" Imagine that You are the Coxswain of a Life-boat. A Vessel is sending up Rockets of Distress. Describe the Rescue by Your Life-boat." THE essay competition in 1937, in which the writers were asked to imagine that they had been ship- wrecked and rescued and to describe their experiences, was such a success that this year they were asked to write as life-boat coxswains. The subject was : " Imagine that you are a life-boat coxswain. A vessel is sending up rockets of distress. Describe the rescue by your life-boat." The competition was again a great success. The children, indeed, showed themselves as ready to rescue as to be rescued. Neither boys nor girls found any difficulty in taking command, navi- gating their life-boats through the most terrible of storms, rescuing the ship- wrecked and, in many cases, awarding themselves medals for their gallantry.

Some of them, indeed, were prepared to do everything themselves, leaving nothing to their crews, from firing the line-throwing gun and working the searchlight or oil-spray to climbing on board the wreck or jumping into the sea.

A Firm Way with Passengers.

One London boy took a very firm way with the panic-stricken passengers : " I jumped to the line-throwing gun, conveying to them the pretext that it was a machine-gun. Threatening them in this manner, they were taken on board quietly." Accidents, however, were bound to happen. Another " coxswain " writes : " Suddenly a massive piece of wood- work came crashing down. A few escaped narrowly. I myself had a few accidental scratches from ladies' long nails." Another boy imagined himself as "a grizzled old mariner who has been in many exciting adventures in his time." Another refused to marry : " We are all bachelors, as the nerve-racking sus- pense associated with this work would be too much for any wife's nerves." The Gales Described.

The gales were described in very vivid and homely phrases : " Our small boat was tossed about like a dead fish." " The thunder was pealing out its roll and roar like a hundred ton of coal being shot into a cellar." " Then I felt the wind go through my body like a knife goes through butter." " The breakers dashed themselves on the rocks like angry bulls rushing at Spanish toreadors." " Our gallant life-boat, like a leaf in a tea-cup when stirred, 'bobs and tosses." " The wind lulled, then sprang forward with the snarling, gnashing roar of a hundred gorillas." The exertions of the life-boat crews are no less vividly described : " They pulled and heaved at the oars till the sweat rolled off them like marbles on a polished surface." The essayists were aware that the captain should be the last to leave his ship, but some were not satisfied with this. They felt that he ought not to leave it at all. In two essays the captain committed suicide rather than be rescued. In another he went mad and had to be hit on the head with a belaying-pin before he could be got into the life-boat.

There were distinguished passengers among the rescued. On one wreck there could be seen " a dignified person" who turned out to be the German ambassador " travelling to London for a conference with some English and French diplomats." Another rescued man was a kid- napped millionaire, whom the life- boatmen rescued not only from the wreck, but from his kidnappers. The fifty pounds which the millionaire gave to each life-boatman seems to have been well earned.

Some lives were lost in these ima- ginary rescues, but the great majorityof the shipwrecked were saved, as one essayist puts it, from becoming " per- manent residents of Davy Jones's locker." 2,203 Schools Take Part.

This was the eighteenth competition and 2,203 schools took part, an increase on 1937 of 57. Of this total of 2,203 schools, 1,587 were English, 329 Scot- tish, 165 Irish and 122 Welsh. There was an increase in England and Scot- land and a decrease in Ireland and Wales.

The number of essays sent in for the inter-school competition was 1,380, an increase of 91 on the previous year, and the number of schools which held their own competitions, but did not send in for the inter-school competition, was 823, a decrease of 34.

The Best Essay.

The best essay in Great Britain and Ireland came from a school in Greater London. It was written by Sheila Mary Wicks, of the Heston Junior Mixed School, Heston, Middlesex. She is under eleven years old and is one of the youngest of the successful competitors. Her essay is notable for the clear understanding it shows of the way in which the coxswain goes about the actual work of rescue when he has brought his life-boat to the wreck.

In Scotland the shield has been won for the second year in succession by the Royal High School, Edinburgh. In all the other eight districts the shields have been won by schools which have never won them before.

Successful Towns.

For the third year running Ports- mouth (including Southsea) takes first place for the aumber of winning schools.

It has no fewer than fifteen—one more than last year—out of the thirty-five prize-winners in the South-West of England, while the neighbouring borough of Gosport has five. Cardiff is again second, with ten, the same number as last year. Stoke-on-Trent has seven, three more than last year, and Liverpool six, one fewer than last year.

Girls versus Boys.

Although a girl has won the prize for the best essay of all, the boys have again done better than the girls. They have won six of the nine challenge shields; and of the total of 315 prizes boys have won 180 and girls 135. The prize for the best essay of all has now been won eleven times by girls and eight times by boys, a boy and a girl tying for it in 1933.

The Awards.

Sheila Mary Wicks will receive an inscribed copy of the edition de luxe of Britain's Life-boats, by Major A. J.

Dawson. Each of the other eight winners of challenge shields will receive a copy of Launch, by Major-General Lord Mottistone (Major-General Seely), ex-coxswain of the Brooke,Isle of Wight, life-boat, inscribed by the author. The schools will hold the shields for a year, and each school will also receive, as a permanent record of its success, a copy of the certificate awarded to the pupil.

The other prize-winners will each re- ceive a certificate, the boys copies of Launch and the girls copies of The Life-boat in Verse.

The 823 schools which did not enter for the inter-school competition, and the 1,065 schools which did not win a prize in it, will each receive a certificate for presentation to the writer of the best essay in the school.

The Institution's Thanks.

The Institution again warmly thanks the Education Authorities for allowing the competition to be held, and in many cases for bringing it to the notice of the schools ; the teachers for carrying it out; and the judges in each of the nine districts. The Institution knows how much work the competition entails both on teachers and judges and it is most grateful for their generous help.

Below will be found the names of the nine winners of challenge shields and the best essay. The full list of winners is printed as a separate leaflet, and will be sent, with a copy of this journal, to each of the schools which entered for the inter-school com- petition.

Winners of the Challenge Shields.

LONDON.—Sheila Mary Wicks, Heston Junior Mixed School, Heston Road, Heston, Middlesex.NORTH-EAST OF ENGLAND.—Henry Walker, Holy Island Church of EnglandSchool,Berwick-on-Tweed.

NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.—Jean Maginn, Rushen School, Port St.

Mary, Isle of Man.

MIDLANDS.—Betty Ann Langley, Orchard Street Council School, Orchard Street, Peterborough.

SOUTH-EAST OF ENGLAND.—David Cooper, The Boys' School, Red- bourn, Herts.

SOUTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.—William Hobba, Central Senior Boys' School, St. Austell, Cornwall.

SCOTLAND.—Douglas Edward Johnston, Royal High School, Edinburgh.

IRELAND.—Michael Peel, Upper Ballin- derry Public Elementary School, Belfast.

WALES.—Thomas Godfrey, Lansdowne Road Boys' School, Canton, Cardiff..