• Peter Mitchell's book The Wrecker's Guide to South West Devon has been written in response to the demands of the thousands of diving enthusiasts who each year travel to the West Country in search of the wrecks which litter its rugged coastline.

He has managed to combine a comprehensive guide to these underwater landmarks with a useful history of each of the principal wrecks, together with an account of the stirring efforts made by local lifeboat crews to rescue those on board the stricken craft.

Mr Mitchell is a keen diver and a Shoreline member of several years' standing—a happy combination which has produced a very readable and authoritative guide, published by Sound Diving Publications, of Queen Annes Battery, Coxside, Plymouth, Devon and priced at £5.95.—N.H.

• As a fellow Old Worcester (the authors are both former cadets of HMS Worcester) and a long-standing supporter of the RNLI, I congratulate Christopher Willis and Edward H. Roberts on their account of the Worcester Cadet in her 12 years of service at Brighstone, Isle of Wight (1880-1892), in their book The Lifeboats of Brighstone Bay.

With the close co-operation of the Brook and Atherstone lifeboats a total of 379 lives were saved during this period, achieved with voluntary crews" in lifeboats propelled by oars and launched under severe difficulties, sometimes transhipping from one beach to another because of unfavourable conditions of wind, tide and sea.

It needs no reminder that all the gallant work of the RNLI coxswains and crew was not without its tragedy and indeed in the rescue of the crew of the Sirenia, the lifeboat overturned and the coxswain and the second coxswain and two members of the ship's crew were lost, although the remaining 22 managed to reach the beach.

With the name of Brook we remember the close attachment to the RNLI of the Seely family of Brook House. Jack Seely, the First Lord Mottistone, was a crew member for 40 years and in the 1930s served as the coxswain. UnderLord Asquith he was Secretary of State for War and was a personal friend of Sir Winston Churchill. As quoted "he must be the only Cabinet Minister to have been a lifeboat crew member".

The Lifeboats of Brighstone Bay is published by the Isle of Wight County Press, 29 High Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, price £2.55 (plus postage and packing).—G . H . E . w.

• The prolific pen of Jeff Morris (the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society's Honorary Archivist) has been busy again, adding The Story of the Staithes and Runswick Lifeboats to his growing list of lifeboat station histories.

It was in 1866 that the small fishing village of Runswick, nestling in a picturesque bay just north of Whitby, was allocated its first lifeboat, a 10-oared self-righting boat paid for by the people of Sheffield and named after that city.

Nine years later a similar boat was stationed at nearby Staithes, the Hannah Somerset, heralding the start of many years of joint efforts and friendly rivalry between the two lifeboat crews.

The station at Staithes closed down in 1922, following a decline in the number of cobles fishing from the village and problems in getting a crew together for the lifeboat. Six years later it re-opened as the fishing industry enjoyed a rebirth.

Manning problems saw the station close for a second time in 1938, but after the second world war—during which the Runswick boat answered 20 calls, saving six lives (all on one service)—the two villages became even closer, with Staithes men manning the Runswick boat.

This came about because of a decline in the Runswick fishing industry at a time when more and more young menat Staithes were turning to this traditional way of earning a living.

The final (?) twists in this tale of two lifeboat stations came in 1978, when Staithes was re-opened with one of the RNLI's new high speed rigid inflatable Atlantic 21 lifeboats. Runswick was closed in the same year, leaving the Staithes boat Lord Brotherton to carry on the valiant work of the Staithes and Runswick lifeboatmen.

The Story of the Staithes and Runswick Lifeboats is available by post from Mrs Peggy Theaker, "Cardyff', 16 Fairfield Road, Staithes, Nr Saltburn, Cleveland, price £1 plus 25p p&p—N.H.

• To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first in the popular Observers series, Penguin Books have re-launched 12 titles.

The Observers Ships (Penguin Books, £3.50), one of the updated dozen, includes a section on the RNLI—sadly, not completely up-to-date—as well as a comprehensive catalogue of ship types and general nautical information.

• For those anxious to learn how to sail without calling upon the services of the RNLI, Sailing, A Beginners' Manual, written by national sailing coach John Driscoll, is recommended.

Sailing, published by Fernhurst Books, in association with the Royal Yachting Association, costs £4.95.— N.H.

• Shipwreck, written by Clifford Temple is a well documented, factual and concise catalogue of shipwrecks and rescues off the East Anglian coast. A former sailor, Mr Temple recorded many of these events on film and has managed to capture his many memories in a visual form. His accounts of various shipwrecks are clear, uncluttered and contain some fascinating facts, while reflecting the extreme bravery and excellent seamanship of the lifeboat crews on the East Coast. In the back of the book he has profiled the lifeboat stations found on the East Coast. Overall, the book is well researched and presented and makes interesting reading.

Published by Tyndale and Panda Publishing Ltd, 117 High Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk, Shipwreck costs £6.95.—J.L-N.• Although many book titles promise far more than the contents deliver, Claud Powell's Radio Position Fixing for Yachtsmen which claims to be An Introduction to Decca, Loran, Omega and Transit is a handy soft-back from Adlard Coles Ltd at £5.95, which reveals clearly, yet concisely, in an easily readable nine chapters, a wealth of information on the principles and uses of hyperbolic navigation system packages available to and suitable for yachtsmen.

In spite of several magazine articles and series purporting to meet this end, they have generally amounted to rehashes of manufacturers' sales brochures and platitudes. Mr Powell clarifies the properties of hyperbolae, wave phases, time delays, chain and lattice geometry in a way which engenders comprehension and inspires confidence.

The mysteries of how different Decca sets process the radiated signals in different ways are revealed and the reader is left able to deduce for himself which hyperbolic system will best suit his needs.

Mr Powell, perhaps wisely, says little about solutions to the microprocessor problems of transforming positions from hyperbolic axes to latitudes and longitudes, other than to stress that resolution to one hundredth parts of a minute may be justifiable only where the lattice cut is near 90°.

Whether this book helps a yachtsman to select his specific model of apparatus or not, it will certainly make him a much wiser and more cautious navigator than will the manufacturer's Operator's Manual, and in a delightful foreword by Michael Richey MBE the essential Government health warning is administered to the effect that radio hyberbolic navigational aids are to be regarded as being in addition to more traditional aids, not in substitution of them.—P.J.B.

• Published as part of the British Marine Industries Federation's campaign "Get Afloat, Get A Boat", Libby Purves' and Paul Heiney's light-hearted look at sailing, How to find the perfect boat and live happily ever after (Conway Maritime Press, £4.95), has its serious side too.

Recognising the importance of matching the right boat to the right person and putting both on the right stretch of water for their limitations, the authors have devised a common sense guide to making that first all-important step—finding the right vessel.

The book's few gentle reminders on safety and its general tone could have inspired the authors to give it the sub-title "How to avoid being rescued".

Their kindly comments about the lifeboat service and their inclusion of the RNLI in a handy list of organisations, clubs, books and magazines within the slim volume perhaps hint at a sequel along those lines?—N.H..