Twin pedal power For Northfleet Carnival I built a lifeboat round my bicycle and here is a photograph of 'yours truly' at the helm (or should I say handlebars?) while pedalling along in the carnival on July 1. We had a collection while we went along which realised £15.25, plus many funny comments. 'Hello sailor', was my favourite. Several little boys ran alongside singing out, 'Mister, what's making you go along?' At one point when the procession stopped for a short break I stood astride the crossbar and, while talking to my two helpers, rocked the lifeboat from side to side.

That was when a man came up and jokingly asked me to keep the lifeboat still as I was making him feel seasick! It took me about 16 days to build the lifeboat, which is 10ft LOA with a 4ft beam. I bolted two iron bars to my bicycle frame and then built a wooden frame to which I tacked cardboard boxes. I also used cardboard to make the cabin, lights and sampson post. For masts and handrails I used dowel. The signal flags are all hand painted, using matt oil paints, the bow fender I made out of hemp rope.

To 'launch' my boat for trials I had to remove part of my neighbour's fence and go through her garden! She was so delighted with the lifeboat that she came down and placed a 50p piece on the deck. Her father had been picked up three times by lifeboat in the second world war.

Being a deckhand with the Alexandra Towing Co of London, I always had an interest in the lifeboat service, but three things made me want to do more for lifeboats. The first was in 1968 when I was in the crew of one of our tugs, MT Ionia, stationed at Harwich.

We went to the aid of a small German coaster, MV Hermar, aground on the Shipwash Sands. We left Harwich at 2043 and returned with Hermar in tow at 0430 the next morning. This job was done in dense fog, and all the time Harwich lifeboat, the 44ft Waveney Margaret Graham, assisted us and stood by. I thought it was very good of those lads in the crew of Margaret Graham, as after all they could have been at home in comfort.

Then there were the two lifeboat disasters in 1969 and 1970, at Longhope and Fraserburgh. I joined Gravesend branch in 1971 and the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society in 1972.—PETER H.

w. BOYD, box secretary, Gravesend branch, II Gatwick Road, Gravesend, Kent.

Lerwick lifeboat Being an ex-Shetlander I was very interested in the news that a new lifeboat would soon be stationed in Lerwick. My uncle, the late G. T. Kay, was Lerwick's first honorary secretary away back many years when he himself owned a famous Lerwick yacht called Sold/an. I have made many trips round the Shetland Isles in this boat which was so seaworthy she might have been almost as unsinkable as the new Soldian! I am sure my uncle, and indeed his brother my father, would have been honoured to know that the name Soldian has been chosen for Lerwick's new 52ft Arun lifeboat.

As a youngster away back in the '20s and '30s I was always interested in Lerwick lifeboat. She used to lie moored to a buoy just off the south end of the harbour and never far away from my uncle's Soldian. In fact, these two boats were usually the first to be passed by the mail steamers as they came in from Aberdeen.—JAMES R. KAY, 9 St Luke's Avenue, Maidstone, Kent.

'The Miracle of Dunkirk' I am completing a book about Dunkirk and would like very much to get in touch with anyone who participated in those stirring days. If any of your readers can help, I would greatly appreciate hearing from them.—WALTER LORD, do Penguin Books Ltd, 17 Grosvenor Gardens, London SWI.

Lifeboats at model regatta I was most interested to read the letter from Des Newton in the summer journal referring to the increasing interest by modellers in lifeboats. I feel that Mr Newton's ideas for raising funds, while good, could perhaps be taken a stage further, the eventual result of which to be a contribution towards the cost of a new lifeboat.

At present there is a thriving modelling fraternity covering many clubs, with supporting retail trade and periodicals.

With all this enthusiasm I am sure that a modellers' lifeboat scheme could have results.—R. s. BECK, PRO, Rosyth Civil Service Model Ship Club, 46 Hudson Road, Rosyth, Dunfermline, Fife.

Peter Boyd pedals his bicycle lifeboat 'RNLB Gatwick Road' along in Northfleet Carnival.

photograph by courtesy of 'Gravesend and Dartford Reporter'.