With his series of books telling the stories of different life-boat stations Grahame Farr is making a unique contribution to the history of the life-boat service. Wreck and Rescue in the Bristol Channel (Part II): The Story of the Welsh Life-boats (E . Bradford Barton Ltd., Truro, 30s.) is the fifth of his books to appear in this series. In earlier books he has told the stories of life-boat stations in Cornwall and North Devon. Mr. Farr has in preparation further histories of life-boat stations in South Devon and in Dorset.

His high standard of accuracy and the excellent quality of his writing are fully maintained in this new work, which gives the histories of stations which have at one time or another been in existence at Penarth, Barry Dock, Atlantic College, Porthcawl, Port Talbot, Swansea and the Mumbles, Port Eynon, Llanelli, Pembrey and Burry Port, Laughrane and Ferryside, Tenby, and Angle.

INSPIRING STORIES Many inspiring stories of life-boat rescues are told. One such was carried out by the Barry Dock life-boat in 1935. In Mr. Farr's words, 'the two miles journey along the coast in the teeth of the gale with the life-boat, according to observers, more often submerged than visible, took twenty-five minutes. They found the Goeland almost on her beam ends, surrounded by ribbons of sail and ropes.

'Having no time whatever to manoeuvre to leeward the acting coxswain boldly went in to windward with a grave risk of fouling his propeller with the drifting cordage. One man aboard the schooner jumped too soon, missed the life-boat, and became entangled in the wreckage. The life-boat quickly changed course, picked the man up and then drove forward to the front quarter of the schooner where five men were ready to slide down ropes into the life-boat.' Another remarkable story emerges from the records of the Angle station.

This took place in 1894 when a large iron full-rigged ship bound from Adelaide and Melbourne went aground on Thorn Island. A number of her crew landed on the island where the life-boat crew saw them waving to attract attention.

Their position was inaccessible from the sea, and the honorary secretary of the station, Colonel Mirehouse, landed with two members of the life-boat crew.

With ropes and a lantern they scrambled up to a point where a narrow path, which was little more than a ledge on the edge of the cliff, encircled the island.

'They crawled along in pitch darkness, feeling their way past places where the path had eroded to little more than a foot wide, with a considerable drop on the seaward side, until they came to the place above the indentation in which the survivors were huddling. Lowering the ropes, in a long and patient operation they hauled up 27 people, one a lady passenger, very weak and exhausted.' MUMBLES Of all the life-boat stations in South Wales none has suffered more tragically from disasters than that of the Mumbles. Mr. Farr movingly recalls the most recent Mumbles disaster when the whole crew were lost when trying to go to the help of the Samtampa in 1947. Disasters also occurred in 1883 and 1903, and one man, Thomas Michael, was a member of the crew on both occasions and on each occasion survived.

Interesting facts which emerge are that the Llanelli boat was kept on davits on a lightvessel anchored off the harbour entrance and that the son of the founder of Port Talbot, C. R. M. Talbot, appears to have been the only Member of Parliament to have received a life-boat medal for gallantry.

A number of outstanding shore boat rescues are recorded in this work, one which took place at Penarth in 1907 leading to the award of the gold medal to a local yachtsman, Daniel Rees. Shore boat services do, indeed, play a significantpart in the early history of rescues around this part of the coast, for it was some time after the establishment of the R.N.L.I. that a satisfactory life-boat organisation came into being in South Wales. Mr. Farr quotes the report which was issued at the time of the competition staged for the Duke of Northumberland's prize in 1851 to the effect that 'on the south coast of Wales from Cardiff round to Fishguard, a distance of 200 miles, there is one life-boat at Swansea and that unserviceable'.

The publishers, Messrs. D. Bradford Barton, a Truro firm, are to be congratulated on the excellent standard of production in this series.

The story of the Essex life-boats, which has been written by Mr. Robert Malster, is to appear shortly, and the publishers are keen to make contact with writers qualified to treat the histories of life-boat stations in any particular area.

It is greatly to be hoped that such writers will be found and that they will achieve the same standards of excellence as Grahame Farr.

• Heavy Weather Sailing by K. Adlard Coles (Adlard Coles Ltd, 75s.) is a finely produced volume with some splendid photographs. The author gives accounts of his own experiences in gales at sea in a number of parts of the world and draws from all these experiences informative and useful conclusions. The earliest experience which he recounts was that of a gale in 1925. He had set out from the Dutch coast in a 12-ton ketch for Dover but was driven up the east coast of England, spending some 53 hours at sea. Other experiences occurred off Bermuda and the Spanish coast.

BUSIEST DAY One of the most interesting chapters describes in detail the occurrences at the end of July, 1956. This was in fact the busiest day in the entire history of the life-boat service, and among the incidents recorded was the rescue of the crew of the yacht Bloodhound by the Selsey life-boat. In this chapter Mr. Coles has written not from first-hand experience but from a detailed analysis following a questionnaire sent by the editor of Yachting World to those taking part in the Channel Race.

This most useful work has a foreword by Alasdair Garrett, editor of the Journal of the Royal Cruising Club, who is also chairman of the Kensington and Chelsea branch of the R.N.L.I.—P.H..