— Annual Meeting Report APACKED Central Hall, Westminster, heard Captain the Hon. V. M.

Wyndham-Quin, R.N., Chairman of the Committee of Management, report on 20th April, 1966, that never had the life-boat service, in all its long history, had such a busy year. Its life-boats and IRBs, in all weather conditions, had snatched from death no fewer than 777 people.

Captain Wyndham-Quin said: "My first task today is the very gratifying one of reporting to you on a year of exceptional achievement by the life-boat service.

Never before were life-boats as busy as they were in 1965. Never before, I think it is safe to say, were so many important new developments in the design and construction of our life-boats taking place simultaneously.

"The true measure of the success of the service is, of course, the number of lives saved. In 1965 our life-boats and inshore rescue boats saved the lives of no fewer than 777 people—that is to say 252 more than in the preceding year. I am particularly happy to be able to report that all this was achieved without the loss of a single member of our crews on service (applause).

"I must, however, report to you with sorrow a sad accident which occurred on 13th January when the Barry Dock coxswain, Frederick Swarts, fell on to the concrete floor of the boathouse. He died nine days later without regaining consciousness —a great loss to the service.

ALL-TIME RECORD "I do not propose to weary you with a lot of figures. But I must tell you that the total number of calls made on our crews last year was no fewer than 1,500.

In 1964 an all-time record for calls on service had been established. Yet last year there was an increase of very nearly 30 per cent on this record.

"The achievements of our life-boat crews have, as always, been of a very high order, and I would like also to call your attention to the splendid support they are now receiving from the crews of our inflatable inshore rescue boats. It was nearly three years ago that we introduced these new fast, inflatable craft as an experiment. The experiment has been a great success.

"Last year inshore rescue boats saved the lives of no fewer than 215 people.

These new boats tend, naturally, to attract young men as crew members. This in itself is a good thing, and we can now say with confidence that not only are the inshore rescue boats a valuable complement to the conventional life-boats but that their crews are maintaining in the highest way the great traditions of our voluntary life-boat service.

"We are also much indebted to many small boat owners who have enrolled themselves in an emergency service which works in conjunction with H.M.

Coastguard.

"We have every reason to feel proud of the achievements of the life-boat service last year, and we are making preparations for the future to ensure continued success. Some of you may have seen a new type of life-boat which was berthed alongside Tower Pier last month. This was a steel life-boat of the yo-foot class, the second boat of this class to be completed. The first of the yo-foot steel life-boats has been carrying out operational trials for some time and these trials have shown her to be a very fine vessel.

SIX BEING BUILT "Another life-boat built in steel was also to be seen in the River Thames last month. This was the prototype of the new class of 44-foot steel life-boats which we are now introducing. Six of these life-boats are at present under construction at Lowestoft in Suffolk, and one of them, which will later be stationed at Dun Laoghaire in County Dublin, is to bear the name 'John F. Kennedy', the late President of the United States. This, I am sure you will agree, was a very happy decision. The original design of this type of life-boat was very kindly made available to us by the United States Coast Guard.

"Important advances have been and are being made in communications and in navigational equipment. This is not the occasion for a technical report, but it may give you some idea of what goes to fitting out a modern life-boat when I tell you that the yo-foot boats have comprehensive and complete installations of electronic and modern navigational equipment.

"As you will have gathered, we are now going in for steel construction for a number of our life-boats. This does not mean that we have abandoned the use of wood for certain classes of boat. For instance, the excellent 3y-foot Oakley lifeboat, which is normally launched off an open beach, will continue to be of wooden construction, and last year we ordered 10 more of these boats for delivery over the next five years. Our policy can, therefore, be summarized by saying that while we consider wood the best material for certain types of life-boat we are fully satisfied that for others steel is in every way a suitable material.

HOVERCRAFT INVESTIGATION "Looking further ahead we are now investigating the possible uses of hovercraft for life-saving purposes. No decision in this matter has yet been taken, for we still have a good deal to learn, but we are keeping abreast of the latest developments in this comparatively new type of craft.

"The year 1965 was, as I have said, a period of record achievements, and yet one other record was established, the consequence of which we shall have to face.

This, as you may have guessed, was a record figure for expenditure. Last year, for the first time, the cost of the life-boat service exceeded a million-and-a-half pounds. This is a huge sum, and it is, of course, necessary every year that our expenditure should be matched by receipts, for contrary to the sometimes mistaken view of a few people our reserves are by no means large. In fact, our uncommitted reserves—that is to say money not yet allocated for particular purposes—amount now to less than half a year's probable expenditure.

