more than its members generally realise, upon seamen and the ships they manned. Take away the common sailor and the craft in which, down the centuries, he has carried goods through tempest and fog, past innumerable natural and man-made dangers, and where were the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome, the Britain that was the workshop of the world, the golden age of Spain or the dream and reality of 20th-century America.

Yet civilised society has tended to treat the seaman's life and craft as a mystery in the oldest and deepest sense and to set him apart to be neglected, patronised, spuriously romanticised at fleeting moments of political or national catastrophe, but never understood.

Now The Mourne Observer (Newcastle, Co.

Down, price £1.25) has reprinted a series of articles and published them in Sailing Ships of Mourne: the County Down fishing fleet and Newcastle life-boat).

The stories here told arc as varied as they are fascinating, from the stranding of Brunei's Great Britain, the pioneer iron-hulled transatlantic steam-liner, near Dundrum in 1846, to the life-history of the beautiful Carrickfergusbuilt schooner Result, now happily acquired for perpetual preservation by the Ulster Folk Museum.

The sub-title to this book is misleading. The most informative section is about the short-sea traders and their rigs (excellently illustrated), about the Mourne granite they shipped to Liverpool to give that city the special sheen it retains to this day, about the cargoes of potatoes vital for the survival of harshly-rationed Britain in the 1914 war (the Kilkeel schooner Never Can Tell was sunk by a U-boat in Spring, 1918).

With the soaring price of meat and the certainty of world food shortages for years ahead, the herring has never been so important. The nickeys and nobbies of the old Down sail herring fleet are lovingly remembered here and was largely fishermen who manned the Newcastle life-boat in that unsurpassed series ofgallant rescues—Napried of Split, the troopship Georgetown Victory, the steamer Browning, so many more—which will long be remembered.

—j. de c.i.

• Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., Paulton, Bristol, have issued South-West England (price 35p) as a geography reference for schools.

The work of Peter J. Lacey, B.SC., principal lecturer in geography, Shoreditch College of Education, London, the booklet includes a section on climate. It is in this section that a coloured photograph is used of the St. Mary's life-boat going to the aid of the motor yacht Braemar in May, 1967.

0 Evening Star: the story of a Cornish fishing lugger, by Ken Shcarwood (D. Bradford Barton Ltd., Truro, price £1.25). This is written about Mevagissey, Cornwall, and the author, who was born in 1921, served in destroyers and landing craft during World War II, winning the D.S.C.

After demobilisation he became an inshore fisherman. The book contains many line drawings of nautical subjects by Ronald F.

Meads. A list is given of a few terms and expressions familiar to fishermen: dumb of the evening = twilight; five-fingered Jack = starfish; hog = whale; tosher = a Mevagissey term for a small but deep 19 to 20-foot boat, worked single handed and powered by a 3-| h.p. single cylinder Kelvin.—C.R.E.

Ship Models For the past three years, the R.N.L.I.'s Aberdeen branch has operated a most successful fund-raising exercise in which completed plastic ship models have been auctioned in aid of the Institution's funds at the annual life-boat ball which has been reestablished as one of the main functions in the social calendar.

The exercise originated in the sale for £150 of a completed 36-inch plastic model of the Cutty Sark, complete with case. The model took Mr. J. D. Ferguson, one of the ILB crew, some seven years off and on to complete and the rigging was done as accurately as possible. Next on the list was a 20-inch motorised model of a Danish fishing vessel built by Mr. D. Smith, a local model maker. This realised £80. A model of the trawler, Ross Kandahar, also built by Mr.

Smith, realised £18.

At the 1972 ball held in February a model of the Mayflower, donated by Revell (Gt. Britain) Ltd., of Potters Bar, built by Mr. Ferguson, was knocked down for £30 and two fast patrol boats donated by Richard Kohnstam Ltd., of Hemel Hempstead, realised £10 and £12 respectively.

Mr. Ferguson is responsible for reviewing ship kits for the International Plastic Modellers'Society magazine and the 1972 kits were review samples completed to exhibition standards. The manufacturers have offered their continued support and are delighted that their review' samples are being utilised in this way. It is believed that they would be willing to extend the facilities to a number of other branches through Mr. Ferguson. If any branch can enlist the assistance of local model makers, and would be interested in learning more about the arrangement, it is suggested that the honorary secretary might contact Mr. J. D. Ferguson, at 11 South Mount Street, Aberdeen, AB2 4TN, for further details..