Messrs. Victor Gollancz Ltd. are to be congratulated on producing under the title Wild Water an English edition of a Dutch book by Klaas Toxopeus, which has already had considerable success in the Netherlands (15s.).

Wild Water is largely the life-story of a Dutch life-boatman. Klaas Toxopeus comes from a seafaring family. His brother was himself a fife-boat captain—or in the English phrase, a "coxswain." He himself for a number of years has commanded the life-boat Insulinde.

His book tells of his early fight to escape from a factory and to join his father at sea. He won his fight and in time joined the Dutch Life-boat Service. In this he was employed in a full-time capacity, his first job being with the Rottum life-boat. Here he lived in a community numbering only eight persons: himself; the captain of the life-boat and his wife; his uncle; his uncle's housekeeper and three farm hands. At the Rottum station, which was later closed, he saw a good deal of service and soon learnt his duties from his captain. In his captain's phrase there was " only one right way. That is to be on board before the bad weather sets in. It is not an easy job but there is no alternative, and you have to be prepared sometimes to spend three or four days on board in dirty weather and high seas." There follow descriptions of Mr.

Toxopeus's first trip as captain and of several daring rescues from Finnish, Turkish, German and Spanish ships.

Finally there is an account of the disastrous storm which led to the sinking of the Princess Victoria and which swept across the whole of Northern Europe.

Well deserved tributes are paid to the crews of the Dutch life-boats and to Mr. de Booy, the Director of the North and South Holland Life-saving Society, whom the author calls "as good a sailor as any of us." Wild Water is written in a breezy, conversational style and evokes a lively picture of a great Life-boat Service..