Enthusiastic thank-you I would like to use THE LIFEBOAT to say a big thank you to the coxswains and crews of the lifeboat stations around our coast for making lifeboat enthusiasts so welcome and showing such hospitality and interest when they visit them.

I have been interested in the good work of the RNLI since the age of 14 when I used to visit the Plymouth lifeboat station on a Saturday morning and help to clean the Barnett class lifeboat.

I have been a Shoreline member for a number of years and when on holiday I always make a point of visiting the nearest lifeboat station.

Last year, whilst in Ireland, I visited Baltimore and was shown around the Courtmacsherry Solent. I also received a Christmas card from Coxswain O'Mahony.

I have also visited Brixham, Poole, Berwick, Dunbar, Oban, Portpatrick and Kirkcudbright lifeboat stations and have always found the crews to be very friendly, helpful and interesting.

I would like to add that I find THE LIFEBOAT journal very interesting and addictive reading - it's a pity we have to wait three months for the next issue.

M. Hannah, Plymstock, Devon.

Passing them on...

I wonder if members of other branches and guilds follow our practice when we have finished with THE LIFEBOAT? We continue to leave copies in most of the local doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms, together with the odd opticians and vets, in the hope that some casual readers wijl be inspired to join the RNLI. They must make a change from 3-year-old copies of women's magazines! J. Dodds, Darlington.

...and on I have just finished reading the latest issue and it was as exciting and interesting as always.

It may not have occurred to your readers that after they have finished with each issue it could be taken to their local doctors' surgery. They always welcome magazines and this would give some good publicity to the RNLI.

As a 70-year-old I feel one can never overestimate the ignorance of the general public - people often know nothing of the RNLI and lightly assume that 'the Government pays for it'.

Mrs D.M. Burrell, Corsham, Wilts.Who was that man? Before the terrible lifeboat disaster in 1928 at Rye Harbour I used, as a school boy, to lend a hand in launching and retrieving the lifeboat on its annual practice launch in August, receiving a whole shilling for doing so! I was told that the then Officer in Charge of the lifeboat lived on the hill at Udimore, near Rye. When the boat was called out he would be telephoned and would then ride his horse in a direct line from Udimore to the boathouse, which still stands on the beach one-and-a-quarter miles from Rye Harbour.

The ride included crossing the railway line and its fences, swimming the Royal Military Canal and then crossing fields, dykes, shingle and along Shrimpers Way to the remote building on the shore - a straight distance of about two miles. Some ride on a dark stormy night.

I have often wondered who this gentleman was. Can any of your readers give him a name? J.W.H. Watts, Woodmancote, Glos.

Who saved the Queen? I was reading in a 1944 periodical about the history of the New Brighton lifeboat Queen. She had a water turbine propulsion system, and was involved in services which saved a total of 220 lives. Later she was sold for service in West Africa, about 1923.

It would be interesting to know the final story of the Queen or is she still lying in a muddy estuary of the Niger, or some other river? D.H. Dixon, Knutsf ord, CheshireA special prayer I am writing to ask if your readers can help me in my search for prayers that were written for a specific purpose, for example the Lifeboat Prayer, the Trawler Skipper's prayer, the Lighthouse Keeper's prayer, or any other connected to sea, ship or crew.

Having retired I now have time to put together an anthology of prayers of the above kind.

I would be pleased if readers could send me any prayer suitable for this anthology.

J. Murphy, The Cottage, Innings Lane, Little Frieth, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 6NR Ed Note. We have supplied Mr Murphy with a copy of the Lifeboat Prayer.

Site unseen Having recently become permanently disabled and having some spare time on my hands, I have decided to research, locate and photograph the burial sites, where known, of all RNLI Gold medal winners since the award's inception.

Could any of your readers assist me in this project? Should there be enough material in this venture for a publication, I intend that 50% of proceeds from sales would go to the RNLI.

Any information, no matter how vague, press cuttings and photographs would be more than welcome.

D. Harvey, c/o 15 Summer Road, Molesey, Surrey KT8 9LX.