Another valuable contribution to life-boat history has been made by Grahame Farr in his latest volume in the Wreck and Rescue Series. This tells the story of the South Devon life-boats (Wreck and Rescue on the Coast of Devon, D. Bradford Barton Ltd., Truro, price 32s.).

As in all his earlier volumes Mr. Farr has unearthed some remarkable stories of rescues and attempted rescues, not all of which were carried out by life-boats.

He includes, for instance, the wreck near Plymouth in 1796 of the East-Indiaman Dutton. The captain of H.M.S. Indefatigable, Sir Edward Pellew, was driving to keep an appointment with the vicar of Charles church and on hearing what had happened ordered his coachman to take him to Plymouth Hoe. After arranging for a number of pilots to put out to the wreck he climbed hand over hand to the Dutton by the line used by the officers to escape. He then took charge, and among his other exertions was to draw his sword to hold off a number of soldiers who were trying to get at the spirit stores. The Dutton eventually broke up, but more than 600 people were reported to have been saved.

Another strange story is that of James Craggs, a Yealm boatman, who spotted a mysterious movement among the tangle of spars and sails hanging over the side of a wrecked vessel. He thought it might come from a torn piece of sail flapping in the wind but decided to investigate. This he did at considerable personal risk, and as a result he succeeded in saving the captain's wife, whose last conscious act had been to attempt to climb over the rails. For this he received the first silver medal awarded by the R.N.L.I. for a rescue off the Devon coast.

There are also colourful accounts of the arrival of new life-boats at their station. The first Salcombe life-boat, for instance, was launched at Kingsbridge after being drawn from the railway station in a procession which included a detachment from H.M. Coastguard, the Ancient Order of Foresters, the Manchester Unity of Odd-fellows, pilots, fishermen, school-children and three different bands.

Among the more unusual life-boat services recorded was one for which Coxswain Walter Crowther of Plymouth was awarded the bronze medal for a rescue from a Royal Australian Air Force flying boat which had been torn from her anchor by a drifting coaster. Another was carried out by the Hope Cove life-boat in 1896, when an early Russian tanker with a cargo of petroleum went aground and caused what was then the unusual sight and smell of oil pollution.

A working party of the Committee of Management of the R.N.L.I. is today carrying out a review of future operational requirements, and the changes which have occurred have included the closing of a small number of life-boat stations. Mr. Farr's latest work shows how much more frequently such closures occurred in the past and how they were all brought about by the availability of new kinds of life-boats with greater range or greater speed. His book recounts the histories of 10 life-boat stations. Of these only four, Plymouth, Salcombe, Torbay and Exmouth, are operational today. That there was local opposition to certain of the closures may be gauged from the fact that when the life-boat was withdrawn from Torquay towards the end of the First World War a ship's life-boat was provided by a private individual and was known as the Torquay harbour life-saving boat. Only one service carried out by this boat was recorded and after six years the boat was taken out of service.—P.H.

• Children today have plenty of opportunities to learn about the life-boat service. In addition to the television programmes which 'Blue Peter' and others have provided there has in recent years been a wealth of books about life-boatswritten for children of different ages. The latest of these is an excellent short work by the headmaster of Fosseway Junior School, Bath. This is Life-boats and Life-boatmen, by E. G. Jerrome (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, price 8s. 6d.).

With striking economy and simplicity of words Mr. Jerrome gives a broad picture of the life-boat service of a kind which young children will readily understand.

There are many excellent line drawings and a number of colour illustrations.

One of these, very sensibly, shows the stamps issued by the G.P.O. to mark the International Life-boat Conference in 1963.

Those of us who have tried to explain technical aspects of the life-boat service in simple terms may well envy Mr. Jerrome the facility with which he describes the Oakley self-righting life-boats: 'In 1958 a new kind of "self-righter" was designed by Richard Oakley. If it tips over on the starboard (right) side, it turns over and comes upright again in about 10 seconds. If it tips on the port (left) side, it does not turn over but comes back again.

In a test of a self-righting boat it was turned upside-down in the water like this:It immediately turned itself over so that it was the right way up.'—P.H.

