IN December, 1945, the Institution sent to Cromer one of the first two of a new type of 46-feet Watson -cabin life-boat. In them, for the first time, the steering wheels were placed amidships instead of at the stern. This boat was sent to Cromer that she might be thoroughly tested by the Institution's most experienced coxswain, Henry Blogg, and his crew. They were so pleased with her that they asked if they might keep her at the station, and at the same time the Cromer branch asked that this new boat should be named Henri/ Blogg. With this request the Institution was delighted to agree.

The naming ceremony was held at Cromer on August 5th, 1948, in the presence of a very large audience, and the occasion was taken to pay final tribute to Coxswain Henry George Blogg himself, who had retired the previous September, at the age of 71, having then completed 53 years' service as a life-boatman. During those 53 years he had taken part in the rescue of 873 lives, had been coxswain of the boat for 38 years, and had won the Institution's gold medal three times, its silver medal four times, the British Empire Medal and the George Cross. The station was established before 1825, and since 1851, the year from which the records of the Institution are complete, its life-boats have rescued 935 lives, so that all but 62 of the lives rescued in those 97 years were rescued while Coxswain Blogg was serving.

The Right Hon. The Viscount Templewood, C.G.S.I., G.B.E., C.M.G., P.C., president of the Cromer branch, presided, supported, among others, by the Earl of Leicester, the Lord Lieut enant of Norfolk. After Lord Templewood had opened the proceedings Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Cunningham, G.C.B., M.V.O., the First Sea Lord, spoke.

The First Sea Lord's Speech "The last time I took part in a similar ceremony here was during the war, when I had the privilege of presenting the third gold medal of the Institution to Coxswain Blogg, and other medals and certificates of the Institution to the members of his gallant crew.

"To the people of Cromer I need say nothing about the wonderful service which Henry Blogg has rendered to seafarers of all races. . . . It is quite unequalled in the whole hundred and twenty-four years of the Life-boat Service. We in the Admiralty had a very lively appreciation of the consummate seamanship which Henry Blogg exhibited on so many occasions, and it was chiefly in order to pay such testimony as we could to his skill and the gallantry of the Cromer life-boat's crew, that the Board of Admiralty permitted me, right in the middle of the war, to leave London and come here to Cromer for the presentation of that third gold medal.

" I would like to read to you the letter which the Boafd of Admiralty wrote to the Institution early in 1940, and which could not, I think, be bettered as a description of, and tribute to, the work of all its gallant crews.

• "' I am commanded by My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to inform you that they are deeply impressed by the fine services of the crews of the national life-boats, especially those on the East Coast, which already in the first few months of warfare have achieved the saving of so many valuable lives.

"' They are aware that these services have been given in foul weather, high seas and bitter cold, with an exemplary spirit of courage and endurance, in which, without fear or thought of self, the life-boatmen have never spared their strength and skill in helping their brother sailors in distress from the dangers of the sea and the violence of the enemy; and that in a long and great tradition the calls on their seamanship and hardihood have never been so heavy, or more gladlv answered.

"'On behalf of the Royal Navy, My Lords beg the Royal Life-boat Service to accept, as from seamen to seamen, this brief tribute to the spirit and exploits of the life-boatmen in time of War.' "If that letter is not enough to persuade everybody within hearing of me to accede to the invitation at the bottom of the last page of the programme to become an annual subscriber to the Institution—or to those who cannot perhaps afford that annual subscription, to contribute generously every time they see one of the miniature life-boat collecting boxes —I would recount to you an incident which happened within a hundred yards of this spot, and which I-''described to my ship's company when I was Captain of H.M.S. Resolution in 1933.

"It was a winter's .night, blowing a north-east gale and snowing. The tide was dead-low, and setting like a mill race to the eastward. The first lifeboat was, already out under the command of Henry Blogg, when from a ship on the Haisboro' Sound, 'there came a second call. This was immediately answered by the fathers, in most cases, of the men of the first crew, manning the second boat. With a heavy on-shore wind, the first attempt to launch the old boat was unsuccessful, and she was thrown back on the beach.

Undeterred the old men—and some, I am assured, were in their seventies—• determined on another attempt.

" The boat was successfully launched at this attempt chiefly owing to the wives and mothers of the life-boatmen wading out and pushing the boat until she was well afloat. With a very great effort the crew, rowing hard, were just able to stem the tide sufficiently to avoid the boat being set down on to the outlying reef. These old men then rowed and sailed some ten or twelve miles and were eventually picked up and towed into Yarmouth by the first crew. I have never, in the whole course of my experience, seen,or read of a more gallant action." The Presentations Commander H. L. Wheeler, R.N., the district inspector of life-boats, described the life-boat and Brigadier R. J. P. Wyatt, M.C., T.D., the organising secretary for the South-East of England, presented her to the branch on behalf of the Institution.

Before the dedication service and the naming of the boat, Sift John Cunningham presented to Coxswain Blogg a portrait of himself by Mr. T. C.

Dugdale, R.A. This portrait was a gift from the Institution (which had also awarded him an annuity and a certificate of service) and was a copy of the , portrait which Mr. Dugdale painted for the Institution in 1942 and which was shown that year in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. He also presented to him a cheque and an illuminated address, the gifts of his friends and admirers, and a clock, the gift of the crew.

Coxswain Blogg then accepted the life-boat on behalf of the branch, and the Rev. D. T. Dick, Vicar of Cromer, assisted by the Rev. William Hughes, dedicated her. The singing of "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," was accompanied by the Cawston and District Prize Silver Band.

A vote of thanks was proposed to Sir John Cunningham by the Rev. A.

Buxton, the chairman of the Cromer Urban District Council.

After the singing of the national anthem Sir John went to the lifeboathouse and there named the boat Henry Blogg. She was then launched..