WHETHER THEY DROP on to the doormat with a welcome letter, or arrive on the office desk with the next urgent problem, special issues of stamps make a cheerful start to any day.

The sea is a good and popular subject and in 1974, 'The Year of the Lifeboat', there were four special issues of lifeboat stamps.

First to be issued, on January 15, was a set of four from Guernsey featuring lifeboats which have served the Bailiwickover the years: 2|p, John Lockett, a pulling lifeboat, 1875-1888; 3p, Arthur Lionel, Guernsey's last pulling and sailing lifeboat, 1912-1929; 8p, Euphrosyne Kendal, a Barnett lifeboat, 1954-1972; and lOp, Arm, 1972-1973, first of the Arun class and forerunner of Arun 52-02, Sir William Arnold, now stationed at St Peter Port.

The Isle of Man, home of Sir William Hillary, the founder of the RNLI, appropriately enough brought out its lifeboat stamps on March 4; the day on which at a service of thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral, lifeboat people commemorated the City of London Tavern meeting on March 4,1824, just 150 years before, at which the Institution was founded. Again there were four stamps.

The 3p stamp includes a reproduction of a bronze profile of Sir William which is mounted on a wall near the Douglas lifeboat house and just below his old home, Fort Anne, together with part of the commendation inscribed on his tomb in St George's Churchyard superimposed on the RNLI badge; the 3|p stamp is based on an oil painting in the Manx Museum depicting the wreck of the Royal Mail steam packet St George on Conister Rocks, Douglas Bay, on November 20,1830; the 8p stamp shows Sir William's Tower of Refuge on Conister Rocks and the lifeboat Manchester and Salford (1868-1887) which was provided by Sunday School children from those areas; and the lOp stamp is a picture of Osman Gabriel, Port Erin, the first of the two Rother class lifeboats donated to the Institution by Major Osman Gabriel.

Douglas High School boys, helped by their form master, ILB Crew Member A. Maddrell, bought 500 of the Isle of Man lifeboat stamps first day covers and asked the island's five coxswains to sign them: W. Corran, Douglas; J.

Quayle, Peel; L. W. Gawne, Ramsey; P.

Woodworth, Port Erin; and J. E.

Gawne, BEM, Port St Mary. £1,000 was collected from the sale of these autographed covers and, after expenses had been paid the profits were divided among the five Manx stations.

Next to be issued, on March 28, was a 5p stamp in the Republic of Ireland.

Based on a painting by Bernard Gribble, adapted by Michael Byrne, it features the famous rescue in 1936 of the crew of the Daunt Rock Lightship by the Ballycotton Barnett lifeboat, Mary Stanford.

The last stamp to come out was one in a Jersey anniversary set issued on July 31. A 3| stamp, it portrays Sir William Hillary himself. The other famous men remembered in the same set are John Wesley, Canon Wace, and Sir Winston Churchill.

First day covers of lifeboat stamps are still available for collectors from the RNLI Official Philatelic Agents, 13 Best Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2XX, who will also be represented on the RNLI stand at the London Boat Show..