THE LIFEBOAT ORGANISATIONS of the world are to a large extent concentrated in Europe. Taking the wider aspect of general sea rescue, outside Europe it is mainly in the hands of the naval services or, as in the United States and Canada, an organisation closely allied to the navy: the Coast Guard. Unlike the British Coastguard —and the fact that we spell it as one word and the US and Canada as two will have been noted—the US and Canadian Coast Guard are very much sea-going services and carry out a wide variety of tasks of which sea rescue may not be considered the major one.

The US Coast Guard (USCG) is responsible for the provision and maintenance of all navigational marks, work undertaken in Britain by Trinity House. It also operates ice-breakers, runs the North Atlantic iceberg patrol and for good measure does a certain amount of law enforcement. There is also a large and enthusiastic Auxiliary Coast Guard organisation which has an attractive uniform and undertakes a number of general Coast Guard duties under supervision.

The USCG fleet is an imposing one and includes a wide variety of vessels ranging from fine sea-going cutters to 44ft steel lifeboats and small open boats. There is also an extensive air arm and it is interesting to note that the USCG considers the amphibious helicopter to be the most versatile sea rescue craft.

Canada has a fleet on much the same lines as the US and performs much the same duties. The two services work in close co-operation in their adjacent waters. The Canadian Coast Guard has operated hovercraft for some years and has recently added the latest types to its fleet. Its other specialised search and rescue vessels consist of three large and nine small rescue cutters, 14 self-righting lifeboats, seven crash boats, a catamaran and 30 inshore rescue boats. It is planned to increase the fleet in the next year or two by acquiring two small cutters for Prince Rupert and Campbell River, three small cutters for the Great Lakes, St Lawrence River and lower St Lawrence, a tug and a self-righting lifeboat for Newfoundland, a self-righting lifeboat for the Magdalen Islands and two SAR launches for Vancouver and Thunder Bay. A Volunteer Canadian Marine Rescue Auxiliary has also been organised by the Canadian Coast Guard during the past year.

Perhaps not surprisingly there is nothing like the concentration of rescue services in the southern hemisphere that there is in the north. There is of course a lot more water and a lot less land but nothing like the same amount of shipping or indeed population. Much of the coastal areas of the southern hemisphere are devoid of both industry and people and the need for lifeboat services correspondingly small.

In South America Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay all have sea rescue services both state controlled and voluntary but they are small in relation to the length of their coastlines by European standards.

In Argentina the search and rescue organisation is under the control of the commander in chief of the navy, with rescue stations at Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Puerto Belgrano and Ushuaia.

Brazil's sea rescue service is under the control of the naval operations command which operates five rescue stations and 13 rescue vessels which probably have other duties.

Chile has the Valparaiso Lifeboat Volunteer Institution, which was formed in 1925 by Captain Oluf Christiansen as a means of rescue for the crews of ships threatened by the heavy gales experienced in the Bay of Valparaiso in winter. Ex-RNLI lifeboats have been purchased for this service including one obtained in 1955. One of the more unusual services by Valparaiso lifeboat was the landing of an officer from a Chilean naval vessel riding out a gale in the bay. The officer was due to be married that day and the volunteer crew were delighted to help! The sea rescue service of Uruguay translates its comprehensive and mellifluous name as 'The Honorary Association of Maritime and River Salvage'.

This is perhaps misleading as the work is almost entirely devoted to saving life. The association is based at Mon- the Turks and Caicos Rescue Association, the Cayman Air-Sea Rescue Institute and the branch of the Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer established in Martinique. Plans are already advanced for the formation of a sea rescue organisation in the Netherlands Antilles.

Moving east across the wide expanse of the South Atlantic to South Africa we find that the Department of Transport is responsible for search and rescue. The commercial ports of South Africa are state controlled and the port captains are allocated areas of responsibility for sea rescue. The ports concerned are Port Nolloth, Cape Town, Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

For some reason East London appears to have been omitted.

In addition there is a flourishing and effective voluntary organisation, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).

It has a state subsidy and comes under the overall control of the Search and Rescue Committee in Pretoria (PECSAR). The NSRI has numerous rescue stations from Saldanha Bay on the south-west coast to Richards Bay north of Durban and operates a variety of high speed rescue craft. The NSRI has carried out many excellent rescues and has a high and well-deserved reputation.

Australia has a number of enthusiastic and efficient sea rescue teams round the coast, including the Australia Volunteer Coastguard, the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol and the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia, but never appears to have operated more than a few conventional lifeboats.

