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 March, 1955 ... - 79,131 Notes of the Quarter EXCEPTIONAL weather conditions in the early months of the year gave rise to a considerable number of additional calls on the services of the life-boats, especi- ally those stationed on the northern coasts. These particular services were not to ships in distress, but they were in the fullest sense of the term services for the rescue of lives. Heavy snow falls made roads impassable in northern Scotland and in the outer islands for days, and life-boats succeeded in making several vitally important journeys where other forms of transport were either powerless or not available.

It is not uncommon for life-boats to take sick people to hospitals or doctors to patients in emergencies, but the number of such journeys was excep- tionally high in the middle of January.

The Stromness life-boat was out four times from the 14th to the 20th of January. The first time she took a sick woman to hospital in Scapa. The second time she brought supplies to an area which was running dangerously short of food. The third time she took another woman to hospital, and the fourth time she took a doctor to an old lady who had pneumonia. The Thurso life-boat was out twice in the same period on similar missions, and the Aith life-boat was out once.

PORTRAIT ON THE COVER The portrait on the cover is of Cox- swain William Harvey, of Newhaven.

Coxswain Harvey won the silver medal for the rescue of the crew of eight of the Danish auxiliary schooner Vega in November last year, and for this service he has received the Maud Smith award for the bravest act of life-saving in 1954.

It will be noticed that Coxswain Harvey is seen wearing a cap with the badge of British Railways. When this photo- graph, which was taken by the Sussex Daily Neuat, first appeared in London evening newspapers, a considerable number of people commented on the fact that a life-boat coxswain was wear- ing a British Railways cap. That this fact was so widely commented on shows, the prevalence of the belief that life- boat coxswains are normally fuJJ-time employees of the Institution. Cox- swain Harvey is, in fact, a British Rail- ways employee, and like the great majority of those who serve in life-boat crews, he follows another employment, serving in the life-boat when the occa- sion demands.

HOUSE-TO-HOUSE COLLECTIONS The return of the flag day season has again led to questions being1 asked about the rights of branches to organisehouse-to-house collections, particularly in those districts, fortunately few in number, where the Institution has not received the normal permission to or- ganise a street collection.

The Institution, like a number of other national charities, holds an Order of Exemption under the House-to- House Act of 1939. This order allows branches to carry out a house-to-house collection without having to apply for a licence to do so, but it is advisable for branches to notify the police or other appropriate authority of their intention to arrange such collections. In this way a clash with other collections can often be avoided. A badge and the certificate of authority must be carried by everyone taking part in a house-to- house collection.

INCREASING COSTS The Institution's total expenditure in 1954 was £784,471. This was an in- crease of as much as £68,230 on 1953.

The principal reason for the increase was the sum spent on the construction and repair of life-boats, which in 1954 was more than £40,000 greater than in 1953. The amount paid to life-boat crews and their relatives also increased by £7,000. In view of the general ten- dency for costs to rise, it is therefore all the more remarkable that the cost of administration has not only been kept well below 4 per cent of the cost of maintaining the Service, but was actually reduced by £287 in the past year.

On page 58 the Institution's balance sheet of a hundred years ago is shown.

From this it will be seen that the cost of running the Service in those days was only £3,672. New life-boats were pro- vided for £156 each, whereas today the cost of the largest life-boats is £36,500.

STORIES OF THE LIFE-BOATS New editions of Stories of the Life- boats have been produced for sale by station and financial branches. They include new series of accounts of some of the great life-boat services in the past eighty years. The English and Welsh edition includes the story of the wreck of the Indian Chief as told by a Daily Telegraph reporter in 1881; the story of the extraordinary launch which fol- lowed a thirteen-mile journey of the Lynmouth life-boat over Exmoor, when gateposts and walls had to be broken down and horses and men dragged the life-boat up 1,400 feet; the story of the first gold medal won by Henry Blogg; a number of the out- standing services in the last war; and the last dramatic rescue from H.M.S.

Warspite after the war. The Scottish edition consists mainly of accounts of services by Scottish life-boats, but it also includes such stories as that of the Lynmouth launch and the rescue from the Wai-spite..