"Last year we did succeed in getting in slightly more than we spent. That this was done is a tribute to the splendid efforts of our voluntary workers, so many of whom I am happy to see in this hall today." PRESIDENT THANKED At this stage of the meeting Captain Wyndham-Quin paid tribute to the presence of H.R.H. Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, who is President of the Institution. He said that in all their efforts and all their successes they were fortunate in the inspiration they received from their president. On behalf of everyone connected with the life-boat service he extended the warmest welcome to Her Royal Highness.

"I am also happy and honoured," Captain Wyndham-Quin said, "to welcome our guest speaker, Admiral Sir Wilfrid Woods. Sir Wilfrid had an exceptionally distinguished career in the Royal Navy, serving, among other posts, as Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, N.A.T.O. Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Atlantic, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, and Allied Commander-in-Chief, Channel. We look forward to hearing his address this afternoon." The report and accounts for 1965 were adopted unanimously. Then followed the election of officers, including new members of the Committee of Management (see p. 80).

Princess Marina, in her presidential address, said: "Thank you, for your very kind welcome this afternoon. It is my pleasure and privilege to congratulate everyone connected with the life-boat service on the wonderful results which we have just heard. Over the last year very great demands were made on the crews of our life-boats and inshore rescue boats.

They responded in the manner we have come to expect, and they received splendid support from people in all parts of the country in a variety of ways.

It is particularly remarkable to hear of the success of the inshore rescue boats which give such valuable experience to many younger men who might not otherwise be a part of the life-boat service.

"I shall shortly be presenting medals and other awards for gallantry and in addition to those members of the life-boat crews who are to receive medals, the skipper of a Scottish fishing vessel, Mr. Ian Innes, and a 12 year old boy, Ian Gillies, will also be receiving awards. The work of rescue can be the responsibility of everyone who puts to sea, and support for the life-boat service in many ways is the privilege of everyone in the country.

CIVIL SERVICE LIFE-BOAT FUND "In expressing thanks to all who help the service, I feel I would like to single out this year the achievements of one particular group.

"In the year 1866 a special fund was opened by a number of civil servants which became known as the Civil Service Life-boat Fund. This year the Fund celebrates its hundredth anniversary. In the course of these one hundred years the voluntary gifts of civil servants have produced no fewer than 35 life-boats, and in a fortnight's time it will be a great pleasure to me to name the thirty-fifth of these boats, the first of the yo-foot life-boats to which our Chairman has already referred. I feel sure everyone will agree that the help given to the life-boat service by the civil servants has been truly wonderful.

"Our Chairman spoke of the happy choice of the name of the new Dun Laoghaire life-boat, and this is I think an example of the splendid international brotherhood displayed within the life-boat service. In this country we first became familiar with this type of boat at the highly successful International Life-boat Conference held in Edinburgh in 1963, and exchanges with other countries are continually being strengthened.

"Last year the gold medal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution was conferred on both the French and German Life-boat Societies on the occasion of their centenaries, and recently a number of delegations from the Netherlands, from France, and from Spain have come over here to look at our boats and to discuss topics of mutual interest. The co-operation of life-boat services between nations is an indication of what can be done to strengthen the cause of peace.

PERIOD OF EXPANSION "As our Chairman has said, the past year was one of great success, and the present is a period of exciting expansion and development. That this is so is greatly due to the enthusiasm and devotion of voluntary workers in all parts of the life-boat service." Her Royal Highness then presented awards for gallantry to: Coxswain Gordon Elliott, of Padstow, the silver medal for gallantry for the rescue of two men from the fishing vessel Deo Gratias on 23rd November, 1965.

Crew member Donald Laker, of the Weymouth life-boat, who went overboard to swim to a yacht with a line, the bronze medal for gallantry. Mr. Laker also received the Maud Smith award—an annual one made under the terms of a will—for the bravest act of life-saving undertaken by a life-boatman in 1965.

Skipper Ian Innes, of Helmsdale, Sutherland, whose gallantry resulted in the rescue of three other fishermen, the bronze medal for gallantry.

Ian Gillies, a twelve year old boy from Gourock, an inscribed wrist watch for an act of exceptional gallantry. As a result of his action the lives of two boys were saved.

GUEST SPEAKER Admiral Sir Wilfrid Woods said: "I am very greatly honoured to be invited to address you this afternoon and, indeed, I am much encouraged by the Chairman's assurance that you are looking forward to hearing what I have to say. I hope he is right because I have been looking forward to this afternoon with a certain amount of trepidation, and the reason is that I have been invited to join the Committee of Management of the Institution and so I have felt that this was very much in the nature of an n-plus for me, and that I was very much in your hands and in preparation I have been doing some homework.

