Thirty-five years back • Reading the winter issue of THE LIFEBOAT brings back memories of, incredibly, nearly 35 years ago. Memories of those hectic days may have become a bit mixed up by the passage of time, but I think it was in the autumn of 1940 and in the vicinity of Kinnaird's Head that a southbound convoy was attacked by enemy aircraft and — we were told by a colleague of the escort — German E-boats. It was almost dark and the resulting brawl was more noisy than effective, but one merchant ship was damaged by torpedo. After the enemy had withdrawn we were sent back to assist the damaged ship, which we found and towed into port.

It was while we were taking this ship in tow that we heard the sound of petrol engines, and soon after saw dimly the curiously low silhouette of a small vessel. It was positively not a friendly warship, and so could only be a German E-boat.

We were about to act on the principle embodied in the saying 'Thrice armed is he who gets his blow in first' when our captain began to have doubts about the silhouette, and, as the stranger was not in a position to slip a torpedo into us without first making a large change of course and position, he decided instead to take a chance and live up to the name of our ship, HMS Challenger. The reply to our challenge was not the correct official one, but its nature and the broad Scots accent in which it was delivered were even more convincing! Having established friendly relations with what was an RNLI lifeboat, we went about our tasks of clearing up the mess. I don't think we recorded the identity of the particular lifeboat at the time, but it could well have been the Fraserburgh boat. Whoever it was, the coxswain was taking a devil of a chance in getting involved in an action at sea, which must have been going at full blast when he set out — and the risks were not all from acts of the enemy ! I am sorry to be a bit vague about details, but, as I said earlier, so much happened at that time that events tend to get mixed up. I don't remember the name of the merchant ship involved, or what happened to her crew (did the lifeboat collect them?), but I do knowvr f J%%* v **., that we had her ship's cat for the rest of the commission of our ship, and then found a suitable home for it in a naval dockyard where it would get, we were assured, VIP treatment as a cat which had to our knowledge sacrificed two of its lives to enemy torpedoes.—D. H.

PEARSON, CDR, RN (RETD), 21 Purbeck Heights, Mount Road, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset.

Coxswain Blogg • On seeing the photograph of H. F.

Bailey in your last journal it brought back many wartime memories for me when I was acting secretary to the Cromer branch. I well remember I used to go round to Coxswain Blogg's house in Corner Street, and there we used to make out the service reports, which owing to the number of services seemed to be an almost nightly job.

When we were on petrol coupons I remember we ran out of supplementaries and were always asking for additional ones, which I believe the Coastguards used to supply. No petrol was allowed to be stored in Cromer and we used to go to a village with two-gallon cans, generally a total of 60 gallons, and Mr Blogg never left his boat until she had been re-fuelled and was ready for service, however tired he may have been. I also remember I got the Institution's permission to have LIFEBOAT painted on our boat, because of daylight services to stricken vessels; there were enemy aircraft about but I always hoped they would leave a lifeboat alone! I believe we had about 150 services during the war; it was said we had more than any other boat, but at that time, owing to restrictions, I could not have committee meetings to report on services nor could I disclose anything to the press, although they used to phone me at all times of the night for details of services.

We had a wonderful crew at that time and the medals and vellums they received must have been a record.— T. H. BALDWIN, Walcot, 60 Norwich Road, Cromer, Norfolk.

RAF Bond • In the winter issue of THE LIFEBOAT, reference is made to the war years, and in particular to the rescue of RAF personnel. The bond is still there. The RAFA Barry Branch can boast that seven of its members form the full crew of the Barry Dock lifeboat (five members, ex-RAF, and two Friend members, RAFA).—JOHN p. WELLS, 30 St Andrews Road, Barry, Glamorganshire, S. Wales.

Spurn Point • The article on the Spurn Point Lifeboat Station in the winter issue of THE LIFEBOAT was of great nostalgic interest to me. Almost half a century ago, as the first County Librarian in the East Riding of Yorkshire, I had the pleasurable duty of supplying books to Spurn Point—alas, quite a small number of books in those early library days.

Your photograph of the wind-driven continued on page 144.