IN 1958, for the third year in succession, life-boats were launched on service more than 700 times. The total number of launches was 714, or two fewer than the figure for 1957. Before 1956 there were only two years in which lifeboats were called out on service more than 700 times. These were the wartime years of 1940 and 1941. In the period of peace between the two world wars of this century life-boats were never called out as many as 500 times in any single year. These facts are the indisputable proof of the huge increase in demands made on the life-boat service in modern times.

The category of vessels which gave rise to most calls for life-boats in 1958 was that of fishing boats of all types.

Launches to the help of these boats accounted for 22.7 % of the total number of launches. Vessels serving in the main the commerce of the country, the category defined as that of motor vessels, steamers, barges, motor boats, etc., gave rise to 148 calls (or 20.7% of the total). Yachts of different kinds formed the category making the third largest demand on life-boats, with 133 launches to their help (or 18.6% of the total).

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY An important anniversary in the history of the mechanisation of the life-boat service occurs in 1959, for it was on the 15th of April, 1909, that a flotilla of a kind which had never been seen before left from the London docks.

It consisted of three life-boats all bound for Scotland : one was a conventional sailing boat of the Watson type, but the other two were fitted with petrol engines and were the first life-boats designed and built from the outset as motor life-boats to go to their stations anywhere in Britain. For several years before 1909 the Institution had been experimenting with the fitting of petrol engines into existing life-boats. These experiments were exhaustive and thorough, for it was necessary to have engines which would be reliable enough to overcome the hazards and difficulties of life-boat service, and not until 1909 was a motor life-boat completed which satisfied the demands which the Institution made. The flotilla of three boats was received enthusiastically at its various ports of call, which included Harwich, Gorleston, Grimsby, Scarborough, Hartlepool, Tynemouth, Dundee, Aberdeen and Wick. The two motor life-boats were stationed at Stromness and Stronsay in the Orkneys.

The 1959 edition of The Story of the Life-boat consists of an account of the past fifty years in the life-boat service and the development of the mechanisation of the fleet. It also includes a number of stories of outstanding services by motor life-boats during the present century. There will be English, Scottish and Welsh editions, which will be available from branches or from Life-boatHouse,42,GrosvenorGardens, London,S.W.I. (l/6d.plus9d.postage).

INTERNATIONAL LIFE-BOAT CONFERENCE The Institution has accepted an invitation to take part in the eighth international life-boat conference, which is being held in Bremen in June 1959.

There have been three other international life-boat conferences since the end of the last war. They were held in Norway, Belgium and Portugal. The first of these conferences took place in London in 1924, the year in which the Institution celebrated the hundredth anniversary of its foundation.

VISIT BY FRENCH CHIEF INSPECTOR Captain Y. Durand-Gasselin, Chief Inspector of the French life-boat service, Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages, spent a week in England in January 1959. He had discussions with all the senior officials of the Institution in London and visited the life-boat stations at Scarborough, where he went afloat in the life-boat, and Clacton. He expressed particular interest in the new Oakley life-boat and the new types of tractor and carriage in use, and commented favourably on them all in a broadcast in the B.B.C.'s French service..