Probably the best known lifeboat was that at Queenscliff at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, the approach to Melbourne.

Records show that a lifeboat was stationed at Port Phillip Heads in 1853 and in view of the narrowness of the entrance, a sudden 90 degree turn to starboard and strong tides, it was clearly a dangerous spot for sailing ships. Entering in a large modern vessel one might well wonder how sailing craft managed to negotiate the entrance at all.

Later, lifeboats were stationed at Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Portland Bay and Port Albert, but there is no record of a lifeboat being stationed at Sydney or Freemantle although an exlifeboat served as a pilot boat at the latter port. A steam lifeboat of the RNL1 type was stationed at Adelaide in 1896 but apparently did very little service.

It was recently reported that a new lifeboat was being built for use at Queenscliff. In general it would seem that normal working craft are used for rescue work, backed up by the navy and air force. A Marine Operations Centre in Canberra co-ordinates all search and rescue operations, working 24 hours a day.

New Zealand has the Sumner Lifeboat Institution which was founded in 1898 as a voluntary organisation; it is still a flourishing and efficient service which has moved with the times. At present it operates an ex-RNLI Liverpool lifeboat and a fast jet-powered surf boat with top speed of about 30 knots, carrying out some fine rescues. The Sumner Institution is a member of the International Lifeboat Conference (ILC).

To the north and north-west of Australia and New Zealand lie the East Indies, China and Japan. Until recently only Japan was a member of the ILC with full details of her sea rescue services available. As might be expected of an island race with a great seafaring tradition, these are very comprehensive.

Japan has two sea rescue services —one a voluntary institution aided by municipal grants and the other state controlled through the Marine Safety Board (MSB) which has aircraft and rescue vessels stationed all round the coast.

The voluntary organisation, the Nippon Suinan Kyusaikai (NSK), or Japanese Lifesaving Institute, maintains 86 lifeboats ranging from 4.14 to 20 metres and has some 18,000 members in its branches. The NSK receives financial help from local authorities because they are required by law to provide assistance to aircraft and vessels in distress in their areas. The MSB also assists and encourages the voluntary institution in many ways.

China was at one time reported to have 200 lifeboats and more than a hundred rescue stations and it has been suggested that this rescue service was started in 1737, therefore pre-dating the first British lifeboat. No western historians have been able to confirm the truth of these reports. In 1979 China was represented for the first time at an international lifeboat conference. A report was presented on the rescue facilities afforded by the Shanghai, Suangzhou and Yantai Salvage Companies.

It will now be apparent that the sea rescue facilities provided by the members of the ILC, extensive as they are, still leave many miles of coastline and vast expanses of ocean without protection.

What happens to any vessel unfortunate enough to need help in these seemingly unfriendly areas? In the first place much of the coastline involved is uninhabited but where there are habitations the people may well do what they can for seamen in distress.

On the oceans of the world a ship in distress may look for help from any vessel near at hand but the nearest might be several hundred miles away.

This situation has been eased considerably by the introduction by the United States of the AMVER system, which stands for 'Automated Mutualassistance Vessel Rescue'. Ships' courses and speeds are fed into a computer and on receipt of a distress signal the nearest available ship for rescue is informed immediately. Prior to this a vessel in need of help would have to rely on a vessel within range picking up the broadcast distress signal.

But possibly the best chance of rescue that the mariner in some remote spot might have may come from an air organisation. The International Civil Airlines Organisation (ICAO), which has its headquarters in Ottawa, issues details and maps of a world-wide sea rescue service covering every mile of every route travelled by aircraft all over the world. There is no stretch of water flown over by aircraft which is not covered by both air and sea rescue craft, from helicopters to long range aircraft and including short range and long range sea craft. These facilities are provided by the various national authorities adjacent to the sea areas concerned and constitute the most extensive rescue service organised by any authority. Although primarily designed to deal with aircraft forced down into the sea, the ICAO rescue organisation has in the main dealt with ships and craft afloat, rather than aircraft, whose requirements for sea rescue have been mercifully small. No doubt the rescue facilities provided by the various countries under the ICAO arrangements are usually multipurpose and available for any rescue work.

So it will be seen that sea rescue facilities, not unnaturally, tend to be concentrated close to the busiest shipping lanes and that there are vast expanses of ocean where a ship is very much on her own. However, casualties in the wide ocean wastes are mercifully few and far between, the biggest danger to the mariner being the proximity of land. Nevertheless, some ships are lost far from land and nearly every year some unfortunate vessel disappears, often without a trace..