From the pages of THE LIFEBOAT of August 1892 THE WRECK OF THE EIDER On the night of Sunday 31st January 1892 the four-masted s.s. Eider of Bremen, 4,719 tons register, bound from New York for Southampton, en route for Bremen, stranded on the reef of rocks known as Atherfield Ledge in a thick fog, stormy weather, and a very rough sea.

She fired signal rockets, and at about 11 o'clock the Lifeboat Catherine Swift, stationed at Atherfield was launched, proceeded to her, and at the request of the master brought ashore telegrams for steam-tugs. At daylight the vessel again signalling the Life-boat went to her, and found that the master desired to land some of the mails, which were therefore brought ashore. Meanwhile, intelligence of the stranding of the steamer had been sent to the neighbouring Life-boat stations at Brighstone Grange and Brooke, and the Life-boats Worcester Cadet and William Slaney Lewis arrived as quickly as possible. The master of the Eider ultimately decided that it would be best to land the passengers, and during the day the Life-boats made altogether 18 trips to the ship, and safely landed 233 persons, specie and mails at Atherfield, where all the boats were afterwards drawn up for the night.

GALLANT LIFE-BOAT CREWS The next day, 11 journeys were performed by the Lifeboats, and 146 people were brought safely ashore, together with mails and specie, while on the two succeeding days bars of silver, specie, the ship's plate, and passengers' luggage were saved. Forty-one journeys in all were made by the gallant Lifeboat crews, who worked hard and nobly, and 379 persons were rescued by them. The master and some of the crew remained on board the vessel, hoping that it would be possible to get her afloat, and by dint of extensive salvage operations this was ultimately accomplished, the total loss of this fine Norddeutscher Lloyd liner being thus happily avoided. On the 29th March she was successfully towed off the rocks and on the following day she was safely berthed in Southampton docks; although in a considerably damaged condition.

AWARDS Her Majesty the Queen graciously expressed to the Institution Her Majesty's warm appreciation of the gallant conduct of the Life-boat men. H.I.M. the Emperor of Germany presented to each of the coxswains of the three Life-boats, a gold watch bearing His Majesty's portrait and initials, in recognition of the devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and philanthropy shown in the work of rescue. His Imperial Majesty also contributed the sum of £200 to the Institution.

The Norddeutscher Lloyd, the owners of the Eider, expressed their appreciation of and thanks for the gallant services rendered to their vessel by the Life-boat men, and gave a donation of £105 to the funds of the Institution.

In addition to the sum of £565.10s. to pay the expenses of launching the Life-boats and rewards to the crews who manned them, the Institution awarded the Second Service Clasp to Mr William Cotton, coxswain of the Atherfield Lifeboat, the Silver Medal to Mr James Cotton, coxswain of the Brighstone Grange Life-boat, and the Third Service Clasp to Mr John Hayter, the coxswain of the Brooke Life-boat.

The thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were also presented to the Reverend F.B. Lipscomb, M.A. and to Messrs. Charles Dabell and William Hillier, Honorary Secretaries respectively of the Brighstone Grange, Atherfield and Brooke branches, in recognition of the valuable services they rendered in connection with these services.Facts and Figures Provisional statistics as at 21 May 1992 show that so far during 1992: The RNLI's lifeboats were launched 698 times (an average of more than 4 launches a day) More than 132 lives were saved (an average of nearly one person saved each day) 8 per cent of all services carried out by lifeboats were in winds of Force 8 and above Nearly 46 per cent of all services were to pleasure craft (sail, power and manual pleasure craft) There are 268 lifeboats on station, with a further 105 in the relief fleet.

To 21 May 1992, 122,565 lives have been saved since the RNLI was founded in 1824.

Costs The cost of running the RNLI in 1991 was £44m.

The approximate current cost of building a lifeboat is: 16ftD class inflatable - £10,000 21ft Atlantic rigid inflatable - £56,000 12m Mersey - £650,000 Fast Afloat Boat 4 - £900,000* Fast Afloat Boat 3 - £1,200,000* "Estimates based on prototypes, production costs may differ.