some r e c e n t p u b l i c a t i o n s r e v i e w e d THE STORY OF THE PWLLHELI LIFEBOATS (1891-1991) by Jeff Morris THE STORY OF THE FRASERBURGH LIFEBOATS by Jeff Morris Both published by Jeff Morris at £2 including p&p The prolific Honorary Archivist of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society has added two further titles to his 'Story of series of inexpensive booklets which examine in detail particular lifeboat stations or groups of stations.

As usual the author traces the history of the stations from their earliest days, 1891 in the case of Pwllheli, and has located some early photographs including one of the unusual 'tubular' lifeboat which served at this station on the Lleyn Peninsula for a short time after it was first opened. There is even a photograph of the boathouse at the same time, sitting in splendid isolation near Gimlet Rock in 1891 and contrasting with the more built-up scene in another photograph taken almost 100 years later.

Pwllheli now operates the RNLI's latest type of lifeboat, a carriage-launch Mersey class, and since 1964 has also had a D class inflatable. The services carried out by both the All-weather and Inshore lifeboats over the years are well documented and, as usual, Jeff Morris's book can be recommended to anyone with an interest in the work and history of lifeboats in the area.

The Story of the Pwllheli Lifeboats can be obtained from Mr C. Thomas, 102 Lon Ceredigion, Pwllheli, Gwynedd LL53 5PP for £2 including postage and packing.

Cheques should be made payable to' Pwllheli Lifeboat Crew - Book Account'.

The Story of the Fraserburgh Lifeboats takes a similar look at the Fraserburgh lifeboat station, which had one of the first lifeboats to be built and which was also the first RNLI lifeboat station in Scotland.

Fraserburgh has a long and distinguished lifeboat history, but the town has paid the price with the loss of no less than 13 lifeboatmen's lives in the course of several disasters. The most recent of course was within the memory of many of today's crews and supporters, the loss of The Duchess of Kent in January 1970 with just one survivor from her crew of six. The chilling photograph of the moment of her capsize appears in the book, and still haunts anyone who has contact with the sea or with the lifeboat service.

Although the station was non-operational for a few years following the disaster it was fully operational again by April 1979 and since 1985 has had a modern Tyne class lifeboat on station to cover the wild stretch of north-east facing coast around the port.

Copies of The Story of the Fraserburgh Lifeboats can be obtained for £2, including postage and packing, from Mrs T. Summers, 32 Cairnhill Drive, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire AB43 5ST.

SIMPLE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION by Mik Chinery Published by Fernhurst Books at £7.50 ISBN 0-906754-67-4 With electronic aids to navigation proliferating on small boats of all kinds and technology advancing on all fronts it is hardly surprising that a revised second edition of this volume has been required only three years after first publication.

Author Mik Chinery runs a powerboat school and has been involved in the incorporation of electronic navigation in RYA courses, a background which has enabled him to explain the principles and application of this still relatively new field.

Although he sounds the traditional warning that all electronics are aids to 'proper' navigation it is perhaps a sign of the times that he admits that many now see the chartand- pencil methods as aids to the electronics...

Also of note is that with increasingly user-friendly electronics one finds less in the way of detailed technical explanation of the operating theories, an entirely reasonable approach.

Given the essential technical background and the sound approach advocated in Simple Electronic Navigation both the tyro and the more experienced should be able to select their electronics with ease and obtain better and more reliable use from them.

TOWER ABOVE ALL by Jimmy Campbell Published by The Self Publishing Association at £5.95 ISBN 1 85421 1269 The profits from Jimmy Campbell's cleverly -titled book about the B lackpool he has known for more than 45 years will go to the RNLI, and so it is perhaps appropriate that the very first chapter looks at the well-known Bickerstaffe family. Robert Bickerstaffe was the coxswain of the first Blackpool lifeboat for 23 years until he retired in 1887, and one of his sons, John, became the first BRITISH I OcEAWOGRAfiHIC chairman of the Blackpool Tower Company - neatly linking the Institution with the title of the book! The text takes the form of extracts from the author's holiday diaries between 1946 and 1990 and reflects on changes over that period. Although there is little specific mention of the lifeboat service the sea is never any further from the book than it is from the history of the town of Blackpool.

BRITISH OCEANOGRAPHIC VESSELS 1800-1950 by A. L. Rice Published by the Ray Society at £9 (see text) ISBN 0903874 19 9 Although published some years ago this particular volume from the Ray Society (which is more usually associated with learned works on natural history) had not been brought to The Lifeboat's notice before. The society is at present having a book sale, offering British Oceanographic Vessels at the reduced price of £9, and it therefore seems appropriate to mention the volume at this time.

The author has compiled a comprehensively illustrated history of vessels involved in oceanographic research stretching over 150 years, and appearing in alphabetical order of the name by which they were known while carrying out their work. This selection obviously takes in the period of purely sailing ships, through hybrids to the fully powered vessels of the mid-20th century.

Perhaps the vessels' only common denominator, other than their work, is that there seems to be no common denominator! As the publishers say on the dust jacket: The history of marine science is intimately associated with the development of techniques for obtaining the raw data and with the vessels from which the observations were made. Over the past two centuries the ships employed have ranged from totally unsuitable ones, which happened to be available at the time, to, less commonly, purposebuilt vessels incorporating the most sophisticated technology of the day.' The result is a 192 page, well produced volume which anyone with an interest in ships and the sea will find a delight to dip into.

