LONG before the war ended the Institution had made plans to rebuild a great part of its fleet. It lost six boats, destroyed by the enemy, and more serious even than this loss were the delays. In the last four years of the war the building of life-boats almost ceased, and instead of the sixty or seventy new life-boats which in normal times would have gone to the coast to replace the older boats during the six years of war, the Institution was able to send only seventeen.

Seventy-nine New Boats To make up for these losses and delays, the Institution prepared an immediate programme of twenty-nine new motor life-boats, to be followed by a second programme of fifty. The programmes include improved carriages for launching light life-boats off the open beach and more powerful launching tractors, of which eighteen are to be built to add to the twenty four already on the coast. The two programmes, it was estimated, will cost at least a million pounds.

In this new fleet two important changes are to be made. At present only the larger types of life-boat have two engines and twin screws. In future all life-boats will have them.

So long as a life-boat has only one engine and one screw it had to carry a full set of sails, in case of a breakdown.

With two engines and twin screws the fleet will be independent of sail. That is the first change. The second change is that Diesel engines, which up to the present have been used only in the larger types of boat, will be used in all life-boats, instead of petrol engines.

This has two great advantages. Petrol is highly inflammable. The heavy oil used by the Diesel engines is not. The risk of fire will be very greatly diminished.

The other advantage from this change of fuel is that the range of lifeboats will be increased by a third. The Diesel engines will carry them that extra distance on the same amount of fuel.

The reason why Diesel engines have not been used in all life-boats in the past is that they are much heavier than petrol engines. They have been too heavy for the smaller types of life-boat.

Now the Institution is having designed for it a special lightweight, supercharged engine which, though still heavier than a petrol engine of the same power, will be light enough to use in the light types of life-boat.

Aluminium in place of Wood These two changes will add greatly to the power and safety of the fleet.

Others are being made. For example, an aluminium alloy, which has already been used in such parts as the engineroom hatches and the deck air-cases, is to be used in place of wood for the shelter over the cockpit and in place of steel for the engine-casings. This will be a big saving in the weight of the boat.

Two important changes are being made in equipment. It is twenty years since wireless was first used in a life- boat, and that it has not long since been put in all life-boats is because of the difficulty of protecting the apparatus from the sea. It has been possible to use radio-telephone sets both for sending and receiving messages only in boats where they could be put in the shelter of the cabin, but for some time sets for receiving only have been in use in open boats. These the Institution was able to make water-tight. Now it has had made to its own specification a receiver and a crystal-controlled transmitter, both of which it should be possible to use in open boats without fear of damage from the sea. The first of these sets are now being tested under service conditions and it is hoped soon to have them in all life-boats.

The Loud Hailer The other important addition to equipment is the loud hailer. Before the war ended the Institution was experimenting with it. It has now decided which of the many makes is the most suitable for life-boat work, and this is to be installed in all life-boats.

With the help of a megaphone the voice can carry only a very short disagainst a wind. With the loud hailer— a megaphone through which the voice is projected from an electric amplifier— the coxswain will be able to speak to men on a wreck 203 yards away, even against a gale, and to tell them by word of mouth instead of by signals (which are not easy to make clearly either by flags or by a morse lamp from a violently tossing boat) what he intends to do, and what he wants them to do.

To adapt new inventions to life-boats is not easy. Not only must they be impervious to water, but they must not be heavy and they must not be bulky. If they are, there is no place for them in a life-boat. That is why, at present, it is impossible for life-boats to use radar. Its smallest sets weigh over half a ton and require a watertight office 5 ft. X 5 ft. X 5 ft. 6 ins.

Apparatus so heavy and so large cannot be put in even the largest lifeboats.

Other inventions, useful to the ordinary navigator, may not be necessary for life-boat coxswains. The Decca navigator is one. It is an instrument by which the captain of a ship can be given his position at sea by a station on land. But it is the rarest thing for a life-boat coxswain to be in any doubt about his own position.

What he wants to know is the position of the wreck, and this the Decca navigator cannot give him. So all new inventions must be carefully considered, before they are adopted, and then they may have to be much altered before they are suitable for the special work of the Life-boat Service.

Eighteen Boats Laid Down Eighteen boats of the new fleet have now been laid down, and the six boats which were partly built when the war ended have been completed.

Though eighteen boats have been laid down it is not yet possible to say when they will be finished. There are many difficulties, due to the scarcity both of material and skilled men. Much of the Institution's stock of seasoned timber was destroyed in an air-raid, and it is not easy to replace.

It is no longer possible, for example, to get mahogany from Honduras; and teak from Burma, though it is coming to Britain again, can only be got in very small quantities. Maghogany was largely used for the planking and decks, and teak for keels. We are now getting mahogany from Africa.

The difficulty with engines is even greater than the difficulty with hulls.

We have been trying for months, at home, and then abroad, to get castings for such things as cylinder heads. It is not certain that even now we have succeeded. These are examples of the problems with which the Institution is faced in rebuilding the Life-boat Fleet.