• Commenting on Yacht Signalling by Bernard Hayman (Nautical Books, Macmillan, £8.95) Rear Admiral W. J.

Graham, director of the Institution, wrote: 'This most comprehensive book on signalling to and from yachts is sure to make a significant contribution to safety at sea for yachtsmen.' Bernard Hayman, who was editor of Yachting World for many years, has cruised extensively in his own sailing yacht. He is also an auxiliary coastguard and has represented yachting with Department of Trade committees on navigation and search and rescue. His other work for the seafaring community includes long service on the Royal Yachting Association Council and also on the RNLI's Public Relations Committee, of which he is deputy chairman.

For many years deeply interested in communications and the vital part they play in good seamanship, Mr Hayward has now, in Yacht Signalling, compiled the first complete guide and text book on every kind of signalling in small craft, with particular attention to radio telephony.

It is pleasing to note the emphasis placed by the author on the importance of fitting marine VHP radios in yachts, especially now that more and more lifeboats are being equipped with VHP direction finders. It is also good to find that instructions on distress and urgency messages by VHP radio are printed clearly and prominently on the endpapers, front and back, so that they are immediately to hand, whichever way the book is opened! Whatever subject Bernard Hayman writes about, his readers can be sure that his work will be meticulous, exhaustive and authoritative, and Yacht Signalling is a book which every yachtsman should buy and study diligently.— E.G.

• Even today after two world wars the scale of the invaluable, and often heroic, contribution made by the citizen sailors of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve is but rarely appreciated. In this book London's Navy: A Story of the RNVR (Quiller Press, £9.95) Gordon Taylor traces the history of the volunteer naval forces from their inception to the present day. Although primarily concerned with the London Division a large portion of the text applies equally to the whole of the RNVR; now perhaps regrettably, merged with the professional seamen of the RNR who are in fact also volunteers.

The author was a chaplain RNVR and served afloat with the Royal Navy from 1940 until the end of hostilities, subsequently becoming chaplain to the London Division, and he tells an absorbing tale. One point of particular interest, probably not generally known, is that by the end of World War II 80 per cent of naval personnel was drawn from the RNVR; these were men with intense love of their country and of the sea.

One minor omission perhaps was the failure to mention the ready response of the London and other Divisions to the naval mobilisation at the time of the Munich crisis in 1938. A cheerful party from President boarded Aquitania in Southampton at the end of September and the ship, escorted by two R class battleships and four destroyers, set sail for the Far East via Suez. But Mr Chamberlains's 'peace in our time' sent them and the ship home again from Port Said after a hilarious voyage enjoyed by all. From then on President became very busy.

Interesting and useful appendices contain biographies of London Division personalities and some entertaining poems and songs. This book deserves an honoured place on the shelves of all those amateur seamen who became such efficient and valuable officers in World War II and those following in their footsteps.—E.W.M.

• Once again Grahame Farr, honorary archivist of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts' Society, has produced a reference work which will give great help to all those interested in the detailed history of early lifeboats. He is working on comprehensive Lists of British Lifeboats, and has just published the first part; Non Self-righting Pulling and Sailing Boats, 1775-1916. Not only are details and basic plans of each type of boat assembled for easy reference, with meticulous cross indexing, but the work is prefaced by a survey of the origins of the lifeboat which draws together all that it is authoritatively known of the earliest days of endeavour to save the lives of seafarers.

Lists of British Lifeboats, Part 1 is available from the author, Grahame Farr, 98 Combe Avenue, Portishead, Bristol, BS20 9JX, price £2 post free anywhere in the UK.—J.D.

• Jeff Morris has recently published two more station history booklets to add to the 14 he has already written; both are researched, written and produced to his normal very high standards.

The Story of the Fleetwood Lifeboats begins in November 1858 when the RNLI's Committee of Management agreed to form a lifeboat station at Fleetwood. The first Fleetwood lifeboat, apparently un-named, arrived in March 1859; she was a 30ft self-righting Peake lifeboat rowing six oars, built by Forrestt of Limehouse at a cost of £140-ls-0d. Fleetwood's present lifeboat, the 44ft Waveney Lady of Lancashire, cost considerably more to build, but both lifeboats, and all the others stationed at Fleetwood, have their own place in the station's illustrious history of saving life at sea. Copies of the booklet are available from the honorary secretary, Mr R. T. Willoughby, 14 Bucknell Place, Bispham, Blackpool, price 80p plus 20p postage and packing.