LOGBOOK FOR CRUISING UNDER SAIL devised by John Mellor ISBN 0-906754-62-3 LOGBOOK FOR CRUISING UNDER POWER devised by Tim Bartlett and Tom Willis of Motorboat and Yachting ISBN 0-906754-61-5 Published by Fernhurst Books at £12.50 each Publishing a book for the purchaser to fill in himself may at first seem an odd idea, akin to selling empty wrappers! However any small boat owner will appreciate not only the need for recording navigational information but also the pleasure to be gained after the event in recalling the events of a passage or cruise through the pages of a log kept at the time. He will also appreciate having his memory jogged as to what he should record at any given time.

The differing needs of the sailing and powerboating skipper are well illustrated by the different format of these two companion volumes which, it seems to this reviewer, tread a successful line between the flexibility needed by different owners and a too regimented approach.

A nicely bound A4 format logbook is bound to be more expensive than a tatty exercise book, but as well as being more effective it will also look much more impressive on the chart table or in the bookcase! THE HAMPDEN FILE by Harry Moyle Published by Air Britain (Historians) at £16.50 ISBN 085130 128 2 Harry Moyle's very detailed examination of the Hampden, aided by his own personal experience in the aircraft, is perhaps of more interest to the aircraft than the lifeboat enthusiast but is included here for two very good reasons.

The first is that the author, a lifeboat supporter, is donating a substantial amount of the cover price to RNLI funds, and the second is that there are links in the text with the lifeboat service, more particularly in the section dealing with the aircrafts' crashes in the sea.

Harry Moyle himself was rescued after being shot down in the sea (by Spitfires, in fact) and was rescued by a fishing boat from North Berwick. Although that lifeboat station was not operating during the war the crew were from a lifeboat family, one of whom was awarded a Bronze medal for Gallantry some 30 years later.

A comprehensive and exhaustive history of this type of aircraft which will appeal to the aircraft enthusiast. The Hamden File can be obtained from Harry Moyle at 57 Astbury Avenue, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset BH12 5DU at £14.50 - £2 less than the bookshop price.

Historic letters give an insight into Sir William Hillary and the founding of the Isle of Man lifeboat stations By Barry Cox, RNLI Honorary Librarian Some 60 letters written by Sir William Hillary to the Institution between 1824 and 1845 and now in the RNLI's archives have recently been treated for preservation and placed in a presentation box - the cost being met from money raised by the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society. Many of these letters deal with the establishment of lifeboat stations on the Isle of Man, where Sir William then lived, and give a fascinating insight into the earliest days of the RNLI on the Island.

Very shortly after the founding of the Institution on 4 March 1824, Sir William proposed the 'establishment of a District Association of the Royal National Institution'. Some three months later, on 5 June 1824, he wrote to the Central Committee pointing out that as the bulk of shipwrecks on the island were from 'the surrounding kingdoms' it would be of benefit to all maritime interests for lifeboat stations to be established by the national organisation.

On 22 June, Sir William forwarded his detailed plan, which covered no less than nine, closely handwritten pages. He proposed seven lifeboat stations for the Isle of Man:- '1 'Dougios to tie mode a 'Depot and have a Life float, •with a Mortar and other apparatus.

2 'Derby ttaven the Life 'Boat to Be placed on a cradle, or truck.

with high •wheels - to be sited on the centre of the ridge between 'Derby Mavcn and Castletown 'Bays 3 fort Le Murray theLifeboattobeplacedonacradlewithhigh and fort 'Erin wheels, to be moved by horses to whichever side of the Calf of Man it is needed 4 feel yiLife 'Boat sited on the neckjiflandbe tween the Castle and the mainland: and a 'Mortar 5 Jurby (between 'Bishops Court and the point ofHyr) A Life 'Boat and'Mortar 6 It&msey 'Bay A Life 'Boat and Mortar 7 Laxey A Life 'Boat' The postal services in those days must have been extremely efficient, for the Minutes of the Committee Meeting held in London four days later (on 26 June, at No. 12 Austin Friars) recorded the receipt of Sir William's plan, commenting that he had indicated there 'would not be found a want of active and intelligent Committees, and hardy boats' crews'! On 5 July, the draft of a reply to Sir William, to be signed by the Chairman, was approved, but unfortunately the contents are not recorded. Certain matters must however have been put in hand for on 18 August Sir William wrote requesting one of 'Mr Plenty' s designed lifeboats of 20 feet length', and the Committee gave approval on 25 August.

This lifeboat, which cost £100, was presented to the Isle of Man District Association and stationed at Castletown. There was already a boat at Douglas built in 1824 by Mr Ogden, jun, of Sunderland from funds supplied before the Institution was formed. (It is interesting to note that the very first lifeboat on the island was given to Douglas by the Duke of Atholl in 1803).

Subsequently, boats to Palmer's plan were supplied to Peel (1829) and Ramsey (1830). As a result four of the seven stations proposed by Sir William Hillary in 1824 were functioning within six years, a very short time in reality. Of the other three, Port Erin had to wait 58 years for its lifeboat station, being formed only in 1882, while those suggested for Jurby and Laxey never materialised.

The station at Castletown closed in 1922 leaving, as now, four of Sir William Hillary's proposed stations active..