THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET 155 Motor Life-boats 1 Harbour Pulling Life-boat LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Life-boat Service in 1824 to 31st December, 1954 79,058 Notes of the Quarter THE year 1954 has been one on which the Life-boat Service can look back with pride and deep satisfaction. It is now 131 years since the Institution was founded, yet never before in peace-time had life-boats been launched on service as often as they were in 1954. Life-boats went out to the rescue 668 times, a figure exceeded only in the years 19.30, 1940 and 1941.

495 lives were rescued.

The year was a busy one throughout.

More lives were rescued in the first nine months of 1954 than in the whole of 195.'5, and the demands on the life-boat crews in the tremendous gales which swept across the country at the end of November were prodigious.

A table showing- what the life-boats did in five days is given on page 13. The hardships and danger experienced by the crews, and the responsibilities which fell upon honorary secretaries and others connected with the stations, were met in the best traditions of the Service. 71 lives were rescued by life-boats in those five days, and the rescue from the World Concord, a full account of which is given on page 2, showed conclusively that in certain weather conditions, no matter how many vessels may be near the casualty, a rescue can be effected only by a life-boat.

TRAGEDY AT SCARBOROUGH The loss of three fine men of the Scarborough crew, including the coxswain and second coxswain, followed with tragic suddenness upon the splendid achievements of the Service in November. A tribute to those who lost their lives and to the Life-boat Service as a whole was paid by the Archbishop of York. This is given in full on page 12.

Scarborough is one of the oldest life-boat stations in the country, having been founded in 1801. Since 1850 Scarborough life-boats have been launched on service 382 times and have rescued 396 lives.

A major disaster occurred in 1822, when the second life-boat capsized with the loss of ten of her crew, but until the recent accident occurred the last occasion on which a Scarborough life-boat capsized was in 1862. On that occasion no lives were lost. For such a busy station this is a splendid record.

In spite of the exceptional demands made on the Service, the three members of the Scarborough crew were the only life-boatmen to lose their lives on service in 1954. Not a single boat was lost, and no life-boat was out of service as a result of damage done at sea for more than 48 hours.AN AMERICAN DISTINCTION CAPTAIN CURTIS E. PARKINS, of Royalton, Minnesota, who receives a silver medal for a service described in full on page 6, is the first pilot of an aircraft ever to receive a medal for gallantry from the Institution. He is also the first United States citizen to receive a life-boat medal for more than a hundred years. Three gold medals were awarded in the past to masters of American ships: to John Collins in 1840; to John Britton in 1845; and to Isaac Ludlow in 1854. The nationality of these three winners of gold medals cannot be clearly established, but it may be assumed that they were United States citizens.

Evidence of the truly international nature of the Life-boat Service is shown year after year, when seamen of ships of all nationalities are rescued by life-boat crews. It is particularly gratifying to the Institution to be able to give such well deserved recognition to the gallant rescue of the life of a young Englishman by an American pilot.

American interest in the work of the Royal National Life-boat Institution was naturally aroused by the rescue by helicopter carried out by Captain Parkins and his crew, but there have also been other gratifying examples of close association between people resident in the United States and the Life-boat Service of these islands. A magnificent gift, which will enable a new life-boat to be built and sent to a Scottish station, has recently been received from Miss Margaret Patterson, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. Miss Patterson has given the life-boat in memory of her brothers Arch and Alex Patterson, of her uncle, Neil Munro, and of her grandfather, Hugh Graham, who was drowned in the Cook Straits in 1868.

A long article on the Life-boat Service recently appeared in the New York Times, and a launch of the Dungeness life-boat was filmed in colour for the Columbia Broadcasting System. It was intended to show this in Columbia's first coloured television newsreel to be sent out on the 12th of January, but it was eventually shown on the 13th of January on the C.B.S. network and later on many other networks..