From THE LIFEBOAT of March 1963 The disaster at Seaham Harbour in which 5 members of the life-boat crew and 4 people who had been taken off a fishing boat by the life-boat all lost their lives, shocked and distressed the nation.

The life-boat capsized at what is so often the most dangerous moment, when she was about to enter the harbour. Here she was hit by successive waves from heavy seas when broadside to the wind and tide. The confused broken water was aggravated by the backwash and undertow from the breakwaters. There can be no doubt whatever that the decision to launch the life-boat was a correct one. She did indeed succeed in reaching the fishing vessel and take off 5 people; nor, as the verdict at the Coroner's inquest emphatically stated, can any blame be attached to the coxswain and crew.

A most thorough investigation was carried out by the Institution's officials, from which emerged clearly that both the hull and machinery of the life-boat were in first class condition. Even after the severe pounding she received after the capsize the life-boat was pronounced seaworthy, and it is significant that twelve days after the capsize the engines, when tested at the depot at Boreham Wood, started almost at once. Indeed such is the condition of the boat that she is being put into service in the reserve fleet.

Because life-boats are known to be unsinkable confusion tends to arise in the minds of many people when a life-boat disaster occurs, for there is a tendency to assume that "unsinkable" and "uncapsizeable" are synonymous. The practical fact is that they are very far from being the same.

How to construct a boat in such a way that she will not sink even if she is repeatedly holed is something which has been known and put into practice for many years; no man has yet designed a boat which can be of practical use as a life-boat and will yet be free from the dangers of capsizing in all conditions of wind and tide.

The improvement of the design and construction of life-boats is a continuous process. New types of lifeboat are under construction and new prototypes planned, details of which will be given in the next number of this journal, but one inescapable fact remains; danger can never be wholly eliminated.

The task confronting those who design life-boats remains what it has always been, that of providing the most seaworthy and effective craft which skill and experience, money and materials can provide.

Although the Seaham Harbour disaster occurred more than 30 years ago (on 17 November 1962) the sentiments expressed in the final paragraph are as true today as then. The two new classes of lifeboat reviewed elsewhere in this issue of the Journal follow the same principles..