"I was especially struck by almost the first thing I read and it refers to a point which our President has already referred to in her speech. On the inside of the front cover of the pictorial story of the life-boat service is an account of the famous rescue of nine people by Grace Darling and her father off the coast of Northumberland, and the account ends with these words: "Rescue at sea cannot be the monopoly of any one organization. It is the responsibility of everybody." "PARAMOUNT DUTY" It is, of course, true that everybody who goes to sea is automatically in the life-saving business. Ever since men have been to sea it has been accepted by all that helping others in distress is a paramount duty, and on the high seas, until the advent of long-range aircraft, it has been a job which only ocean going ships could do. Now, in coastal and inshore waters, of course, the story is very different.

The closer inshore you get, the less an ocean going ship can do and the greater therefore the need for specialized life-saving craft and equipment operated by properly trained crews.

"I need not elaborate that to this audience, for you will all be aware this is where the splendid boats and men of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, backed by the financial, administrative and operational organizations of this Institution, come in, and, of course, many kindred organizations in many other countries.

"This is by no means the end of the story of the involvement of everyone, as I was constantly reminded during my time as Commander-in-Chief atPortsmouth.

The sea area for which I was then responsible, broadly, the Channel west of Portland and the Southern North Sea, is comparatively small. It is narrow and it is mostly shallow, but it contains about the heaviest density of shipping of all sorts anywhere in the world.

A GREAT MIXTURE "On any day in the summer, at any rate, you will find afloat in that area pretty well everything in the nautical spectrum—people fishing from small boats, water skiers, motor and sailing yachts of every size, shape and description, in their hundreds; hovercraft, hydrofoils, ferries, coasters, ocean going cargo ships, tankers, Her Majesty's ships including submarines complicating things by firing of guns and torpedoes and even, I assure you, aircraft carriers operating aircraft. Last, but not least, large passenger liners including the Queens. And hardly a day passes without an alarm of some sort resulting from this conglomeration of ships and craft.

"The Chairman mentioned that there have been more calls than ever this year, but in fact, I am always surprised that there are not more still. All the same, when a call did come, even if it turned out to be a false alarm, it involved a remarkable number of people, and I can best illustrate this point by describing, briefly, an exercise—in fact, one of a series—held in the Solent last summer primarily to exercise co-ordination between the Southampton Harbour Board, who are, broadly speaking, responsible for Southampton water and the West Solent and Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, who is responsible for the eastward of this area, and many other authorities concerned.

"This exercise started with a simulated collision in the West Solent between a tanker and a passenger liner. These were represented by actual ships, but I am glad to say there was not an actual collision. As a result, the passenger liner caught fire and had to be abandoned and the tanker was badly damaged and poured hundreds of tons of oil into the sea. To make matters worse, the oil for exercise purposes caught fire. Whether or not this would really be likely to happen is very much open to argument and, in fact, was very hotly argued. But there is no doubt at all that it added greatly to the value of the exercise. As a matter of fact, on the day concerned it was raining so hard that I do not think anything could have burned, but that is by the way. It was really extremely impressive to see the way the whole rescue organization swung into action. I will not attempt to describe the whole thing, but a short summary of what was required will give you the idea.

VAST SWARM OF BOATS "To start with, the collision course was carefully staged so that it was out of sight of any established coastguard station or signal station; so the ships concerned themselves passed the alarm in the first instance and this was relayed by the coastguards, by the Admiralty and the Lloyd's signal stations. Then the Calshot control station operated by the Southampton harbour board came into the picture by keeping other ships clear of the scene and by directing to the scene the vast swarm of boats which very quickly arrived to pick up survivors.

These included inshore rescue boats, hovercraft, helicopters from both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force and tugs, some of which were actually under way in the area.

"Then the salvage tugs sailed from both Portsmouth and Southampton and fire brigades and ambulances in the area were alerted. They, with supplies of detergent to break up the oil, were rushed to Portsmouth and Southampton and so, with tugs, to the scene. The Navy always has one frigate at half an hour's notice in the Channel as an emergency ship and usually a coastal minesweeper as well. In this particular instance these ships happened to be at sea already and they were immediately diverted to the scene to take charge and to do what they could.

"Ashore the police and civil defence authorities were alerted to set up reception centres and casualty clearing stations in Southampton Docks. Ambulances and buses were collected at landing points. The hospitals were alerted to prepare emergency wards, an information bureau was set up in the police headquarters in Southampton and there was probably a great deal more which now escapes my memory.

