Lifeboat development • I was interested to read Captain Williamson Jones' letter in THE LIFEBOAT for July (page 8). I would like to make the following points: 1—My article was a reprint from the Yachting World where it was headed 'Some aspects of Lifeboat Development'.

It was not intended to deal with the wider aspects to which you refer and had no connection with any suggestion from Admiral Woods.

2—A great deal of thought is given to the deployment of the lifeboat fleet and future requirements. However, these are continually changing so it is unwise to make announcements as to the allocation of new boats too far ahead.

3—The sizeable number of new boats still required is simply a corollary to the size of the lifeboat fleet—nearly 140 big boats. It is intended to have a fully selfrighting fleet, except of course for the 70 footers, by 1980.

4—I stated in my article that a third 70 footer was being built at Bideford. She is due to complete shortly. These are good boats but expensive. Their crew requirement has to be tailored to the operational need of their station. The 70 footer guarding the approaches to the Bristol Channel from Clovelly, for instance, has a full-time crew.

5—The main reasons for building faster boats were given in my article in the April Journal (page 450). Briefly, many lifeboat crews ask for more speed, faster boats mean that fewer are required to cover an area, many modern casualties call for extreme urgency in rescue, the faster the boat the less time it is on a particular service and consequently it is less time consuming for the volunteer crew, and so on.

6—The remark about the saving onsteel boats being only about 10 per cent was simply meant to indicate that the saving was not as much as was hoped for when it was decided to build the 48-foot 6-inch boats in steel instead of wood, particularly as they had to be redesigned to enable this to be done.

—F. R. H. SWANN, Commander, RNVR, Stratford sub Castle, Salisbury.

Commander Swann is Chairman of the Management Committee of the RNLI.

—EDITOR Thanks for save • Please accept the enclosed sum with grateful thanks for the timely rescue of myself and my friend, Mr Davie Withers, off the coast of the Isle of Sheppey on July 21, by ILB DH50. But for their timely intervention I feel the Westerly would by now have us somewhere off Denmark! I little realised when joining Shoreline that I would have need of our lifeboat services so soon! In the event, I hope enclosed covers expenses of fuel, etc.

Nothing can repay my gratitude at being rescued.—MALCOLM BROOKS, Southdown Road, Sheerness, Kent.

Oxen and cockroaches • I have been involved in taking 9/10-year-old children on visits to the lifeboat station at Hoylake, Cheshire.

On one occasion all present were very amused when a child requested the name of the 'oxen' of the lifeboat. A member of the crew of New Brighton told me of a similar slip, when a girl wrote of how interesting she had found the talk given by the 'cockroach' of the lifeboat.

Despite such slips the work we have done with the children on the RNLI has always been a source of great satisfaction to us; probably as a result of the interest and enthusiasm it has generated.

I know you place great emphasis on encouraging such work in schools and I thought you might perhaps be interested in a suggestion which I think might promote this.

If, say, one of your films and a selection of the other materials you supply to schools were displayed in all the Colleges of Education, the vast majority of 'up and coming' teachers would be made aware both of the work of the RNLI and the educational possibilities and facilities available.

You might also wish to make positive suggestions as to how work on the RNLI may be approached and also ways of fund raising, which so naturally follows from any such work, but it does seem that any publicity directed at this target population would offer considerablepossibilities for a relatively modest effort.

Some fund raising might even be encouraged in the colleges themselves.— M. BURKE, Twickenham Drive, Moreton, Wirral.

As a matter of interest, we do have very !,' «/ contact with both and this is revealed by our daily post which invariably includes numerous requests from both classes for information. In addition, we arrange many talks and film shows to schools. With regard to training colleges we do periodically send supplies of suitable literature to exhibitions run by a school's visual aid organisation anil in this way many teachers and trainee teachers have an opportunity of seeing what we can provide, and again our post book suggests that they rake up quite well our offer to supply material on which to base a lesson or a project.—EDITOR .

Shoreham Tribute • It is always under these circumstances impossible to express one's true feelings of gratitude for the saving of life, especially from a stormy sea. But in its very inadequate form I want to say a very sincere thank you for heading a remarkable team of men who are called the Shoreham lifeboat crew who without personal considerationsleft the warmth and security of their family homes to undertake a copybook rescue of us three in severe difficulties in a raging momentous force of sea.

I said in my letter to Coxswain John Fox: 'I have always wondered what makes men like you do what you do, but now after this very humbling experience I nearly understand—it seems to be a challenge, a sincerity for your fellowman, and a remarkable job satisfaction'.

In truth I learnt a lot of lessons on Sunday, August 5. Most related to my fellowmen who really are very special.

While I do not want the storm experience in my life again, I nevertheless will always want to remember the events after the lifeboat was sighted.

It is, of course, very ironic that two years ago I covenanted as a governor of the RNLI never ever believing that I would contribute to my own rescue.

As chairman of the Royal Southern yacht club, and managing director of Albin Marine Ltd, I will use my experiences to assist others in overcoming some of the problems that I've encountered, and of course to advise in practical matters of safety precautions.

When we met we discussed the subject of recompense. If you can kindly advise me the costs involved with the broken tow tope I shall be pleased to remit; also I have very much pleasure in enclosing herewith a donation to the Institution of £100 with, of course, my heartfelt gratitude.—BRIAN ETHERIDGE, School ROM!, Low ford, BursleJon, Southampton.Mr Etheridge's letter was in the first place sent to Mr John C. Harrison, honorary secretary, Shoreham, Sussex, following the writer's difficulties in a force 9-10 gale which led him to call the Shoreham lifeboat.

—EDITOR.

Boulogne lifeboat men In May a party of nine members of the committee of the life-saving organisation 'La Societe Humaine et des Naufrages de Boulogne-sur-Mer' and seven members of their lifeboat crew were the guests of the Dover branch of the RNLI, returning the visit paid to them from Dover a year previously. Founded in 1825 by the English Chapel in Boulogne, and still run by a committee of part English and part French, it is independent of the French national Society.

The Dover lifeboat, Faithful Forester, straight after a long night search of the Straits for a woman overboard from the ferry St. Germaine, put out to meet the British Rail ship bringing the party and escorted her into harbour.

Throughout their itinerary the party were conveyed by a coach kindly supplied free of charge for this purpose by Ayers Luxury Coaches.

Manston The Department of Trade and Industry announced in July that the contract with Bristow Helicopters Ltd for a marine search and rescue helicopter service at Manston, Kent, would be extended for a further 12 months.

Bristow Helicopters started at Manston on June 1, 1971, and the helicopter is under the operational control of H.M.

Coastguard. Since its inception the helicopter service has made 383 rescue sorties and saved the lives of 135 people and four dogs. In 1972 the unit won the Department's 'Rescue Shield' for the year's most meritorious rescue. It was the busiest rescue unit in the country.

Rochester The Estuaries branch is holding a cathedral service at 4.30 p.m. on March 10, 1974, in Rochester, at which it is expected many people will attend from the county of Kent..