WITH THE placing of an order for two new steel life-boats, the first of their kind, the R.N.L.I.'s major programme of new construction has been significantly advanced. The two new boats, which are each 50 feet in length, are being built by Brooke Marine Ltd. at Lowestoft. The placing of the order was announced by the Secretary of the Institution, Captain Nigel Dixon, R.N., at the conference of delegates from Midlands branches held in Great Yarmouth in September.

In design the new boats will be similar to the six 44-foot steel life-boats, which are themselves based on United States Coast Guard designs and which are now stationed at Barry Dock; Dover; Dun Laoghaire; Great Yarmouth and Gorleston; Harwich, and Troon. They will, however, have greater speed, the service speed of the 50-foot boats being 15 knots compared with 13 knots for the 44-foot boats. The new boats will be driven by twin Caterpillar diesel engines developing 375 b.h.p. at 2,200 r.p.m. and will be fitted with all the standard R.N.L.I. electronic equipment, including medium frequency, very high frequency and ultra high frequency radio, direction finding equipment, radar and echo sounder. In accordance with modern practice the electronic and navigational equipment and the engine room remote controls will all be located in the whcelhouse and the boat will therefore be operated by a crew of four to five men. The new boats will of course be selfrighters.

FIRST IRB SILVER MEDAL For the first time in the Institution's historysilver medals for gallantry have been awarded for a rescue carried out by one of the R.N.L.I.'s inshore rescue boats. The medals have been conferred on the three men who manned the Barmouth IRB which went to the help of a woman who had fallen over a cliff on 21st June. They are Mr. John Stockford, Mr. Colin Pugh and Dr. Airdrie Haworth. A force 10 gale was blowing and the IRB was swamped by two large waves. A full account of this remarkable service appears on page 236. The first gallantry medals to be awarded for an IRB rescue were bronze medals conferred on the crew of the Amble IRB, Mr. Robert Stewart and Mr.

Andrew Scott, who saved the lives of two members of the crew of a pinnace which capsized off Amble pier on 29th September, 1969.

MORE AND MORE IRB RESCUES Elsewhere in this number accounts appear of rescues by IRBs at a variety of stations. One bythe Margate IRB has been described as a service 'carried out in text book fashion' with exemplary co-operation between the Coastguard and the R.N.L.I. Before September was out the number of lives saved by the Institution's IRBs had surpassed all previous records, and at the time of going to press the number was 733.

The evidence of the extraordinary success of what was in 1963 a limited experiment is shown by the fact that the lives of more than 3,560 people have now been saved by these new inflatable craft.

LIFE-BOATS IN SPAIN Two new R.N.L.I, life-boats visited Spain in the late summer and autumn of 1971. This unusual occurrence followed a request from the newly-formed Spanish Life-boat Service known as the Red Cross of the Sea, a delegation from which visited Britain earlier this year. One of the life-boats was the 48-foot 6-inch Solent class boat which has been presented to the R.N.L.I.

as the outcome of a spectacularly successful appeal by the Royal British Legion, the boat being known as Royal British Legion Jubilee. The other was the prototype 52-foot life-boat of the Arun class, which is undergoing extensive trials. The Spanish Red Cross of the Sea undertook to defray all expenses, and it was felt that the trials of the two boats could be carried out off the Spanish coast with advantage.

Mr. John Atterton, Deputy Secretary of the R.N.L.I., visited Spain while the two life-boats were there to discuss the organisation of the new Spanish society. He is himself a fluent Spanish speaker. He found that the Spanish delegation who visited England had been deeply impressed by the organisation of the R.N.L.I, and the spirit of the crews and honorary workers at both station and financial branches. The Spanish Red Cross of the Sea have bought two standard R.N.L.I. IRBs and are likely to have life-boats built in this country.

On her passage to Spain the Royal British Legion Jubilee called at Brest and La Pallice in France, where the crew were most hospitably received by the French Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer.

While carrying out her trials off La Coruna the Royal British Legion Jubilee found that the Spanish trawler Carmen Vilarino had gone aground at Pragueira Point in thick fog. She took the trawler's crew of seven from their life raft and she also saved the trawler.

ANNUAL MEETING The annual meeting of the governors of the Institution in 1972 will once again be held in the Royal Festival Hall in London. Thisvenue was used for the first time for the annual meeting in 1971 with conspicuous success. The date of the 1972 meeting will be Thursday, 18th May.

BRANCH REMITTANCES The response of financial branches of the R.N.L.I. to an appeal to transmit funds to the Institution's bankers as early as possible has been extremely gratifying. One effect of this has been that the Institution has been able to obtain higher rates of interest on money deposited. The danger of a serious temporary shortage of available cash was also averted.

Stop Press Inshore rescue boats are now known officially as inshore life-boats, abbreviated to ILBs.

They will be so described in future numbers of THE LIFE-BOAT..