A NUMBER of important developments took pJace during the late summer of 1963 in the process, which is a con- tinuous and unending one, of moderniz- ing and improving the life-boat fleet.

A decision was taken to install ultra high frequency radio telephones in all life- boats. At the same time it was decided to install very high frequency (frequency modulation) equipment in a number of life-boats for direct ship-to-shore com- munications with certain coastguard and port control stations. Details of these new methods of communication and their advantages are given in an article on page 557.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS At the meeting of the Committee of Management at which these decisions were taken it was also decided to adapt the life-boat stations at Kirkcudbright, Seaham and St. Abbs to allow new life-boats of the 37-foot type to be placed there, and to equip the life-boats at Bembridge, Hartlepool, Montrose and Peterhead with new and more powerful diesel engines.

The process of modernization is not only unending but also inevitably ex- pensive. The new U.H.F. and V.H.F.

(P.M.) sets will be installed on a hire maintenance basis at an annual rental of about £15,000. The structural work on the three stations will cost more than £11,000, and the new engines will cost more than £8,000.

The experiment which was first tried out in the summer of 1963 of placing fast inshore rescue boats at a number of selected points on the coast was un- questionably successful, and the Institu- tion has decided to provide up to 25 of these boats next summer. There is little doubt that they will serve a valuable pur- pose in reducing the number of casual- ties which occur at sea in the summer months. The experiences of 1963 have once again shown that the calls on the life-saving services during the summer are remarkably - it might even be said alarmingly - high. From the beginning of May until the end of September, for example, life-boats were launched on service no fewer than 467 times. They rescued 215 lives.

Evidence of the success of the inshore rescue scheme is also provided by fig- ures. In 1962 the number of rescues or attempted rescues by shore boats which were brought to the Institution's notice in the summer months was 98, the num- ber of lives rescued being 133. In 1963 the Institution learnt of no fewer than 226 rescues or attempted rescues, as a result of which 225 lives were saved.

The value of inshore rescue boats during the winter months is a question which is being investigated by a series of empirical tests. The Institution has chosen three points at which to station these boats during the winter months of 1963-64 in order that they may be tried out in a variety of testing conditions.

The three places selected are the life- boat station at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, the Outward Bound Sea School at Aberdovey, and Atlantic College, St. Donat's Castle, Llantwit Major, Glamorganshire. The results of these trials are likely to be instructive.

NORWEGIAN AWARD A pleasant ceremony took place at Bodo in Norway, which again illustrated the close co-operation between the life- boat services of different countries and the respect and admiration felt for the crews of life-boats all over the world.

At the Annual General Meeting of the Norwegian Life-boat Institution, which was held on 13th/14th September, Coxswain Hubert Petit of St. Peter Port, Guernsey, received the Norwegian Insti- tution's gold medal for outstanding seamanship and bravery. The award was made for the service in which the St. Peter Port life-boat rescued nine men from the Norwegian motor vessel Johan Collett on the night of 5th/6th February this year. The Norwegian Institution's silver cup with diploma was also awarded to Motor Mechanic E. C.

Pattimore and to another member of the crew, John Petit.

Coxswain Petit's medal was presented by the President of the Norwegian Life- boat Institution, Commodore Olaf Bjornstad. It was only the third gold medal to be awarded and the first for a life-saving service. The other two gold medals were awarded to the King of Norway and the Secretary of the Nor- wegian Life-boat Institution.

THE INSTITUTION'S FLAG A schoolmaster from the Faroe Islands, Mr. Alex Solstein, who hap- pened to be passing through Grosvenor Gardens, was struck by the similarity of the design of the R.N.L.I. flag, which is flown outside the headquarters, and the Faroe Islands flag. He therefore called to make enquiries about the origin of the Institution's flag.

The information for which he asked was not immediately available from the Institution's records, but we are in- debted to Mr. I. O. Evans, an historian of the life-boat service who is also an expert on the history of flags. From him it has been learnt that the Institution's flag was designed about 1884 by Miss Leonora Preston, a sister of a member of the Committee of Management. It has been known as the "house flag" since 1908, and from 1920 onwards it has been the custom to have it painted on the bows of all life-boats.

LIFE-BOAT LIMERICK The Encyclopaedia Britannica quotes the following as an example of a well known limerick: "The life-boat that's kept at Torquay Is intended to float in the suay: The crew and the coxswain Are sturdy as oxswain, And as smart and as brave as can buay." An enquiry made through the cor- respondence columns of the "Daily Telegraph" was answered by Mr. P. V.

Mataraly, of Lansdown, Bath, who states that the limerick appears in Langford Reed's Complete Limerick Book published in 1925. The author is stated to be A. P. Trotter..