O There cannot be many works of fiction based on the lifeboat service and of these few are likely to ring true to the men who man the boats. Although the majority of people would say that they are well acquainted with the RNLI, its lifeboats and lifeboatmen, those who really know what is involved in providing this great sea rescue service are sadly in the minority. Usually it takes a lifeboat disaster to bring home the fact that there are so many brave men willing, indeed eager, to accept acute discomfort and even death in order to save lives and to belong to a select and shining company.

In his book Ennal's Point (Michael Joseph, £4.25) Alun Richards has succeeded brilliantly in portraying the fortunes and misfortunes of an imaginary Welsh lifeboat community and makes it clear that the dramatic aura of the rescue service extends far beyond the lifeboathouse or the homes of the crew. He has clearly researched his subject in depth and in doing so has achieved a close rapport with the men who have told him of their own experiences and those of the men who preceded them in the lifeboat service.

The fortunes and failings of the Grail family gradually unfold as the story moves towards its climax, and the search by the Ennal's Point lifeboat for Billy John Grail and Jenny Grail, a femmefatale indeed, in a Bristol Channel storm is told vividly and without undue emphasis. It is a fine piece of writing with more than one shrewd comment.

These are chapters which should be read by anyone trying to understand what a search in storm force winds really means; what it means for the men at sea, pushed to the limit of endurance yet rising above protracted fear, exhaustion and agonising discomfort to extraordinary heights of courage and achievement; what it means for the people on shore, faced with long hours of silence if radio communication breaks down.

It might be said that Alun Richards has played down the importance of the honorary secretary of a lifeboat station, possibly deliberately. Like Geoffrey Hannah, the narrator of this story, many honorary secretaries are not professional seamen. But their local knowledge, good sense and understanding of the men with whom they have to deal has been proved of inestimable value time and time again. The RNLI is justly proud of them; even the 'comedians at lifeboat headquarters'! A book, then, which everyone connected with the lifeboat service will find exciting and absorbing. And so, too, will all those who either love or fear the sea.—E.W.M.

• The latest addition to lifeboat station histories is an exceptionally well produced record entitled A Century and a Half of Skegness Lifeboats.

Much of the material comes from the writings of the late Lieut.-Commander F. S. W. Major, who was chairman of the Skegness branch and editor of the Skegness News. The present work has been prepared by his son, B. S. Major.

The first Skegness lifeboat was placed at Gibraltar Point, three and a half miles south of Skegness, in 1825. It was provided and maintained by the Lincolnshire Coast Shipwreck Association, which did not amalgamate with the RNLI until 1863. Of the more recent experiences of Skegness crews recounted in the booklet is one which took place in December 1965 after the oil drilling rig Sea Gem sank with heavy loss of life.

The booklet has no fewer than 35 photographs and other illustrations. It is available from Skegness Lifeboat House, Skegness, Lincolnshire, price 75p, plus 25p postage and packing.—P.H.

• Were the Goodwin Sands once an island 'very fruitful' with 'much pasture'' which 'in an unusual tempest of winds and rain in a very high rage of the sea was drowned' as John Twyne, a sixteenthcentury antiquary of Canterbury maintained? Probably not. Probably this series of sand banks was already there as far back as the time of the Roman invasion of Britain, reaching out into what is now our Strait of Dover; a natural hazard the more fearsome because ships wrecked on it disappeared without trace within a tide or two.

The 'most dreadful gulfe and shippe swallower' it has been called. Yet its record is by no means all bad; to landward, sheltered from the east, lies the four-mile channel of the Downs, used as an anchorage for more than a thousand years. In the introduction to his book Goodwin Sands Shipwrecks (David and Charles, £4.50), Richard Larn points out that the Goodwin Sands 'have been both friend and foe in that they have probably saved a hundred vessels for every one they destroyed'. The seven charts plotting more than 1,000 wrecks between the years 1450 and 1975 with which the author illustrates the successive chapters of his book give some measure cf both the dreadful toll taken by the sands, particularly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and of the volume of traffic, in all eras, using this, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world.

In such waters it is not surprising that the story of saving life at sea is very much older than that of lifeboats—even if at times it would seem that the demarcation line between lifesaving, smuggling and, if not wrecking, at least accepting the 'offerings from the sea' did get rather blurred.

The history of lifeboats in the Goodwins area began when a Greathead lifeboat was stationed at Ramsgate in 1802, and she was followed in 1852, after a lapse of some years, by the prizewinning Northumberland, built by James Beeching. The history of the RNLI in the area began in 1856, the year in which a branch was formed at Walmer with a lifeboat paid for by the Royal Thames Yacht Club. The story both before and since that date can be found in Mr Larn's book.

Carefully researched and well written, Goodwin Sands Shipwrecks is a valuable addition to the library of books on lifesaving at sea.—J.D.

• Following his papers on the Plenty and Palmer lifeboats of the early nineteenth century, Grahame Farr now reveals another aspect of lifeboat history with Lifeboats of the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society, 1851-4, available from the author at 98 Combe Avenue, Portishead, Bristol BS20 9JX, 50p, including postage and packing.

Founded in 1839, the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society aimed to pension widows and dependants, and to give immediate aid to shipwreck victims.

Although the older National Shipwreck Institution, as the RNLI was then known, had often given help to the latter, the activities of the two bodies were reasonably distinct. But, while the Institution had insufficient funds for expansion in the 1840s, the Society, with its members subscribing their halfcrowns annually as a form of insurance, was financially healthy, and began to consider establishing lifeboats itself. In the event, this did not come about until 1851, coincidentally with the Northumberland lifeboat prize and the revival of the Institution's fortunes.

