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 30th June, 1956 80,141 Notes of the Quarter WHEN the new Arbroath life-boat The Duke of Montrose reached her station on the 28th of June, 1956, the Institu- tion had replaced half its fleet of life-boats since the war ended in 1945.

The fleet consists of 175 boats, 156 at stations and 19 in reserve. The Ar- broath life-boat is the eighty-seventh to be built since the end of the war.

The cost of building these new life- boats has been approximately £1,750,000.

Thirty-one of the new life-boats have been of the 35-feet 6-inches Liverpool type; thirty of the 46-feet, 46-feet 9-inches and 47-feet Watson cabin class; eleven have been of the largest type, the 51-feet and 52-feet Barnett boats; ten have been of the 41-feet and 42-feet Watson cabin class; and five have been 35-feet 6-inches self-righters.

V.H.F. FITTED INTO LIFE-BOATS The Institution has decided to instal very high frequency radio-telephones into fifty life-boats in the immediate future. When the sets have been installed it will be possible for life-boat crews to communicate directly with pilots of helicopters and other search and rescue aircraft. At present com- munications have to pass through the G.P.O. coast station, coastguard and the aircraft's base.

After trials carried out over several months the Institution has selected a type of set which is manufactured by British Communications Corporation.

The sets will operate on a frequency of 138.78 megacycles, which is being used by the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force as a search and rescue, "scene of action", fre- quency.

The life-boat stations selected for the installation of the first fifty sets are all within range of existing heli- copter bases. They are the stations having boats of the 41-feet or larger classes extending along a line to the south, to the west and then to the north from Berwick-on-Tweed to Ap- pledore. Two 35-feet 6-inches life- boats at Flamborough and Skegness have also been included, and the sets will be fitted into five reserve boats.

INTERNATIONAL SERVICES The services of which accounts are given in the present number of The Life-boat reveal once again the inter- national nature of the Service and the extent to which the crews of ships registered overseas are helped by the Institution's life-boats. During the three months from April to June 1956 life-boats went out 28 times to the help of vessels of foreign countries.

The countries concerned were the Argentine, Belgium, Costa Rica, Den- mark, France, Germany, Italy, Li- beria, the Netherlands, Norway, Pana- ma and Sweden.

As will be seen from the accounts given on pages 292-3, of the first six services in the month of May four were to foreign vessels. The Dungeness and Dover life-boats put out to a Nor- wegian ship which had been in a collision on the 3rd of May; the Fenit and Valentia life-boats went out twice on the 3rd of May to search for the crew of a French fishing boat, six of whom unfortunately lost their lives.

The Ramsgate life-boat went out to the help of a Panamanian tanker which had been in a collision on the 8th of May, and the Eastbourne life- boat stood by a German vessel which had gone ashore on the 9th of May.

RECITAL AT THE ALBERT HALL The famous Polish pianist Witold Malcuzynski is to give a piano recital at the Royal Albert Hall on the 12th of November, 1956, the whole pro- ceeds being given to the Institution's funds. H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, President of the Institution, has agreed to be present on this occasion. The recital is the only one which Mr.

Malcuzynski proposes to give in Lon- don during the coming winter season.

Tickets (7/6, 10/6, 12/6, £1-1-0} may be obtained from Life-boat House, the Royal Albert Hall or the usual agencies from the 1st of October..