Ix 1949 eleven life-boats were com- pleted and sent to the coast. Another twenty more were under construction when the year ended.

Before the war a life-boat took, on an average, a year to build. After the war the time at first was two years.

In spite of this the Institution has com- pleted thirty new boats in the five years since the war ended in May, 1945. The time has now been reduced to about eighteen months, and the eleven boats completed last year were only a little short of the yearly average before the war.

It has now been decided to lay down another fifty-seven during the next five years, and three of the boats of this programme are among the twenty under construction at the end of 1949.

Up to the present life-boats have been ordered singly. These fifty-seven have been ordered by multiple contract, and each of the contracting firms knows how many it will have to lay down in the next five years. In this way it is hoped further to reduce not only the building time, but also the cost, which has been steadily rising and is now nearly three times what it was before the war..