One family's century Thank you for your very kind letter regarding my coming resignation from the Committee of Management. It is sad to think that, after more than 100 years, there will be no Cave on the C.

of M. I am afraid I have taken a very back seat in recent years, but I was more active in my younger days. I remember my first lifeboat ceremony when I was about eight years old. She was The Charlie and Adrian which my grandfather had given to the Institution some years before and named after my father and his brother respectively. She was a pulling and sailing boat, stationed at Hayling Island. I was allowed to take a trip in her and the coxswain showed me how to light, and I let off, a flare. What joy to a small boy.

But to come to more recent times, there are two events which stick in my mind. The first was when I went to Sennen Cove for the naming ceremony of the then new boat, Susan Ashley.

The only trouble was that there was no lifeboat! She had been called out on her first service the previous day and owing to gales had been unable to return to her station. What to do? The crew refused to take part in any ceremony other than with the lifeboat present at Sennen, while it was too late to cancel the programme already laid on. In the event we did what we could without the lifeboat, and a month later, when the tide was right, we all went down to Sennen and repeated the whole ceremony but this time with the lifeboat.

The second event was the naming of the Ramsey boat. I had gone up to Liverpool on the night train and from there I flew to the Isle of Man. It was a lovely morning—not a cloud in the sky —but by the time we got to the landing strip at the southern end of the island we were in a raging thunderstorm and a howling gale with a deluge of rain. We flew across a small bay with the landing strip immediately on the other side.

Normally one would have flown low over the water, but with all the air bumps and numerous ships' masts below us we had to keep up a fair height and hope for the best when we reached the shore. Our pilot couldn't make it, and he flew round again. A second time the same thing happened. It was than that I remembered there were two lifeboats near at hand, at Port Erin and Port St Mary, and that if we came down in the sea one or the other would come to our rescue. Indeed I began to revise the speech I was to make that afternoon at Ramsey. I would tell them, I thought, that I had arrived, not by steamer or even aeroplane, but by lifeboat. And what an excellent service they provided.

Unlike trains and steamers they published no timetable, with the advantage that they were available whenever the public wanted them. What a good advertisement. But at that moment I heard a voice saying,' You may now undo your seat belts' Perhaps I was thankful that the lifeboat was not needed after all.—LAURENCE CAVE, Hill House, Bletchingley, Redhill, Surrey.

Mr L. C. H. Cave, who was writing to Major-General Ralph Farrant, Chairman of the Committee of Management, had been a member of the committee from 1947 to 1977; he was elected a Vice- President of the Institution in 1964 and a Life Vice-President in 1977. Mr Cave's father, Captain C. J. P. Cave, served on the committee from 1905 to 1950, being elected a Vice-President in 1948, and his grandfather, Laurence Trent Cave, served from 1880 to 1899 and was elected a Vice-President in 1885. Two of his father's cousins also served on the Committee of Management: Sir Stephen Cave from 1869 to 1880 (Vice-President 1874) and AdmiralJ. H. Cave, 1894 to 1913 (Vice- President 1909).—THE EDITOR.

Jubilee day out We, the Wath-upon-Dearne ladies' lifeboat guild, had one of our two annual outings in June. On the lovely morning of June 22 at 7.30 am we set off for Llandudno and Conwy, all looking forward to enjoying ourselves and blissfully unaware of a great treat in store. We arrived in Conwy just after midday and having partaken of an excellent lunch we then wandered by the water looking at the boats and the bay, and still the sun shone on and on.

Then we heard it, a little buzz here and there: ''The Queen is passing through at 3 pnf.

Oh, the highlight of our lovely day.

Suddenly she was there, graciously smiling, we could almost touch her— Prince Philip looking as ever so bronzed and wonderful—then they had gone . . .

It was a perfect touch to our day, our Jubilee Day, something we wish in this special year to tell and share with other members of this organisation which we in our small way help supplement.

The Wath ladies are a small committee of six. We work very hard for the RNLI and our trips help to keep together the members whose support we need. On the outgoing journey we have a raffle and another on the return journey home.

All this helps towards our yearly contribution. Our next effort is a Chinese Auction in August, followed by a tombola stall at the local agricultural show on Bank Holiday Sunday.

Wish us well—WATH-UPON-DEARNE LADIES' GUILD, Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

We do indeed.—THE EDITOR.

RNLB Rosa Woodd and Phyllis Lunn On July 3 the Gravesend branch held its eighth sponsored marathon row from Gravesend to Greenwich and back.

Last year's row raised £2,400 for the service. This year 19 boats rowed the 40 miles, the Southend-on-Sea ILB, D. 181, being among several escort boats.

One other escort boat raised considerable interest: now named Dowager, she was the former Shoreham Harbour lifeboat Rosa Woodd and Phyllis Lunn.

She is now owned by T. B. Lawrence, who has had her converted into a very comfortable yacht. Mr Lawrence is a member of Shoreline and, like myself, a member of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts' Society.

RNLB .Rosa WooddandPhyllis Lunn was built in 1932 by Groves and Guttridge, Isle of Wight. She was delivered on January 4, 1933. Her cost was £6,133: a vast difference to today's prices. She was the first of the 41' Watson class lifeboats and she was named at Shoreham by Prince George on March 15, 1933.

While at Shoreham Harbour Rosa Woodd and Phyllis Lunn was launched 244 times and rescued 143 lives. When replaced, she served in the reserve fleet continued on page 68.