The existence of two organisations with similar aims and titles was clearly undesirable, and the resolution of the matter is an interesting example of Parliamentary action bringing about the satisfactory re-ordering of the activities of one charity and a change in the name of another: one of the provisions of the 1854 Merchant Shipping Act desired to channel government help for establishing and maintaining lifeboats, and the Board of Trade naturally preferred to discuss the questions with one body.

So it was that the Society handed over its nine lifeboats and its lifeboat funds to the newly titled RNLI.

Grahame Farr does not mention this, but the Act also marked the start of a 15 year flirtation with government money which the RNLI was pleased to end.

As we have come to expect with this author, the paper is well researched, and although he adds the traditional historian's plea for further information, it is hard to see what there could be.—A.H.O.

• There is no need to introduce to yachtsmen either K. Adlard Coles or his work on coastal navigation; both he and his pilotage guides are old friends.

This spring there appeared a fifth edition of his Channel Harbours and Anchorages (Nautical Publishing Co., £7.50), in the preparation of which the author revisited most of the harbours in the area it covers—Christchurch to Portland, Barfleur to St Malo and the Channel Islands. While there are many amendments, the fundamental differences between this edition and the former ones lie in the metrication of the harbour plans and the alteration to LAT (lowest astronomical tide) datum to conform with the new issue Admiralty charts.

In the introduction to the book, Adlard Coles sets out clearly the basis of its authority. While in no way underestimating the hazards of the waters of the Channels Islands and the adjacent French coast with their rocks and, at times, strong tidal streams, his practical, commonsense approach will give confidence to careful yachtsmen planning to visit these cruising grounds for the first time.

A new edition of Adlard Coles' The Shell Pilot to the South Coast Harbours (Faber and Faber, £6.95) has also appeared. It, too, has been completely revised to conform with modern practice in the new issue metric Admiralty charts, with datum reduced to the level of LAT. The harbour plans have been redrawn and among the explanation of terms and notation of charts is a useful depth conversion scale: fathoms and feet—metres and decimetres.

There are more than 50 new photographs and additional information about marinas, moorings and anchorages has been included.—J.D.

A Maritime Radio Services for Yachts and other Small Craft, prepared by the Maritime Radio Division of the Post Office, is just what it claims to be: 'a painless guide to new users of Post Office Radio Services . . .' introducing and explaining how to use that longdistance voice—VHF radiotelephone.

Written by C. H. R. Mander with cartoons by J. McCabe, it is designed by G. S. Wheeler, and all are to be congratulated on producing an attractive as well as informative booklet. It is available to individual yachtsmen, free of charge, from Post Office Maritime Radio Services Division, Room 601 A, Union House, St Martin's le Grand, London EC1A 1AR.—J.D.

• Embark on offshore racing and you have taken on more than a weekend pastime: you have embarked on a way of life. If your boat is to be truly competitive, it must be all absorbing. It is exacting in time, money, knowledge, skill, and yes, wisdom. So many judgments have to be made on shore in the days of planning. So many immediate decisions have to be made at sea in any weather when not only the outcome of the race but the safety of yacht and crew may be at stake.

That high standards of racing yacht design and construction and of seamanship have been achieved is largely due to the wise guidance over the years of our own Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Offshore Racing Council (ORC) of the International Yacht Racing Union. Inevitably the volume of laws, rules and regulations has grown.

The offshore skipper must be familiar with them all in addition to all that pertains to the ordinary practice of seamen. He is the master of his ship and such subjects as the correct procedure for radio communication and the health of his crew also come within his responsibility.

Needing so much knowledge at his finger tips, a concise handbook is invaluable, and that is just what Peter Johnson, with his co-editors, Robert Humphreys (Europe) and Roger Marshall (USA), have produced in Offshore Manual International (Nautical Publishing Co., £4.85). All three are experienced offshore sailors of standing and Peter Johnson, serving on the ORC, is closely involved with the organisation of international yachting. Good, clear illustrations have been drawn by Peter Milne.

Here is a guide for leisurely study or quick reference. It will surely find its way on to the bookshelves of many yachts.— J.D.

• David Phillipson's Everyday Hero, The Story of a Yorkshire Fisherman, is a brief biography of Cecil Picknett, who joined Redcar lifeboat in 1920 when he was 18 years old. Like so many, he was following a family tradition: his greatgrandfather had helped to crew Zetland in the early 19th century.

Cecil Picknett served in the lifeboat for over 25 years, and was a fisherman for 53 years. This booklet tells many stories of both occupations, in peace and war. It is available from the author, 65p including postage, at 43 Stanley Grove, Redcar, Cleveland.—A.H.G.

% In addition to being a history of Lowestoft lifeboats, Robert W. Moore's On Service contains brief portraits of Lowestoft's coxswains, among them John Swan, coxswain from 1911 to 1924, who was awarded the gold medal for the service to ss Hopelyn in 1922. The booklet also pays a tribute to 'Neptune's Daughters'—the members of Lowestoft ladies' guild. Available, price 50p, from the author, 16 Monckton Crescent Lowestoft, Suffolk.—A.H.G.

• Seafood, by Harry Barrett (Priory Press, £2.95), is a comprehensive look, largely pictorial, at the world fishing industry. As well as excellent photographs there are a number of clear diagrams and a fine cutaway drawing by Robin Perry of a modern stern trawler of the fresher fleet. The author, who is editor of Fishing News and is obviously fascinated with his subject, ends with a glossary and sources of information, including advice on what to do if you are interested in becoming a fisherman.

While primarily educational, in the 'World Resources' series, it is a book containing much of interest for old as well as young—J.D..