THIS is a true story, although the name of the life-boat station is not men- tioned. In one of the heavy gales of last winter one of the motor life-boats on the South Coast put out on service shortly after dusk and was out the whole night.

During the night the coxswain thought that he would like to cheer himself with some hot bovril, and the motor mechanic put on the kettle to boil. When the bovril was made the coxswain drank off one cup of it, the motor mechanic another. Shortly afterwards, to their own horror, and the amusement of the crew, they were both very sick. The life-boat returned to her station after a service of sixteen hours, with both coxswain and motor mechanic under a cloud.

They themselves suspected the bovril.

The crew, however, were certain that it simply meant that their coxswain and motor mechanic could not stand a bit of a sea.

On the arrival at the station someone looked inside the kettle and the mystery was solved. Bovril was cleared of the suspicion of causing instead, as it undertakes to do, of preventing " that sinking feeling." The coxswain and motor mechanic were cleared of the suspicion of unseaworthiness. Inside the kettle was a piece of soap..