IN the first quarter of 1961 exception- ally heavy demands were made on life- boat crews, as the figures for launches clearly reveal. The total number of launches on service in January, Febru- ary and March was 163. In the first three months of 1960 the figure was only 97, and even in 1959, which was the busiest year the life-boat service has ever known in time of peace, the figure was 118. 76 lives were rescued in the first quarter of 1961, compared with 29 in the first quarter of the year before.

An unusually large number of the services were to vessels registered in foreign countries. On 32 occasions life-boats put out to the help of foreign vessels. They rescued 9 lives from them, landed 71 people in all, saved 2 boats and in other ways rendered effective help to 17 vessels.

DEATH OF CHIEF INSPECTOR The sudden death of the Chief In- spector of Life-boats, Commander S. W. F. Bennetts, on the 1st of April, 1961, was a severe blow to the life-boat service as a whole and came as a pro- found shock to his many friends.

During his all-too-short tenure of the post of Chief Inspector he revealed many outstanding qualities and main- tained with marked distinction the great traditions of his office. Apart from being peculiarly well qualified on professional grounds, he was a man who had true wisdom and whose judgment was of constant benefit to the life-boat service. He had a splendid sense of humour, and a deep kindliness which those who knew him well came more and more to appreciate.

Although his loss will long be felt, the Institution is most fortunate in having as his successor Lieut.-Com- mander W. L. G. Dutton, who since 1958 served as the late Commander Bennetts' Deputy with distinction. He is, moreover, admirably fitted to fill the post because of his experience as an officer in the Merchant Navy and par- ticularly because of the intimate know- ledge he acquired of the workings of the life-boat service as a district inspector.

Lieut.-Commander Dutton joined the life-boat service in 1946 as Irish district inspector. He served as Western dis- trict inspector from 1954-1958. During the last war he was for five years in command of fleet mine-sweepers and was mentioned in despatches six times.

Before that he served for ten years in the Merchant Navy. He is a member of the Institute of Navigation and an associate of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects.

Commander D. G. Wicksteed, R.N.R., has been appointed by the Committee of Management Deputy Chief Inspector of Life-boats.

Commander Wicksteed joined the life-boat service in 1958 when he was appointed Northern District Inspector.

He served for eighteen years in the Merchant Navy, first with the Elder Dempster Steamship Company and later with the Cunard Steamship Com- pany. Shortly before joining the Life- boat Institution he was serving as Senior Second Officer of the s.s. Queen Elizabeth. In 1949 he obtained a com- mission in the Royal Naval Reserve and was promoted to Commander on 31st December, 1960.

An obituary notice of the late Chief Inspector appears on page 94.

BALTIC EXCHANGE LIFE-BOAT Those who have knowledge of the valuable help given to the life-boat service for so long by the members of the Baltic Exchange will be delighted to know that the name Baltic Exchange will once again be borne by a life-boat.

It has been agreed that a new 47-feet Watson boat, which is now in the early states of construction and will later be stationed at Salcombe in Devon, should bear this name. The necessary money has been contributed by members of the Baltic Exchange and it is hoped that their future contributions will meet the full cost of the maintenance of a life-boat at Salcombe. Three of the Institution's life-boats were provided by the Baltic Exchange in the past.

They were all stationed at Wells in Norfolk, where they served from 1888 to 1895, 1895 to 1913 and 1916 to 1936..