Two new self-righting steel life-boats, each nearly 50 ft. in length and capable of carrying up to 100 survivors, 28 of them under cover, have been allocated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to stations in Scotland.

Each costing about £70,000, these new Solent class boats have been sent to Longhope and Thurso where they will operate in the notoriously dangerous Pentland Firth, one of the most treacherous stretches of water around the British Isles. The R.N.L.I.'s decision to allocate these boats is in line with its policy of modernisation.

The boat allocated to Thurso replaces an existing life-boat, while the one destined for Longhope will, in effect, re-establish the station where, in March 1969, the boat capsized with the loss of its crew..