THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET 153 Motor Life-boats 1 Harbour Pulling Life-boat LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Life-boat Service in 1824 to October 31st, 1951 - 77,528 Foreign Life-boat Services BEFORE the war The Life-boat pub- lished each year brief reports from foreign Life-boat Services of the help they had given to British vessels and the state of their fleets. After twelve years these reports are to be resumed.

In asking them for their records in 1950, the Institution also asked the voluntary Services if they were now in any way controlled by the state.

The letter was sent to all the foreign Services except the Russian (which for years before the war had not answered the Institution's letters), Roumanian and Latvian.

It will be seen from the replies that no changes have taken place except in Spain and Portugal. In Spain the Service was at one time voluntary, though it received a grant from the State. It is now controlled by the State.

In Portugal the Service was volun- tary, with a grant from the State. It would seem now to be managed by the State, though still partly maintained by voluntary gifts.

Belgium A Belgian life-boat rescued three lives from a British yacht, and a pilot cutter brought ashore twelve of the crew of a British steamer, the Martagon, which was leaking.

Belgium has three motor life-boats.

They are all of the Institution's Watson cabin type and were built at Cowes.

The Belgian Service (founded in 1882) is maintained by the State.

Denmark There were no services to British vessels.

Denmark has 23 motor life-boats, 19 pulling and sailing life-boats, and 16 stations with rocket life-saving apparatus only.

The Danish Service (founded in 1852) is maintained by the State.

Finland The Finnish Life - boat Society (founded in 1930) has 25 life-saving stations, 14 of them with motor life-boats. Of these 14 boats two are cruising life-boats.

It is a voluntary Society but receives a grant from the State.

France French life-boats helped in various ways two British steamers, a motor vessel and two yachts.

The Central Society for Saving the Shipwrecked (founded in 1865) has,37 motor life-boats and 20 pulling and sailing life-boats. The society is vol- untary, but the Ministry of Recon- struction is paying for the rebuilding of its stations damaged in the war, and every quarter the Society has a con- ference with the Ministry of Mercan- tile Marine at which its plans and suggestions are examined. Once the general plans have been approved the Society is free to carry them out. Its organisation and inspection, its choice of life-boats, and methods of launching are left to it to decide. The Society writes: "Once this first minimum pro- gramme has been carried out, we hope, by developing our publicity, to regain the complete independence which we had before the war. This is equally the desire of our government which does not at all wish to make the Life-boat Service a State enterprise." There is an independent society in Brittany. Much of its work is in the patrol of bathing beaches and the rescue of bathers. It also had several life-boats, but these were destroyed, or disappeared, during the war. It has ordered five more, and later will order a sixth, all of a type similar to the Institution's 46-feet 9-inches Watson cabin life-boat. Three of the five are expected to be ready this year.

The Society of Breton Hospitaller Rescuers is voluntary, but it is receiv- ing the help of the State in repairing the damage done in the war.

Germany German life-boats helped to beacli a sailing yacht, with British sailors aboard, and brought a sick man ashore from a Liverpool steamer.

The German Service has 32 motor life-boats, 2 pulling life-boats, and 6 life-saving apparatus.

The German Society for Saving the Shipwrecked is voluntary. It was founded in 1865, and twenty years later took over the State Service on the Baltic, founded in 1852.

Holland The life-boats of the Royal North and South Holland Life-saving Society helped four British vessels in various wavs.

Ths society has 24 motor life-boats and 4 pulling and sailing life-boats.

The Royal South Holland Society for Saving the Shipwrecked went to the help of a British yacht in a rough sea and towed her in, and to the leak- ing steamer Martagon, from which a Belgian pilot cutter had rescued twelve men. The Dutch life-boat rescued the remaining twenty-three.

The South Holland Society has 3 twin-screw motor life-boats with two 110 h.p. engines, 1 single-screw boat with a 165 h.p. engine, and 4 other motor life-boats.

Altogether Holland has 31 motor life-boats and 4 pulling and sailing life-boats.

Both the Dutch Services (founded in 1824) are voluntary.

Iceland Icelandic life-boats went to the help of a British oil-tanker and three trawlers, and rescued 75 lives from them.

Iceland has two cruising, cutters (of which one is owned partly by the Life- boat Association and partly by the State, and is used in the summer for fishery research and surveying), 2 motor life-boars stationed ashore, 9 pulling life-boats, 54 stations with life-saving apparatus, 24 refuge stations, and several wireless stations.

The National Life-saving Associa- tion of Iceland (founded in 1928) is voluntarv. It has a membership of 26.380 out of a total population of 141,042.

Japan The Japanese Life-boat Service was established in 1889, as a voluntary service, with the title Imperial Japan- ese Life-Saving Society. In 1896 parliament advised the government to establish a State service but instead the government made a small grant-in- aid to the voluntary society. Before the war of 1939 to 1945 the society had a fleet of 76 motor life-boats and 142 pulling and sailing life-boats.

