ONE OF THE PEOPLE upon whom honorary life governorship was bestowed at the 1973 annual meeting of the RNLI was Professor William W. Flexner, pho, in recognition of the very valuable help which he has given to the lifeboat service in the application of computer technology to the analysis of service records.

It was the Professor, a United States citizen resident in London, who in 1971 initiated the Computer Analysis of Rescue Records (CARR), volunteering his services as an unpaid consultant to the RNLI. 'Consultant' is an inexact description of his work, since he has had to supply all the know-how, and in the early stages all the hard work, because no one else was qualified to do it.

The essence of the CARR system is that services by lifeboats and inshore lifeboats are recorded on magnetic tape, and in rather more detail than was, and for the time being still is, noted in the service registers and service books. This means that each return of service is processed by the computer section into code acceptable to the computer. The services are then from time to time added to the tape record in batches of from 100 to 500.

As in the past, therefore, the return of service is the all-important document; also, it not being practicable to record all the detail even with a computer system, later reference to the return of service may be required to supplement computer information. A description is given below of the computer tape record of each lifeboat or inshore lifeboat service.

The magnetic tapes used are about the size of a reel of film. Each could record about ten years of RNLI activity, but for practical reasons we shall probably settle for about five years per tape. At present the tape record contains the whole of 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974 to date.

The tape record is more compact than the heavy brass-bound volumes hitherto used, more detailed, and infinitely more flexible. At the same time it is far more vulnerable; it could easily be corrupted, burnt, lost or damaged. For this reason we have at least two computer-based lines of defence on which to fall back, should the master tape be lost or damaged. The tape record cannot, of course, be examined as can a book; to get information it must be decoded. This is done bythe output programmes devised by Professor Flexner, plus ad hoc supplementary instructions prepared by the computer section.

All the information as shown below can be retrieved (obviously, or there would be no point in putting it there) in tabular form. Also we have a programme which can indicate coast lines, and features such as RNLI stations, together with the positions of casualties attended by the RNLI. Both tabular and geographic programmes can cover any area, and any period of years, months, or days as may be selected. The largest scale for the geographic programme is 'squares' of one minute of latitude by one minute of longitude. A new and better geographic programme, based on digitised charts provided by the Hydrographer of the Navy, is being prepared by Professor Flexner.

Reference has been made above to flexibility. The more than 11,000 records already on tape are arranged in order of years, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974. Within a year they are arranged by stations, starting in Ulster, thence to North West England, Scotland, England, Wales and finally Eire. Within a station the records are in date order.

This is convenient for many, but not all, requirements. Recently, to meet a particular need, it was preferable to have the records (then about 8,000) arranged differently. In layman's language, we wanted the parade to dismiss, and then fall in again in 31 companies according to the cause of service, such as stranding, collision, swamping, capsize, fire, machinery failure, fouled propeller, or recovery of body. So we asked the computer please to do this. It "did so, and added, 'The time taken was 88 seconds, and the charge, please, is 80p'.

Not all operations are so startlingly cheap. An average sized tabular record for three years for a coast review area costs about £10, and the associated maps about £20.

The point of the story is, however, that, with CARR, we are able to address, with what passes for a smile, questions which would have been ruled out of court if measured in man/months. But remember, please, that CARR data start in 1970.DESCRIPTION OF TAPE RECORD Weather Visibility Darkness or daylight State of sea at station State of sea at casualty Wind force Wind direction Station and Boat Station code (each station has its own four figure code) Lifeboat or ILB Vehicle number (official number) Vehicle class Casualty Flag of casualty (48 codes) Type of casualty (32 codes) Cause of service (31 codes) Distance from lifeboat/ILB station Latitude of casualty Longitude of casualty Launch Year of launch Month and day Time Account of launching (9 codes) Delay in launching Launching method (12 codes) Number in crew Description of Mission Mission duration Time spent at casualty Co-ordination of service (6 codes) Co-operating services (32 codes) Use of RT (9 codes) Use of swimmers (9 codes) Presence of medical personnel (6 codes) First aid by RNLI crew (9 codes) Defect in lifeboat/ILB (6 codes) Damage to lifeboat/ILB (8 codes) Outcome of Mission Assessment of outcome (28 codes) Feasibility of other rescue methods (7 codes) Vehicle-hours at sea Crew-man hours at sea Number rescued Number landed Boats saved Value of property saved (7 codes) Property salvage claimed Number injured Non-RNLI lives lost.