The Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer helped 4,500 people during the summer of 1974 and saved from certain death 650.

The French lifeboat service is much occupied with the modernisation of its fleet. St Tropez lifeboat, Le Baillie-de- Suffren, for instance, was last summer equipped with radar and is having two new engines fitted which will give her a speed of 12 knots..