"This was no paper exercise. It all actually happened, including the landing of a very large number of most realistically shocked, burned and injured survivors very expertly played by the civil defence volunteers. So it was, within the confines of an exercise, a very realistic business, and you can imagine the amount of signalling, telephoning and so on involved in an operation of this nature. The point I really want to emphasize is that none of it could have happened if every man and woman taking part—and they were very largely volunteers—had not previously been very carefully trained in their jobs so that they knew just what to do when the call came.

"Mistakes were made, of course, and weak points were found both in the organization and training, but this was one of the aims of the exercise. All the same, it was very heartening to those responsible to see how well it all worked and also, although I am sure they do not often think of it, it is very reassuring to those at sea to know even subconsciously that such an organization and readiness to help exists.

TROUBLE IN CHANNEL "I do not know how many of you have ever needed, or even thought you might need the services of Life-boats. I have, twice. Both incidents, oddly enough, occurred in the Channel. The first was when I was a midshipman and I was dropped overboard into a cold, rough January sea while manning my sea boat. I was very quickly picked up by my own boat, but all the same I found I had plenty of time while surfacing and then floating about the stern of my ship to reflect on the situation in which I had so unexpectedly arrived. I might add that I was in fact exonerated from all blame for this episode. Nevertheless, I had my meals stopped for a week to prevent my head from swelling! "The second time was very many years later when I was sailing back from France in a yacht to Portsmouth. There was a rising gale and darkness was coming on. We had just sighted the gleam from St. Catherine's light. Everything seemed well under control and we were congratulating ourselves that in a few hours we would be in sheltered water, but at that point there was a loud bang and in seconds the picture changed to one of real trouble. Due to the failure of one piece of metal our forestay had gone and we were in imminent danger of being dismasted. In fact, we managed to avoid this disaster and we were able to run before the wind all night and made Newhaven safely in the morning.

"Once again, there was plenty of time for reflection and we were very much comforted, I remember, by the certain knowledge that help would be forthcoming if we needed it, provided we could give the alarm.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that in this audience I am preaching to the converted, but I make no apology for repeating what you all know to be true and what so many people seem to be forgetting today, and that is that we are still a maritime nation. We depend on the sea. Most of our raw materials come by sea; most of the exports we make from them go by sea; so much of our food is won from the sea by our fishermen. This is still true despite all the aeroplanes and rockets and the satellites which have been put in orbit. It will, I suggest, remain true for a long time to come, and for as long as it is true we shall need seamen and as long as we have seamen we must look after them.

"The Royal National Life-boat Institution makes a vital contribution to this work and it is difficult to over-estimate the value of the magnificent services rendered by the life-boat coxswains and crews, some examples of which you have heard this afternoon. Their skill, devotion, courage and perseverance are legendary and there is nothing I can say to add lustre to their record. I would only remark that the standards of the courage and seamanship of today's crews are such that I am certain that their forerunners must look down on them with pride and admiration.

"Supporting and sustaining these men is the truly astonishing organization of this Institution which, under your gracious and enthusiastic presidency, Ma'am, spreads throughout the country, and, by voluntary effort alone, ensures that the crews are provided with only the best in boats and equipment and so ensures a service which is without rival in the world. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I propose that this meeting, fully recognizing the important services of the Royal National Life-boat Institution in its national work of life-saving, desires to record its hearty appreciation of the gallantry of the coxswains and crews of the Institution's life-boats, and its deep obligation to the local committees, honorary secretaries, and honorary treasurers of all station branches, and to the honorary officers and thousands of voluntary members of the financial branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild in the work of raising funds to maintain the service." VOTE OF THANKS After the presentation of awards by Princess Marina, Vice-Admiral Sir Geoffrey Robson, K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O., D.S.C., proposed a vote of thanks.

Sir Geoffrey said: "I think I have probably got the pleasantest task this afternoon in proposing a vote of thanks to Her Royal Highness, our President. We all know what a tremendous lot she does for the service in every way. You have only got to read the annual report to see something of it, but, of course, that does not tell half the story.

"It says nothing of the tremendous personal interest which you, Ma'am, take in the service and all to do with it. It says nothing of the affection in which our President is held all round the coast, wherever she goes and wherever there is anything to do with life-boats (applause).

"I believe Her Royal Highness has visited practically every life-boat station in the country where she never does a stereotyped job. As well as talking to the life-boat crews, she always goes out of her way to make sure their wives are taken care of, and also the ladies—I am afraid they are in the majority—and the occasional gentleman who do a lot behind the scenes in a small way. It is for that sort of thing that we thank Her Royal Highness. This is a great day in the calendar of the Life-boat Institution." Major-General Ralph H. Farrant, C.B., seconded the vote of thanks..