• Storms brought devastation to Margate during the winter of 1978, destroying its pier and wrecking the lifeboat station. However, as a result of the research which followed to replace the lost service boards of Margate's lifeboats, station honorary secretary Alan Wear was able to gather material for a 24 page booklet which commemorates The First 125 Years, from 1860- 1985. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, as the saying goes. . . .

Beginning with a report in the Kentish Gazette of April 1860 of the RNLI's decision to establish a station at Margate, Alan Wear goes on to describe the lifeboats, their crews and some of the notable rescues they have carried out.

Almost all of the 24 pages are illustrated with black and white photographs. Of historical interest is the station's link with the Civil Service Post Office and British Telecom Lifeboat Fund, the biggest single supporter of the RNLI, which has so far provided no fewer than 40 lifeboats. Margate received the very first of these in 1898, and another four subsequently.

Margate lifeboat played an important part in the second world war, notably in taking 600 British servicemen off the beaches of Dunkirk. Also during the war the lifeboat rescued Richard Hillary, a descendant of Sir William Hillary, the RNLI's founder, when the aircraft he was piloting was shot down.

The First 125 Years is published by Margate station branch and sold in aid of station funds. Copies cost £1.00 at Margate lifeboat station and £1.30, including post and packing, from Mr A.

Wear, BA, 7 Friendly Close, Cliftonville, Margate CT9 3LL..—H.D.

• Frank Kilroy, whose article appears on page 299 of this issue, has undertaken a great deal of research in connection with the centenary of the Mexico disaster and his work is now available in an 80-page illustrated book. Mr Kilroy goes into considerable detail in covering the circumstances leading up to the wreck of the Mexico, the actions of the three lifeboats from Southport, St Annes and Lytham and the aftermath of the disaster in which 27 lifeboatmen died. The most lasting effect was the Lancashire businessman Sir Charles Macara's founding of Lifeboat Saturdays, the first ever charity street collections.

Macara's biographer said "He brought charity into the streets and the streets into charity", but he was later to argue with the RNLI about the organisation of collections, probably, as Mr Kilroy suggests, because of his desire for sole management of his brain-child.

Macara's other great achievement was to raise a fund for the widows and orphans of the disaster, and Mr Kilroy chronicles the poverty of many of the families involved. One crewman who was lost had only eaten a bowl of gruel all day, preferring to use his meagre resources to look after his family.

The story of the Mexico is one of great courage and sacrifice and this full account, illustrated, with fascinating photographs, is available at £1.95 (£2.40 including post and packing) from Frank Kilroy, 35 Ripon Road, Ansdell, Lytham St Annes, Lanes.—R.K.

• The Lifeline—A history of the Aberdeen lifeboats 1925-1985 has been written by the present coxswain, Norman Trewren, and is available from him at PO Box 191, Aberdeen AB9 8XZ, price £9.95, plus £2.05 postage and packing.

It is a large soft-backed book which recounts the outstanding rescues of the Aberdeen lifeboats since the RNLI took over the station in 1925. The accounts are vividly illustrated with black and white photographs of the crews, wrecks and occasionally the actual rescues. Services vary from the "inland" rescues at Waterside Farm in 1937 and Mill Inn in 1951 to the famous Netta Croan chase of 1974 and the British Airways helicopter of 1980. The narrative clearly describes the terror and tragedy of some of the rescues and this extract from the account of the service to the trawler Roslin in 1937 is a good example: "By now it was around 2.00 am and the Roslin could be seen lying some 200 to 300 yards south of the river's mouth. She was a terrible sight as she lay in the surf, almost submerged by now and swept from end to end by every passing sea. In the glare of their searchlight the lifeboat's crew were horrified to see men clinging to the foremast rigging and it was also noticed that the upper part of the wreck's wheelhouse had disappeared.

"Despite the urgency of the situation, conditions were such that it took a long half-hour before Coxswain Sinclair was able to bring the lifeboat close enough for a line to be thrown to the survivors in the rigging. No less than six times he ran in, and on each occasion was contemptuously thrown aside by the huge breaking seas.

During one approach the lifeboat's forefoot was thrown above the level of the trawler's bulwarks and then smashed down to cause considerable damage forward.

At last a line was grasped by one of the soaked survivors and he immediately attempted to tie it around one of his shipmates who seemed to be in a poor state. The man lost his grip before the line could be secured and without a sound he dropped heavily on to the deck below. A moment later a huge sea crashed on board and when it had gone there was no trace of him . . . " A meeting with a submarine during the last war, foreign service with the RAF in the Azores by George and Elizabeth Gow the No 2 (surf) lifeboat, dissatisfaction with the open wheelhouse of Hilton Briggs and hundreds of other fascinating facts and stories fill the 160 pages. An appendix containing a full record of services by Aberdeen lifeboats and the station's lifesaving apparatus completes the book.

The Lifeline is a must for all lifeboat enthusiasts and a treat for those who enjoy reading about the amazing feats of lifeboatmen and their boats. The publication costs of the first edition have been generously borne by Shell UK Exploration and Protection, so that all proceeeds may go directly to the RNLI.—G.p.

• Tales of Watchet Harbour (The Somerset Port of a Thousand Years) by W. H. (Ben) Norman costs £3.90 (plus 60p postage and packing) and is available from the author at Lynn Cottage, Mill Lane, Watchet, Somerset TA23 OAR. Its intriguing 160 pages trace the development of a very old Somerset seaport. Stories of Watchet's fine fleet of sailing ships and tales of fishermen, lifeboatmen, smugglers and harbourside characters are well illustrated by photographs and amusing drawings.

Viking raids in 914 AD, the capture of a ship by a troop of horsemen during the Civil War in the early 1600s, smuggling in the 1800s, the storm disaster of 1900, the unfortunate boatman who painted his boat with war surplus paint—the same paint that was used on bombing targets—are but a few of the topics covered in this book.

A chapter is also devoted to the Watchet lifeboats, their rescues and the successful fight to prevent closure of the station in 1900, including the actual letter written to the RNLI which changed the Institution's mind. Local songs, traditions and folklore are also recorded iii this fascinating book.—G.P.

• There are many problems that the skipper of a small craft has to face in a commercial harbour, particularly in a world where ports are changing from the use of lights and shapes to control traffic to systems based on VHP radiotelephony. Bernard Hayman's Harbour Seamanship (Pergamon Press, £15.00 hard cover, £9.50 flexicover) has recently been published to iron out some of these problems. He gives valuable advice on the seamanship required by yachtsmen in confined waters and also concentrates on how the modern systems of controlling traffic by radio will effect small craft. The book contains a free 'Coast and Port Radio' supplement, giving all available data on radio regulations used by all harbours in the U.K. and from Brest to the River Elbe on the Continent.

• The International Register of Historic Ships, by Norman J. Brouwer, recently published in association with the World Ship Trust, (£18, plus £2.50 postage and packing from: Anthony Nelson Ltd, PO Box 9, Oswestry SY11 1BY) contains 400 photographs and includes information on over 700 historic ships..