That the life-boat service is busier every year is now becoming a clearly established fact, and it received further confirmation in the first six months of the present year. In 1965 an all-time record for launches was established, yet there was a marked increase in the number of launches in the first six months of 1966 in comparison with last year. The total figure for launches by life-boats and inshore rescue boats during this period was 670 compared with 527 in 1965.

The number of calls on life-boats did not change substantially, but there were over twice as many launches by inshore rescue boats, the figure being 225 compared with 112 for the first six months of 1965. With a 50 per cent increase in the number of IRBs in service some increase was to be expected, but an increase of over loo per cent is a formidable one.

RESCUES FROM RIGS A new type of structure, which is now beginning to be familiar near the coasts of parts of Britain, is creating a new form of hazard at sea. This is the boring rig. The number of these in the North Sea is growing steadily with the intensification of the search for gas. Life-boats have been called out on a number of occasions on receiving distress messages concerning rigs, and when Sea Gem capsized in December, 1965 (THE LIFE-BOAT, June, 1966), four lifeboats spent over 100 hours searching for survivors.

These rigs present peculiar problems to rescue services, and in order to assess some of the difficulties the first of the Institution's 7o-foot steel life-boats carried out a reconnaissance in the North Sea shortly after she had been formally named.

She left Gorleston early in the morning on nth May and continued the reconnaissance until 17th May. Lieut.-Commander H. F. Teare, R.N.R., Assistant District Inspector, Western, was in command. His report has been carefully studied by the Committee of Management, together with an interesting film, which was made by a B.B.C. cameraman who was aboard at the time. The film has been shown on television. Pictures of oil rigs appear on pages 162 and 163.

A successful rescue has already been carried out from a rig, for on 5th June the Blackpool life-boat took seven men off a drilling rig, which was in danger of capsizing a few hundred yards south of the central pier. It was a difficult operation, and in taking the men off the life-boat's rudder was damaged. A full account of the service will appear in the December number of THE LIFE-BOAT.

NORWEGIAN VISIT The first of the 70-foot life-boats put out from Gorleston on another occasion in May. This was to greet the Norwegian rescue cruiser Ambassador Bay, which was paying a visit to Britain from 2Oth to 22nd May. The Gorleston life-boat and IRB and the Lowestoft life-boat also met the fine Norwegian vessel. A deputy chairman of the Institution, Commander F. R. H. Swann, O.B.E., R.N.V.R., was on board the 7O-foot boat.

The Norwegian delegation visited the Brook Marine yard at Lowestoft to inspect the 44-foot steel life-boats under construction, and in the course of their visit they were entertained by the coxswain and crew of the Gorleston life-boat, by the branch committee, by the Mayor of Great Yarmouth and by Sir Patrick and Lady Benn, who is herself Norwegian.

Captain Olaf Bjornstad, the Secretary General of the Norwegian Life-boat Society, impressed everyone present by the grace and wit of the speeches he made in English on all the various social occasions. When the Norwegian lifeboat returned he went to Littlehampton to inspect the 44-foot steel life-boat which the Institution obtained from the United States Coast Guard. He expressed particular interest in what he saw of the construction of conventional life-boats at Littlehampton.

CLOSING OF GROWER No. 2 STATION The Institution has decided to close the No. 2 life-boat station at Cromer, but the decision will not be put into effect until repairs to the slipway, which are likely to last some months, have been completed. Cromer is the last station in the country to have two life-boats. The original reason for having a second boat was that if the No. i boat could not be rehoused because of weather conditions she might have to put into Gorleston, where she would not be available for duty off Cromer.

The present Cromer No. i life-boat Henry Blogg is to be replaced shortly by a new 48-foot 6-inch life-boat of the self-righting Oakley type fitted with radar. Capsizing trials of this life-boat were carried out at Portsmouth in June and a picture appears on p. 154.

NEW HISTORICAL FILM Another excellent new film has been made about the life-boat service. It is entitled simply 'Lifeboat' and was made by the Perkins Engine Group at Peterborough, who have presented it to the Institution as a tribute to the work of the R.N.L.I. and the courage of its crews.

The film, which runs for 19 minutes, is in colour and 16 mm. It tells something of the history of the Institution and of attempts to improve methods of saving life at sea since 1771. Through the use of models, paintings and reconstructed scenes the efforts of Sir William Hillary, Grace Darling, James Beeching, the fourth Duke of Northumberland and others are portrayed. Scenes were shot at Bamburgh Castle, at Douglas, in the Fame Islands and off the Goodwin Sands. The opening and final sequences were shot at the Seaham life-boat station.

SCOTTISH TELEVISION APPEAL, 1966 On Sunday, 20th March, 1966, Mr. Angus Mac Vicar, the author of a number of works on life-boats and a well known figure on Scottish Television, made an appeal in the B.B.C. Scottish television service on behalf of the Institution.

Those who responded to the appeal contributed in all just over £608..