ON the afternoon of the 22nd of September, a south-westerly gale was blowing in the mouth of the Mersey with rain squalls and breaking seas twenty feet high. In those heavy seas the military authorities were afraid for the safety of -one of the forts, Queen's Fort, built out in the estuary, and asked the New Brighton life-boat station to take off the crew. An attempt had already been made, without success, by a launch of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.

The motor life-boat, William and Kate Johnston, left her .moorings at 2.45 in the afternoon under Second-Coxswain W. S. Jones. It was the first time he had been in command on service.

The fort consists of a group of towers each on four tubular piles leaning inwards.

The towers themselves project beyond the piles. The life-boat came up on the lee side of the lee tower, but the piles, of course, gave her no shelter from the gale; and with the piles leaning inwards, and the towers projecting, it was peculiarly difficult to get and keep the life-boat in position for the rescue. A line was thrown to the fort, but as it was almost straight upwards, it was of little use, and the secondcoxswain could only hold the life-boat in position by working his engines, and the second-coxswain had to manoeuvre the life-boat alongside the piles afresh for each of the men to jump into her.

At times the life-boat was more than twenty feet below the fort, but on the top of a big wave the men on her foredeck were in danger of being crushed under the massive superstructure. The actual rescue took forty minutes. No one was injured, but the life-boat damaged her stem.

The second-coxswain handled the boat with great skill in a series of dangerous manoeuvres, and the Institution made the following awards: To SECOND-COXSWAIN W. S. JONES, the bronze medal for gallantry, a copy of the vote of the medal inscribed on vellum, and a reward of £1 9s. in addition to the ordinary reward of £l 11s.

To the motor mechanic, W. MCDONALD, who was single-handed at his engines, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum and £1 10s.; To each of the six members of the crew £1 9s., in addition to the ordinary scale reward of £l lls.; Standard rewards, £12 18s.; additional, £11 13s.; total rewards, £24 lls..