• The Irish Lighthouse Service by T. G. Wilson (Allen Figgis, Dublin, 42s.) is a beautifully printed, well illustrated and attractively written history. It tells the story of lighthouses and lightvessels on and around the Irish coast from the time when St. Dubhan came over from Wales and established a beacon light at what is now known as Hook Point. His beacon consisted of a strong upright surmounted by an iron basket to which access was gained by a ladder at one side.

The basket was filled every night with coal, charcoal, wood or tar and this was kept ablaze until the morning, the saint being his own lighthouse keeper. At different stages, responsibility for the Irish lights rested with the Customs service and the Ballast Board of Dublin, the present controlling body being, of course, the Irish Lights'Commissioners.The great story of the rescue from the Daunt Rock lightvessel by the Bally- cotton life-boat in 1936 is duly recorded and rightly described as being 'among the proudest records of the R.N.L.I.'.—P.H.

• The Royal Life-saving Society's newest production Life Saving and Water Safety (5s.) is a most informative and useful booklet prepared by the Society's National Technical Committee. In his foreword, Earl Mountbatten of Burma writes: 'Our object, of course, is to save life, but in mastering the technique there is a physical and mental challenge which will be found to provide a splendid and worthwhile form of recreation for people of all ages, particularly the young'.

The different life-saving methods recommended are clearly and skilfully illustrated.—P.H.

• British Ships and Seamen, by Grant Uden (Macmillan, St. Martin's Press, price 8s. 6d.) comes in two volumes—book I: The Ships, book II: The Seamen— and they are from the Sources of History Series. For the student these two volumes provide a compact and fascinating account of ships and seamen from the earliest records up to the present day. Naturally, there is some emphasis on the brave days of sail and there are valuable chapters on communications and salvage.

But possibly it is Book I, with its lively account of the life and working conditions of that independent and indomitable character the British seaman, which will quicken the pulse and enliven the mind of the ordinary reader, for these books will have a special place on the shelf or bedside table of those who love the sea and ships. Life-boats and life-boatmen find their place in the chapter on 'The safety of ships', but the £50,000 quoted for the 37-ft. Oakley type life-boat is on the high side—at the moment, at least. The present figure is £38,500.—E.W.M.

• A Hundred Years of Life-Saving, 1869-1969, by D. J. Hancox, a member of the Life-boat Enthusiasts' Society, is an excellent booklet giving the history of the Weymouth life-boat station, which celebrates its centenary this year. It sells at 2s. 6d., postage 6d., and may be obtained from the author at 209 Portland Road, Wyke Regis, Weymouth, Dorset.

As Mr. E. J. Gordon Wallace, chairman of the Weymouth branch, says in a brief foreword: 'Mr Hancox makes no claim to journalistic expertise—he has written the story in a straightforward, factual manner with no frills . . .'.

Based on material provided by R.N.L.I. headquarters, plus some fruitful research among local records and newspapers, this booklet gives a very full account of the station.

In the first 55 years—the period of the sailing and pulling life-boats—there were 45 launches and 29 lives saved, but in the 44 years to date—the period of the motor life-boat—there have been at least 270 launches and 250 lives saved.

Being at once a yachting headquarters, a popular port of call for visiting yachts, a port with a certain amount of commercial traffic, a cross-Channel terminal and a naval base, the Weymouth-Portland area has needed and will still need its life-boat station for generations to come.—J.G.F.

• An interesting publication on the Ramsey life-boat station is available from Mr. B. T. Swales, honorary secretary, 24 West Quay, Ramsey, Isle of Man. Written by Major Keith G. Groves, chairman of the Ramsey branch, The Story of the Ramsey Life-boat Station Established 1829 and The Founding of the R.N.L.I. by Sir William Hillary in 1824 costs 2s. 6d., postage 6d.

The publication, which is fully illustrated and is the result of most detailed and thorough research, contains a portrait of Sir William Hillary and a repro- duction in his own handwriting of a hitherto unpublished letter from the founder. Authors of life-boat histories are happily to be found at all ages.

Major Groves is in his 80th year.—C.R.E..