the final fruition of this modern policy.

I recall a conversation I had with Cunninghame-Graham in the early days of my lifeboat career, when he said, 'It is not small boats, as at present, stationed in the bights, but large ones in the horns of the bays which the future will see'.. ..

The perfect inspector of lifeboats should be a man of many parts. First and foremost, he must, of course, be a seaman; but he must add some knowledge of the art of the boatbuilder in order adequately to report on the state of the boats he inspects, and on any necessary repairs to them; of the wheelwright, for he must examine the lifeboat carriages, and be sure of their condition for transporting the boat over rough and uneven ground; of the builder, in order to examine and report on any defect in the lifeboat houses; of the civil engineer, that he may do the same for the slipways; of the marine engineer, when he is inspecting a steam lifeboat; of the motor mechanic, for motor lifeboats; of the accountant, as he has to examine the branch accounts, and see that they are properly kept; of the orator, for he must on occasion speak in public on behalf of the Institution; and lastly, a little of the writer's craft must be thrown on the heap, if his reports are to be lucid....

The life of an inspector of lifeboats is in many ways an arduous one ... but there are many compensatory advantages . . . he makes many friends, some of whom he keeps for life. Of these none stands out more conspicuously in my memory than the various coxswains of lifeboats whom I have met round the coast. The pick of a picked body of men, they combine the simplicity of character of the fisherman with the moral qualities which go to make leaders of men. Was it not on just such that the great choice fell in Galilee of old?..

Captain Hall was writing at the beginning of 1920. Types of boat, details of administration may change, but the life and traditions of the service are surely ageless.—THE EDITOR.