Mr. John Fisher has had the interesting idea of assembling in Storms (Adlard Coles, 15/-) accounts of some of the greatest storms in history. They include the great gales of 1703, when 8,000 men and women were reported to have been drowned at sea round the coasts of Britain ; the storm which destroyed many of the prize ships after the battle of Trafalgar ; a hurricane which Robert Louis Stevenson witnessed in Samoa ; and the typhoon which struck the United States Third Fleet near the Philippine Islands in 1944. Among the accounts of the parts played by life-boats are descriptions of the famous journey of the Lynmouth life-boat over Exmoor in 1899 and the rescue by the Ballycotton life-boat of the crew of the Daunt Rock lightvessel in 1936. The stories of the happenings in these great storms are admirably told in every case.

ACCOUNTS OF RECENT RESCUES Mr. Robert Rodrigo in Search and Rescue (William Kimberley, 21/-) confines himself to accounts of comparatively recent rescues, most of them by aircraft. Three of the rescues recorded occurred in 1956, by helicopter from the tug Rumania, by the Torbay life-boat in the case of two children who drifted out in a dinghy from Dawlish, and by helicopter again from the Norwegian ship Dovrefjell.

As one reads Mr. Rodrigo's accounts one begins to fear that sooner or later every mission of rescue will be described as " one hell of a job," and it is perhaps a pity that at one point he states : " This book sets out to portray Search and Rescue in all its forms and to demonstrate the parts played by the various organisations which have become integrated with it." This gives a misleading impression of a book which does in fact consist of a series of colourful accounts of a few individual exploits.

Ship Salvage by Captain G. Wheeler (George Phillip, 15/-) gives a thorough account of many of the problems of salvage work at sea and describes methods commonly in use. Much of the book is based on the author's personal experiences both in peace and war, and from these a picture emerges of the wide range of knowledge and experience which the successful salvage officer needs.

PRACTICAL HANDBOOKS The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation has issued Part III (Distress and Rescue at Sea—Ships and Aircraft) of its book on merchant shipping notices. This gives in only twentyseven pages an admirable resume of what various organisations concerned with rescue at sea—coast radio stations, H.M. Coastguard, the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, air traffic control centres, and Lloyds, as well as the Royal National Life-boat Institution,—• are called upon to do when a vessel is in distress. As a practical handbook this could hardly be improved. Copies of the booklet are available to masters of all classes of ships from Mercantile Marine offices and Customs Houses.

They have been issued by the Institution to district inspectors. P.H.

In his third edition of Life-boats and Their Conversion (H. F. and G.

Witherby, 30/-) Mr. C. E. Tyrrell Lewis has carried out a certain amount of revision necessitated by changing conditions and post-war experience. The result is a severely practical hand-book which offers no short cuts or cheap methods of acquiring a beautiful vessel.

The author states quite bluntly that those who have the money to buy a yacht hull in the first place should do so and not waste time and money on a conversion which will never have a second-hand value comparable with the energy and money put into it. But for the man who is determined to be master of his own vessel at the minimum cost, even if it involves the maximum effort, this is the book. It is clear, concise and except in one or two minor instances, hard to fault.

The chapter on shore-based lifeboats, which makes clear the wide divergence in design and construction between these sturdy vessels and ship's boats, has entailed considerable research, though some of the conclusions drawn, particularly with reference to surf boats, may not obtain the support of all those who go out in life-boats.

E.W.M..