40 years ago From the pages of THE LIFEBOAT, April 1949 issue As the last of the sailing life-boats was replaced by a motor life-boat on the 12th oJDecember, 1948, the term motor life-boat will no longer be used. "Life-boat" will mean "motor life-boat" The one boat remaining which has not a motor, the second boat at Whitby, used only in the harbour entrance, will be called "the harbour pulling life-boat." At half-past eight in the morning of Sunday, the 12th of December, 1948,a new motor life-boat, the St Albans, arrived at New Quay, Cardigan after one of the stormiest passages which a lifeboat has ever had from the building yard to her station. She replaced the last of the pulling and sailing life-boats in the Institution's fleet.

The St Albans is a Liverpool boat, 35 feet 6 inches long, with a beam of 10 feet 8 inches, and is driven by a two 18-h.p. engines. She carries a crew of eight, and with gear and crew on board weighs 8 tons 5 hundredweight.

She is a gift to the Institution from the people of St. Albans.

The last sailing life-boat, which that day came to the end of her service, was the WtUiam Cantrell Ashley.

She was a Liverpool boat, 35 feet long with 10 feet beam. She was rigged with jib, fore lug and mizzen and had twelve oars...

When the St Albans arrived at New Quay the Wtfiiam Cantrell Ashley sailed out to meet her and the two boats were filmed by the B.B.C's television unit.

They were the first life-boats to be televised...

On the evening of the day after the St Albans arrived at New Quay, the secretary of the Institution, Colonel A.D. Burnett Brown, M.C., T.D., M.A., broadcast a farewell to the sailing life-boats in a news talk in the Home Service programme of the B.B.C.

"For over a century the old pulling and sailing lifeboats have braved the worst of the weather round our coasts...

"In those old life-boats there was not only danger and exposure, but often terrible toil. Once in the open sea they could set their sails, but to drive them through the surf, and again at the most dangerous moment of their task, when they came alongside the wreck, their crews had only the strength of their own bodies at the oars.

"From that toil the engines of the motor life-boats have freed the crews. But do not think that the dangers are less. The motor life-boats can travel further. They can come sooner to the rescue. They can manoeuvre much more swiftly when they approach the wreck. But they can take bigger risks. And they do take them...

"So the work goes on, with a greater hope of rescuing life. But the dangers remain." Col Burnett Brown's words still ring true today, at a time when the Institution is working to station a new generation of fast lifeboats around the coast. Their advantages over the older boats could be said to be similar to those of the motor lifeboats over the sailing lifeboats - 'But they can take bigger risks. And they do take them... the dangers remain'..