ALTHOUGH the French were the first to experiment, as early as 1775, with an 'unsinkable and uncapsizable skiff' (canot insubmersible et inchavirable), they did not develop an organized life-boat service until much later.

Several local rescue-stations had been established by chambers of commerce and other bodies, the earliest having been founded by the Societe Humaine de Boulogne in 1825. In 1854, moreover, a famous marine-artist, M. Th. Gudin, was led by the death in a shipwreck of his brother, who might have been saved had the simplest life-saving apparatus been available, to attempt to put this work on a national basis, but his efforts were unsuccessful.

SAME PROBLEMS At last, in 1861, the Department of Public Works, responsible for the lighting and buoying of the French coast, realized the need for a national life-boat service. After investigating the whole problem, an inter-departmental committee decided that such a service was essential, and that it could best be undertaken by a private society recognized and supported by the government. Across the English Channel was an example to follow, our own Royal National Life-boat Institution; and on both sides of the Channel the problems to be solved were similar.

M. Gudin was only too glad to resume his work under the new auspices, and with other public-spirited people he laid the foundation, in 1864, of the Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages. Its president, a high-rankingnaval officer whose name carried weight, at once circulated the members of the existing life-boat crews, praising their devotion and assuring them of the material help which they had hitherto lacked.

Further investigations into the facilities for live-saving along the French coast showed that apart from seven life-boat stations and a certain amount of rescue apparatus, there was very little. Some so-called 'life-boats' had rotted at their moorings without ever being used; because of the lack of proper maintenance and frequent inspections the crews had dispersed and the equipment had deteriorated. Steps were taken to rectify this.

BRITISH INFLUENCE A commission set up to experiment with various patterns of life-boats decided that the British 'self-righting' type was most suitable. This was accord- ingly adopted, and between 1865, when the Societe began its work, and 1933 over a hundred 'pullers and sailors' were on station along the coasts of con- tinental France, Corsica, and French North Africa. Other types of life-saving apparatus - rockets and so forth - were entrusted to the coastguards. Special problems arose on the shores of such almost-uninhabited regions as the Camargue (the Rhone delta) and the Gironde estuary; these were dealt with successfully.

A Manuel de Sauvetage Maritime was compiled and the issue was begun of the periodical Annales de Sauvetage Maritime. In 1880 the Societe de secours aux families des marins francais naufrages was founded; and later awards and medals began to be issued for acts of outstanding courage and devotion.

The Societe de Sauvetage was somewhat cautious in adopting mechanization, and it was not until 1912 that its first motor life-boat was put into service at Dieppe. In spite of the disorganization caused by the first world war, by 1939 45 of these craft had been constructed.

Far more disastrous were the results of the second world war and the occupa- tion; 32 life-boats were destroyed and many others damaged, and the very existence of the Society seemed to be threatened. Yet its leaders were un- dismayed and when peace was restored they devoted themselves to bringing the service up to date.

A GREAT RECORD So well did they accomplish their task that by the end of 1965, when it celebrated its centenary, the Society had in service 56 motor life-boats, one swift motor-launch, and seven motorized rubber dinghies for rescue work on the bathing beaches as well as 34 sets of rocket-launching apparatus. During its first hundred years the service had gone to the help of over 3,000 vessels and had saved over 25,000 human lives - I.O.E..