Since the war its name has been, changed to Nippon Life-saving Asso- ciation. It now has 15 life-boats left, and is under the control of a govern- ment organisation, the Maritime SafetyAgency. This agency has 70 patrol boats and 129 small vessels with the duty of enforcing the fishery laws and other maritime regulations as well as going to the help of ships in distress.

No information has been received of services to British vessels.

Norway There were no services to British vessels.

The Norwegian Society for Saving the Shipwrecked has 24 cruising motor ketches and 32 shore stations equipped with various apparatus for life-saving.

It was founded in 1891 and is volun- tary. The State Life-boat Service, which was founded in 1854, was trans- ferred to it in 1933.

Poland After the war of 1914 to 1918 the Polish Government took over a num- ber of life-boat stations on the Baltic which had belonged to the German Life-boat Service, but nothing was heard of the Polish Service until, in 1948, the secretary of the Swedish Society wrote that at the request of the Polish Government, he had visited Poland to advr e it about a Life-boat Service. The Institution informed all the other Life-boat Services and wrote to the Ministry of Shipping in Poland sending it the good wishes of them all.

It also offered to give Poland any in- formation wanted. The Institution then heard from the Polish Shipping Mission in London that Poland wished to organise her service on the same lines as the British Service, and it gave the mission drawings and descriptions of its different types of life-boat and engine, its searchlight and its radio telephone and loud hailer. This was in October, 1949. Nothing more has been heard from Poland, but the Swedish Service reports that it lias 2 cruising motor life-boats, and 2 other motor life-boats, built in Sweden.

Portugal No reply has been received from the Portuguese Institution for Saving the Shipwrecked, but in the summer of 1949 the late chief inspector of life-boats visited the headquarters of the institu- tion and several of its stations. He understood that it had about 36 life- boats, of which 16 were motor boats.

The institution was founded in 1892.

From 1901 onwards it received a grant from the State, but the chief inspector understood that it was now controlled by the Ministry of Marine, though the funds still consisted in part of voluntary gifts.

Spain There were no services to British vessels.

Spain has 25 life-boats, some with motors, some with oars, and there are plans to re-organise the fleet, replacing these 25 boats with cabin motor life- boats.

The Spanish Society for Saving the Shipwrecked was founded in 1880 and took over the life-boat stations which had been established by the State. It received a grant-in-aid from the State, but was a voluntary society. Though it still receives some subscriptions and gifts its principal income is now a subsidy from the Ministry of Mercan- tile Marine, and it is strictly con- trolled by the ministry.

Sweden There were no services to British vessels.

The Swedish Society for Rescuing the Shipwrecked has 6 cruising motor life-boats, 15 other motor life-boats, and 5 stations with rocket apparatus only.

The society (founded in 1904) is voluntary, but it is expecting the State to provide money for one or two high- speed boats, to be stationed off Stock- holm and Gothenburg where the air- liners pass and where, too, there are many islands from which sick people have to be brought, as quickly as possible to the mainland. The society expects also that these boats, though provided by State money, will be entirely under its control.

Besides the voluntary service there is a State service, founded' in 1855, maintained by the Royal Pilot Board.

It has 5 motor life-boats, 1 pulling boat with an outboard motor, 1 pulling boat, and 17 stations with rocket apparatus only, so that Sweden has a fleet of 26 motor life-boats, and 2 pulling (one with an outboard motor).

Turkey There were no services to British vessels.

There are 4 life-boat stations on the the shores of the Black Sea, with 7 pulling and sailing life-boats, and 11 stations with rocket apparatus only.

A motor life-boat for Turkey is being built in England and is expected to arrive in 1952.

The Turkish Service is maintained by the State.

The United States of America The United States Coastguard, which maintains the Life-boat Service, was not able, as in the past, to give parti- culars of services to British vessels, since it meant a search through its records, which it had not the staff to carry out.

It has 177 motor life-boats besides its large fleet of cutters, patrol boats, lightships, harbour tugs, buoy boats and motor boats.

As the Life-boat Service is part of the Coastguard it is maintained by the State.

British Services to Foreign Vessels in 1950 DURING 1950 British life-boats went out to the help of 42 vessels and aero- planes belonging to 14 foreign coun- tries, and rescued from them 70 lives.

Eight of the vessels hailed from France; 5 from the Netherlands; 5 from the United States (including 3 aeroplanes); 5 from Germany; 4 from Belgium (including 1 aeroplane); 4 from Denmark (including 1 from the Faroes); 3 from Norway; 2 from Spain; and 1 each from Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Italy and Panama. In addition 77 men were landed from foreign vessels on which they might have been in danger..