THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 144 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 16 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to 31st October, 1939 ... - 66,604 The Life-boat Service and the War.

By LIEUT.-CoL. C. R. SATTERTHWAITE, O.B.E., Secretary of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

THOSE who remember the last war will remember that the life-boat service was of inestimable value to the nation.

Its brief record for those years is that between the outbreak of war on the 4th August, 1914, and the signing of peace on the 28th June, 1919, life- boats were launched 1,808 times; 5,322 lives were rescued from shipwreck round the shores of Great Britain and Ireland; 186 boats and vessels were saved from destruction.

Many of these rescues were from the ordinary perils of the sea, but life- boats were launched 552 times to the help of ships and aircraft of the navy, or to merchant vessels wrecked or in distress on account of the war. In the great majority of cases they had been disabled by torpedoes or mines.

Thousands of Tons of Shipping Saved.

To estimate the full value of these services it must be remembered that nearly all the lives rescued were of men, and women, engaged in essential war services, and that the vessels saved represented thousands of tons of shipping for the transport of food and materials during the critical time when there was danger that the supplies of the. Allies might fail before the attack of the Gcnnan submarines.

These services were carried out in face of many difficulties. Long before the end of the war the last of the young men of the life-boat crews had gone to serve in the mine-sweepers, trawlers and drifters. The life-boat service was manned by men over fifty. Even men of over seventy took a place in the boats.

I have recalled that splendid record of a quarter of a century ago, because it is the best promise that the life-boat will carry on in the struggle in which our whole people are now engaged.

213 Lives Rescued in Two Months.

Already, in the first two months of the war, that promise has been splen- didly fulfilled. Life-boats have been launched on service 156 times. They have rescued 213 lives. In the same two months last year, they were launched 77 times, and rescued 69 lives. These figures give the measure of the difference which war has made to the importance of the service.

When the Institution was founded it was laid down "that the subjects of all nations be equally objects of the Institution as well in war as in peace." In that spirit the life-boat service has worked for 115 years. In that spirit it worked during the last war, earningthe gratitude of neutral nations for the lives of their seamen whom it saved. In that spirit it is carrying on now.

War conditions will profoundly affect the work of the life-boat crews, as they affect the lives of all of us. Rescues will be carried out in circumstances of greater difficulty and of increased dan- ger. But the transition from peace to war will probably change the life-boat service less than most other essential services. For the life-boats are never at peace; however settled the inter- national situation may be the life-boat crews are on active service; their enemy, the gales and the rocks and sandbanks that surround our coasts; and their object the rescue rather than the destruction of lives, whether they be friend, neutral or foe.

The Work of the Branches.

In another respect war will not change the life-boat service. As in peace time it will be financed by the free gifts of the people. There will be no government subsidy and no direct government control, though co-opera- tion with the Royal Navy, the Coast- guard and the Royal Air Force is already complete and effective. More than ever the service will depend on the work of its branches, on the coast and inland. The large majority of its honorary workers are carrying on; those who have had to resign on account of war duties have, in nearly every case, found others to take their place; many are continuing their life-boat work together with other work of national importance. Some forms of appeal may have to be discontinued, but I have great hopes that life-boat days will continue and will be widely organ- ized in 1940; and that branch subscrip- tion lists may be maintained and even increased.

Life-boat News that may help the Enemy There is one great difficulty with which we shall have to contend. We may expect many more calls to be made on the service, but the public will hear much less about them. It is impossible for the full particulars, or even for the names of the life-boat stations, to be published in the Press.

In our own Journal I shall hope to be able to give the names of the stations, since here the accounts will be appear- ing some time after the event, but even here it will not be possible to tell the full stories until the war is over.

The Institution, however, will con- tinue to send to the Press, at the end of each month, the month's record of launches and lives rescued. These brief figures will, I hope, help to remind all life-boat workers, and the public, that, however little they may hear of it, the life-boat service is at work.

Life-boat Officials in the Fighting Services.

There is one, more personal, thing to add. Commander Vaux, the chief inspector of life-boats, Captain Hamer, the deputy chief inspector, and some of the district inspectors have been recalled to the Navy. Colonel Burnett Brown, the deputy secretary, and other members of the staff are with the army.

Yet others have left to take their places in civil defence. We are carrying on our work with a diminished staff; but I am very glad that—as I went off the Army's reserve of officers early this year under the age limit—I am free to continue, for the present, my work as the secretary of the Institution..