Re-count. . .

The letter from the honorary secretary of Bodmin and District branch, published in the autumn 1976 issue of THE LIFEBOAT, amused us all here in Trowbridge because the report closely followed our own flag day when our organising secretary, Mrs Sheena Burnan, raised £6.46J in box no. 10 in the town centre streets during the morning. In the afternoon her husband, Commander Gerald C. Burnan, also collected from the very same streets.

Yes, you've guessed it—his box contained £6.46|, no more, no less: three re-counts! So we believe it here right enough— without a doubt.—JOHN HORNBY, chairman, Trowbridge Branch, Ashbrook, 17 Blind Lane, Southwick, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

Scrapbook I am compiling a scrapbook entitled 'Lifeboats of Britain' in which 1 collect photographs of lifeboats taken under any circumstances. I have lent the book to various fund-raising schemes for the Institution.

It is my ambition to have a photograph of every lifeboat stationed around the British coast. May I, therefore, appeal to readers of THE LIFEBOAT, should they have photographs of their local lifeboats which I could add to my collection, to forward them to me at the address given below? I can assure them that they will be put to good use.— D. EVANS, 1A Maes Brith, Dolgellau, Gwynedd.

First lifejacket? We came across the following quotation from a book on the life of Leonardo da Vinci: it would appear probably to be the first description of a lifejacket: '/( Way of Saving Oneself in a Tempest or Shipwreck at Sea 'It is necessary to have a coat made of leather with a double hem over the breast of the width of a finger, and double also from the girdle to the knee, and let the leather of which it is made to be airtight.

And when you are obliged to jump into the sea, blow out the lappets of the coat through the hems of the breast, and then jump into the sea. And let yourself be carried by the waves, if there is no shore near at hand and you do not know the sea. And always keep in your mouth the end of the tube through which the air passes into the garment; and if once or twice it should become necessary for you to take a breath when the foam prevents you, draw it through the mouth of the tube from the air within the coat.' A. R. 'BOB' DICKINSON, Rose Cottage, 33 Sion Hill, Bath, Avon.

New anchor for old Please find enclosed a cheque for lifeboat funds to the value of £5—and you may be interested to hear how it was raised.

Nurse Lee of Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, is also a yacht owner. Early in 1976, when on passage, she was forced by deteriorating weather to anchor off Dymchurch. While at anchor, despite efforts to warn an approaching fishing vessel of her position by handlamp, she was struck. In the turmoil that followed, her anchor and warp became entangled with th; fishing boat, her warp being cut, and the fishing boat sailing on leaving Nurse Lee in her yacht, adrift.

Upon reaching a safe berth, Nurse Lee wrote to the port master, Folkestone, Reg Wood, asking if he could get her anchor returned by the boat. This he tried to do but without success.

Now Reg Wood is a personal friend of Captain Stratford, master, and myself, chief engineer officer, of the Sealink vessel Horsa, and, in conversa: tion, he told us of the incident. Captain Stratford had undergone major eye surgery at Dreadnought, and he suggested we present Nurse Lee with a replacement anchor. Frank Marklew, berthing master at Folkestone, was also consulted as he, too, had been at Dreadnought.

By chance, I had a CQR anchor of the right size I did not need, so I 'sold' it to Captain Stratford, Reg Wood and Frank Marklew, giving the money I received, £5, to the RNLI. I am a Shoreline member.

Nurse Lee visited Folkestone, was shown round the harbour and MV Horsa, and given her anchor. It was, she said, 'just right'.—p. D. PHILPOTT, 9 Castle Avenue, Dover, Kent.

Lifeboat wives Two women sat on the sea wall in the heat of the afternoon sun, watching lifeboat and ILB, and deploring the fact that the men had all the excitement while all the wives could do was sit at home and wait. But we could have a bit of fun . . . how about a group of lifeboat wives entering a float in the local carnival? That was the forerunner of our fund-raising group.

The lifeboat wives were enthusiastic and, with only two weeks before the carnival, we really had to throw ourselves into the swing of it. We took as our theme the name of each lifeboat that had been stationed in Selsey over the past 100 years, and dressed a wife or child to suit the name and the year ol the boat. And we won first prize: £5! What should we do with it? It would only be a drop in the ocean of RNLI funds. Someone suggested starting a bank account and forming a fundraising group. That was over a year ago.

There are 18 of us, all crew wives, girl friends or committee wives and, with the blessing of the RNLI, we are having the time of our lives. We have called ourselves (he Selsey Lifeboat Crew Association and although we work hard, we are now feeling we belong! Our first deposit of £5 grew over the first year to nearly £400. We have had laughs, and nearly tears sometimes, raising the money. Hidden talents have come to light and we discover we have members who can make beautiful models in wood, professional-looking toys and delectable things to eat. We organise dances, pottery parties, sponsored slims, pantomime parties for lifeboat children—you name it, we do it.

Our most spectacular successes have been to raise £100 on our 'home-made' stall on carnival day and nearly £100 on birdman rally day, selling teas from the inshore lifeboathouse.

So it really is all worth while. Apart from feeling we are aiding our menfolk, and they really do encourage us, the station is better off by having floodlighting along the slipway and a new block and winch rope for the ILB.

Branch funds are nearly £200 better off so far, and we have made many friends.

—JEAN BRYANT, honorary secretary Selsey Lifeboat Crew Association, 118 Kingsway, Selsey, Sussex.

Clyde CC Sailing Directions Thank you once again for giving space to review our Sailing Directions. Large scale Admiralty charts usually give linear scales of both sea miles (and cables) and metres—and feet meanwhile.

As there is not room for both scales on our small plans I felt the use of either was permissible—that is cables or metres —one must be familiar with both.

Your reviewer is, however, incorrect in his definitions. Firstly the UK nautical mile was abandoned in 1970 in favour of the International nautical mile of 1852m. Secondly the cable is defined as one tenth of a sea mile which is the length of one minute of arc measured along the meridian in the latitude of the position and its length of course varies with the latitude due to the shape of the earth. Anyway anyone who can judge distance from the deck of a small boat within 10 per cent is a genius! GODFREY VINYCOMB, Church Field, Colintraive, Argyll.

When you have finished with your copy of THE LIFEBOAT PLEASE PASS IT ON...

to a friend, library, club . . ..