The second booklet is The Story of the Ramsgate Lifeboats, another station with a long history of sea rescues. The service which is generally regarded as one of the finest in the Institution's history is recounted; it is the service in 1881 to the barque Indian Chief which had run aground on the Long Sand in heavy seas and a full north-easterly gale. Such were the atrocious sea and weather conditions that the lifeboat Bradford did not return to Ramsgate until she had been out on service for 26 hours. Copies of the booklet are available from Mrs V. Oakley, 18 Queen's Avenue, Ramsgate, Kent, price 75p plus 25p postage and packing.—S.J.G.

• Those yachtsmen who first made the acquaintance of Malcolm Robson's collection of plans and sketches in his Channel Islands Pilot with its profuse use of illustrated transits and leading lines, will welcome two additions to the series: French Pilot Volume 3 (Raz de Sein to Belle Isle) and French Pilot Volume 4 (Morbihan to the Gironde) by Malcolm Robson (Nautical Books, Macmillan, £14.95 each). The reviewer had these two books with him while making passage from St Jean de Luz to Poole, and had the opportunity to use Volume 4 entering La Rochelle and Volume 3 when making a call at Hoedic. At both ports of call the books were of great assistance in identifying lights and landmarks. These books are recommended for those who sail by day on the lookout for secluded and picturesque havens away from the hurlyburly of the ports de plaisance, but they must be prepared to rest on bilge-keels or legs as most of the places described dry out.—K.M.

• Three books have recently appeared on different aspects of one vital subject: lights for the guidance of mariners by night in coastal water.

Keepers of the Sea by Richard Woodman (Terence Dalton, £11.95) is a most attractive publication, well illustrated with many photographs. The author sets out to recall the history of yachts and tenders of Trinity House, the men who have manned them over the centuries and the essential work they have performed. It is an interesting account of the work of laying and maintaining buoys to mark approaches to our harbours, the relieving of crews of lighthouses and lightvessels and many other duties in both peace and war. Throughout the book the story is interestingly linked to what was happening at the time. Whether it was the part played in 1797 by Trinity House in preventing the mutineers at the Nore getting their ships to sea by the removal of the buoys and lights in the Thames Estuary, or the laying of buoys in 1944 to mark the channels to the D-Day beaches, the narrative is beautifully told. This is a book all who are interested in our maritime history should read.

Lights of East Anglia by Neville Long (Terence Dalton, £6.95) is a history of six of the major navigational lights on the East Anglian coast. It has been very well researched from a considerable number of sources, many of them extremely scanty. The author has pieced together this wide range of detail to make an interesting account of how each lighthouse came into being, the almost insurmountable difficulties that their builders had to overcome and the unending battle against subsidence, sea encroachment and erosion on this treacherous part of the English coast.

The introduction is particularly interesting, describing the build-up of coastal sea trade down the east coast occasioned by the demand of London for coal at the beginning of the seventeenth century. By the end of that century, fleets of 300 or 400 colliers would leave the Tyne all at one time, hoping by their very number to achieve a safe passage to London. The casualty rate was nevertheless enormous.

In an author's note, Neville Long makes the point that his book is mainly about the past and no part of it should be relied on for navigational purposes.

While this is an extremely important point, this book added to a yacht's book rack could well help skipper and crew to enjoy an off duty hour or while away time spent at anchor waiting a change in tide or weather.

Lighthouses by Don and Margaret Macpherson (Hamish Hamilton, £3.95) is a children's book in the seven to ten age group. It is attractively produced in stiff cover form and is well illustrated.

The opening pages explain about ancient sea marks, lights, lighthouses and beacons. The authors then go on to recount the story of the Eddystone Rock and the men who built the four different lighthouses that have stood on this reef since 1960. The final pages cover more general considerations: an outline of the life in a rock lighthouse, lightvessels and finally instructions on how to make a paper model of a lighthouse.

