew of ten, and in rough weather can take eighty-five people on board. She has a line-throwing gun and an electric searchlight, and is lighted by electricity.

She has replaced the light self- righting motor life-boat City of Notting- ham, which has been at Hythe since 1929, and has now been transferred to Clovelly, Devon. There has been a life-boat station at Hythe since 1876, and the station's record is 60 launches on service and 60 lives rescued.

The naming ceremony took place on 24th July. Both Lord and Lady Wakefield were present, and the Right Hon. Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., C.B.E., C.M.G., M.P., Under-Secretary of State for Air, the president of the branch, was in the chair. Several thousands of people were present, and the Dungeness motor life-boat lay off Hythe.

Lord Wakefield's Speech.

Lord Wakefield, in presenting the life-boat, said : " I am delighted to be here to-day to witness the final stage of a project which has been a source of great pleasure to me. . . . Amidst all the destructive and death-dealing devices which it seems to be man's unhappy fate to invent for his own undoing, it is with deep satisfaction that we to-day inaugurate something constructive, having as its sole purpose the saving of precious human lives.

" The dear lady whose name this magnificent boat is to bear has, by her care and unfailing encouragement, un- doubtedly helped to preserve my life.

Perhaps on this account it will give her the same intense pleasure that it affords me to be associated in this way with a life-boat destined under God and by the courageous efforts of her crew to save and not to destroy life." Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., in accepting the life-boat, thanked Lord Wakefield for his great generosity to the life-boat service, and spoke of the splendid record of the Kentish life-boatmen. Since 1850 over 4,000 had been rescued from shipwreck on the Kentish coast, and the life-boatmen had won 108 medals for gallantry.

Lukin and Plimsoll.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., then for- mally handed the life-boat to the Hythe station, and she was accepted by the Mayor (Councillor C. G. Molyneux), the chairman of the branch. He recalled the names of two men who had done much for the safety of seafarers. The first was Lionel Lukin, the London coachbuilder, and the first designer of a life-boat, who was buried in Hythe churchyard. The second was Samuel Plimsoll, who was buried at Seabrook, two miles away.

The Rev. Cyril Norris, Vicar of Hythe, then dedicated the life-boat.

Brigadier Salisbury, of the Salvation Army, also took part in the service of dedication, and the singing was led by the choir of St. Leonard's Church, Hythe, accompanied by the band of the Royal West Kent Regiment.

Lord Wakefield then named the life- boat in the following words : " I now name this boat The Viscountess Wake- field. May God bless her and her crew in all their adventurings and may she be the means of bringing salvation to many in distress and danger on the sea." A vote of thanks to Lord Wakefield was proposed by Major F. W. Butler, M.C., and seconded by Mr. George L.

Mackeson, and a vote of thanks to Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., was proposed by Admiral Rolleston, D.S.O., and seconded by Brigadier-General George Cunningham, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., all four being members of the committee of the Hythe branch.

Lord Wakefield then launched the life-boat, which went down the beach through a cheering crowd, while aeroplanes of the Cinque Ports Flying Club dipped in salute overhead.

Before the ceremony Lord Wakefield entertained over a hundred people to luncheon. Among them were the life- boat crew, to whom he presented silver cigarette-boxes, while Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., presented to Lord Wake- field, on behalf of the branch, a scale model of his life-boat made by Mr. H. G.

Swarts, motor mechanic at Barry Dock, Glamorganshire, and a bronze medallist of the Institution..