THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 137 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 29 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to May 31st, 1938 65,677 H.R.H. The Duke of Kent, K.G.

Review of the Year's Work at the Annual Meeting.

THIS is the third annual meeting at which I have spoken, and there has been one thing that has impressed me enormously at these three meetings.

There has never been a time when changes in the world were more swift and unexpected, but in the midst of them the Life-boat Service—although its work is concerned with the most uncertain of elements—goes on its way, year after year, without faltering, and with ever-increasing benefit to the sommunity.

A Long Roll of Lives Rescued.

Again this year there is a long roll of lives rescued—524, the largest number for nine years. (Applause.) These lives have been rescued from ships of nearly a dozen different nations, and I am very pleased once more to welcome the representatives of those countries who are here in gratitude for the help of our life-boats. As well as these foreign representatives, there are sitting behind me the Mayors of many boroughs.

I want to thank them for coming here to-day, because they are symbolic of the great fact that our people, though they are under no compulsion, recognize it as a duty to support their life-boat service. (Applause.) Yet, while we are grateful for these familiar features at our annual meeting, there have been changes, and im- portant ones, since we met a year ago.

During last year there were more motor life-boats building than ever before.

This year there will be an even larger number, and the time is rapidly ap- proaching when we shall say good-bye to the last of the pulling and sailing life-boats.

Subscriptions and Donations Must Go Up.

This rapid building has meant heavy expenditure. We have again spent more than we have received. In fact, we have spent £27,000 more than our revenue. At the same time our revenue was larger than in the previous year, and for the past five years there has been an increase in subscriptions and donations each year. We are very grateful for it; but it is still not enough. It must be remembered that a mechanized fleet costs not only much more to build, but much more to maintain, than a fleet of pulling and sailing boats. We cannot expect the cost of the Service to go down, and therefore—I say it plainly—we expect the subscriptions and donations to go up.

The people of London will have an opportunity of helping on Tuesday, May 31st, when life-boat day will be held in Greater London. The Lady Mayoress and the Mayors and Mayor- esses of twenty Boroughs are giving the Institution their personal help.

(Applause.) There are those with us to-day whose presence, I feel, will appeal for that increased support more strongly than any words of mine. They are the twenty life-boatmen who are here to receive rewards for outstanding gal- lantry. This is the largest number that has ever attended this annual meeting, and these men come from the coasts of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

(Applause.) Aberdeen's Fine Record.

First among them I welcome Coxswain Thomas Sinclair, of Aberdeen.

(Applause.) He has become almost a permanent feature of these meetings.

This is the third in succession at which he has been present. Last year he and his crew won between them a silver medal, a second-service clasp to that medal, four bronze medals, and nine vellums. (Applause.) That is a great record ; and in this year of the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow I think that everyone will be glad that the chief honours of the life-boat service should go to Scotland.

Then we have with us the coxswain and the whole crew of the St. Ives life-boat. (Applause.) They are here for a notable service. They rescued a crew of twenty-three men. It took them forty minutes, and with every minute thev knew that their own danger was increasing. As the life-boat drew away from the wreck, and before it was possible to turn her head to sea, a great wave struck her ; she capsized ; and all but three of the men on board her were thrown into the sea. We shall hear presently an account of that service, but there are two things about it that I wish to say. It is more than thirty years since the first motor life- boat was built. In those thirty years motor life-boats have been launched on service thousands of times, yet this is the first time that one of them has capsized. The second thing is that the boat, a self-righting boat, righted herself at once, and that her crew, who could have got safely ashore, swam back to her. The coxswain took command again. The steamer's crew was rescued again—all but five.

Deeply as we regret that those five men were lost, it must be a great satisfaction to us that, at that moment of crisis, the life-boat behaved as she was designed to behave, and her crew behaved as we knew they would.

(Applause.) Men Who Were Equal to Great Emergency.

We have here also the coxswain from Exmouth, in Devon, and the coxswain from Moelfre, in Anglesey (Applause), both experienced coxswains whose gallantry has won them special awards ; and we have the second coxswain from Tenby, in Wales, and a member of the crew from Dunmore East, in Ireland.

(Applause.) Each of these two men in the absence of the coxswain took command of the life-boat in circum- stances of great danger. (Applause.) We could not have a more striking and encouraging example of what our life-boat service is than we shall have to-day : The crew of St. Ives, who did not fail in a sudden crisis and disaster, and the two men of Tenby and Dun- more East, who had not only the courage, but the skill, to take command at a moment's notice in the absence of their leaders.

When these men come up to receive their rewards, I ask you to welcome them not only as very gallant men, but as a splendid proof of the efficiency of our whole life-boat service. (Loud applause.).