On the front and back endpapers can be found the names and positions of no fewer than 138 important lighthouses in the world, but this is by no means all of them. Two notable omissions in British waters are the Bishop and Wolf Rock lighthouses. Nevertheless, this is a book written in language a child will understand and contains information helpful to improving general knowledge.— A.P.M.W.

• The yachtsman who faces the long haul across the Atlantic for the first time cannot fail to be daunted by the long, and costly, list of charts and publications which he is advised to consult before setting sail. Now, in an excellent publication, The Atlantic Crossing Guide edited by Philip Allen for the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation (Adlard Coles, £17.50), all the wisdom and experience of countless yachtsmen who have made the passage, and hints on wind and weather, currents and optimum routes in the various seasons have been collected from the routeing charts and pilots, collated, distilled and presented in a single cover.

The book is in four parts: preparations, ocean passage routes, the islands (as possible staging posts) and port information. The last part includes plans of the harbours of terminal ports and intermediate ports of call or refuge with lists of the facilities available at each and their quality.

It is significant that the book costs less than NP 136 Ocean Passages of the World which would be only one of the many books with which the yachtsman would otherwise have to arm himself in the absence of this invaluable book.— K.M.

• The memories of storms past linger from generation to generation and Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks by Ted Goddard (Hughes, £6.95) opens with the impact at Milford Haven of the great storm of 1703 during which, all round the coasts of Britain more than 150 ships were wrecked and about 8,000 people lost their lives. The south-west coast of Wales and its offlying islands are open to the full force of Atlantic gales and, in this busy seaway, over the years many a sailing ship, coaster, tanker or yacht has come to grief on its rocky shores.

The story of disaster, however, is mitigated by the record of gallantry of the lifeboatmen of Pembrokeshire, much of which is remembered in this book. Here, for instance, is related the service by Fishguard lifeboat on December 3, 1920, to the Dutch motor schooner Hermina for which the gold medal was awarded to Coxswain John Howells, the silver medal to Second Coxswain Thomas Davies, Motor Mechanic Robert Simpson and Crew Member Thomas Holmes, while bronze medals were awarded to the rest of the crew. Here, too, can be found a record of the service to the tanker World Concord which broke in two in hurricane force winds in the Irish Sea on November 27, 1954; this was a service for which Coxswain William Watts Williams of St David's and Coxswain Richard Walsh of Rosslare were both awarded the silver medal. At the end of the book, as well as a bibliography including newspapers and journals, is a chronology of wreck and rescue in the area.

Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, well written and illustrated, is a useful addition to the library of lifesaving at sea.—J.D.

• Among other books which have been received recently are: A new Times Atlas of the Oceans (Times Books, £30), a magnificent production charting ocean environment, resources and trade and going on to such subjects as pollution and strategic use of the sea and maritime archaeology.

A fascinating work for those deeply interested in the sea.

Alarm Starboard! by Geoffrey Brooke (Patrick Stephens, £9.95) is a true story of war at sea, tracing the author's fortunes from pre-war midshipman in a flagship which was mined in 1939 to service in a Pacific carrier which was hit by two kamikazes in 1945. In writing this very personal account of service in the Royal Navy in wartime, the author has not relied on memory alone; he had preserved a store of contemporary papers himself and his mother had kept all his letters home, passages from which are in places quoted verbatim.

For a little light relief, perhaps for the yachtman's Christmas seaboot stocking, what about The Pick of Peyton, a collection of Mike Peyton's sailing cartoons gathered into a book published by Nautical Books, Macmillan (£4.95). In a foreword, Giles, who has given many of his own cartoons for RNLI Christmas cards, remembers once going out with Uffa Fox when, for him, at least 50 Peyton calamities happened on one short sail! All, he adds, generously overlooked by the great-hearted Uffa.

Sea Jargon (Patrick Stephens, £6.95) claims to be the first dictionary of the unwritten language of the sea 'in all its colour, vulgarity and humour'. The author Lew Lind is a Navy public relations officer and foundation National President of the Naval Historical Society of Australia, and entries for this dictionary come from a variety of sources. Here is an opportunity to discover the origins and meaning of many sayings which have slipped into everyday use in our language..