The RNLI in Ireland Having been for more than 21 years honorary secretary of one of the busiest lifeboat stations in Ireland, I was naturally much interested by the fine article in the spring issue of THE LIFEBOAT by my friend Brian Clark, as well as by the late Captain Hall's recollections of his stint as Irish district inspector. May I be permitted to add a few historical notes to these? The barque wrecked at Seapoint, Co.

Dublin, on Christmas Eve 1895 was not Norwegian but Finnish. Her crew and passengers were later rescued by the Irish Lights 'Commissioners' tender Tearaght. Relics of the rescue recording the skill and courage of the late Captain McCombie of the Irish Lights were unearthed by Brian Clark quite recently. Until last year there had always been relatives of one or other of the 15 victims of the 1895 disaster in the crew of the Dun Laoghaire boat. The last left us last year: our very popular motor mechanic, Charlie Blackmore, who in 30 years to his retirement, had taken part in 219 services, 26 of them in gale conditions and six in dense fog, resulting in all in the rescue of 178 people.

He is now caretaker at the recently automated East Pier Lighthouse at Dun Laoghaire. Opposite the local lifeboat station is a granite plinth bearing the names of the 1895 victims.

Brian Clark briefly records that 'the Ballast Board', which was the popular title of the Corporation for the Preservation of the Port of Dublin, ancestor of the present Dublin Port and Docks Board, 'had disposed a number of lifeboats round Dublin Bay at the beginning of the (nineteenth) century'.

The Dun Laoghaire and Howth lifeboat stations are very proud of their pre-RNLI origin, which, I feel, deserves rather greater attention than Brian Clark affords it. A committee of the pre-Union Irish Parliament, abolished in 1800, had taken public evidence from master mariners and others of the notorious perils of Dublin Bay in those days, and in consequence the port authority had been asked and had agreed to set up stations with lifeboats round Dublin Bay. These first stations, at Howth, Sutton, Old Dunleary, Sandycove and Dalkey, make up, so far as fairly extensive researches lead me to believe, the first co-ordinated lifeboat service in European history, previously-established lifeboat stations in England and the Netherlands having been single, isolated local stations. (But one historian of the Netherlands lifeboat services states that a co-ordinated lifeboat service existed round Canton as early as 1737.) The Dublin Bay service was active in the lifesaving business from its inception.

Not only are there references to its services in numbers of the influential 'Naval Chronicle' of the first decade of the last century, but, thanks to the care taken of its archives by Harry Gilligan, secretary of Dublin Port and Docks Board, and some of his predecessors, records have survived of a number of its rescues—crews' names, ships served, numbers rescued and so on. Dublin Port continued to control the Dublin Bay lifeboats (whose earliest boats, incidentally, cost just under £100), long after the RNLI entered the Irish scene with the establishment of the Arklow station in 1826.

It was not indeed till the appalling gale of February 1861, in which a score of ships and many lives were lost in the Dublin area, showed up the defects of the boats provided by the port authority that the RNLI took over the three remaining Dublin Bay stations, Howth, Dun Laoghaire and Poolbeg.

In the early years of the Dublin Bay lifeboat service the outstanding figure was a Co. Kildare man, William Hutchison, former naval officer, then haven master at Bulloch, Dalkey, and later first harbour master at Dun Laoghaire.

This remarkable man, an outstanding figure in Irish nineteenth century maritime history, was the first Irish lifeboatman to win the Shipwreck Institution (later RNLI) gold medal, for the rescue of the crew of the collier Duke aground in a gale at Sandycove Point in 1829. Last year Mr Gilligan, whose interest in William Hutchison had been aroused when our researches began to reveal what an exceptional man he was, obtained from Mrs Joan Blundell, resident in England, a great-granddaughter of the recipient, Hutchison's original gold medal for display at the newly-established Irish National Maritime Museum in the former Mariners' Church, Dun Laoghaire, where William Hutchison worshipped, and on one of whose walls there is a plaque to his memory.

After the RNLI took over Dun Laoghaire station, William Hutchison became its first honorary secretary.

When, following the drowning of my predecessor Captain Kearon, I was appointed honorary secretary here I was, quite unknown to myself, living in the house where Hutchison had lived as RNLI honorary secretary, Dun Laoghaire.—JOHN DE COURCY IRELAND, station honorary secretary, Dun Laoghaire, Caprera, Grosvenor Terrace, Sorrento Road, Dalkey, Co.

Dublin, Ireland.

Knock for knock? As a close reader of the journal for many years, I have come to the conclusion that few of the ways of raising funds which are thought to be original are, in fact, unique; but I think that the one I am about to relate is probably unusual.

Last February I parked our family car by the kerb for a few minutes and returned just in time to see it receive a heavy blow on the front bumper from a much larger car. The bumper was pushed out of line and the offending driver, a company director, gave me the card of his company who subsequently agreed to meet the cost of repairs. It proved a simple matter to restore to the apparently normal appearance; but a bracket had been left a few millimetres out of shape. Having regard to the disturbance necessary to get it off for treatment, it was decided to let ill alone.

Telling the company that they would therefore have nothing to pay, I suggested that as a thank-offering they might like to make a donation to our local branch, and, lo and behold, they sent them £10.

This is not to be taken as suggesting that dedicated supporters might leave their cars in vulnerable positions in the hope of raising funds in a similar manner! —NORMAN CLARKE, honorary information officer, 41 Victoria Road, Colchester, Essex.

Lifeboats at model regatta Two years ago Crosby Model Club adopted a lifeboat and each year holds a model boat regatta at which we collect around the lakeside for our lifeboat. In the past we have given demonstrations using models to simulate rescues and staged mock battles with model warships. We have just had another idea.

With model lifeboats becoming so popular we thought it would be a good idea to give lifeboat modellers a chance to get together, to exchange ideas and at the same time help raise funds. If enough modellers would like to come to our regetta we will give them a display stand and models will be judged for authenticity and appearance on the water by representatives of the RNLI.

A trophy, to be held for one year, would be given to the modeller whose boat received the highest marks, with a duplicate for the winner to keep.

I shall be happy to hear from anyone interested so that we can assess the possibility of this idea; for further information please send to me a stamped addressed envelope.—DES NEWTON, press officer, Crosby Model Club, 29 Westminster Avenue, Bootle 10, Merseyside, L30 5QY..