Ramsgate remembered Reading Ken Baker's letter in the Spring issue reminded me that I also had reason to be grateful to the Ramsgate lifeboat.

I also had the same experience as he but was taken aboard a small Dutch collier which set out a little after midnight. With the dawn the hard-worked engine gave out and we wallowed around in mid channel until the Ramsgate lifeboat took us in tow.

We eventually got into Ramsgate at about teatime after what must have been one of the longest cross Channel journeys ever! Whether this was before or after Ken Baker's rescue I have no way of knowing, even the exact date eludes me, apart from it being the end of May.

It was sufficient that we made it and our feelings of gratitude to the lifeboat crew and that of the little collier stayed with us for ever.

A little postscript to the above - we watched several much faster ships passing us on our slow journey, not least my friend's destroyer, the Esk, which went past three times at near 30 knots as against our 3 or so! Bob O'Brien, Goring by Sea, Sussex.Sam Webber, a postscript I was indeed surprised at the size of the £300,000 bequeathed to the RNLI by Sam Webber of Plymouth, as related in the Spring issue, page 319.

Sam was a boyhood friend of my father in the first decade of this century when they both lived at Devonport, where indeed Sam lived all his life. I recall his bungalow being built there 60 or more years ago when as a schoolboy I used to sail from the beach across the road from it. A few years ago I took my own children to visit him, he was as bright as a button and hugely entertaining as ever. They were fascinated by his tales of the sea and of crewing in the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe's yacht in pre-war days. His motor cruiser was named May after his wife and until she died they used to spend the summer months on board moored in the River Yealm.

The RNLI was not his only contact with an emergency service.

During the last war he supervised a section of Plymouth's emergency repair organisation which made temporary repairs to houses damaged in the blitz to make them habitable. His resourcefulness, skill and never failing cheerfulness admirably fitted him for the task of bringing relief to the hard pressed citizens of a town that was a base for all three fighting services and hence a prime target for the Luftwaffe.

I am proud to have known Sam and delighted that he crowned his long life with such a magnificent donation to the cause of saving lives from the sea that was his passion.

D. J. Taylor, hon. press officer, Abingdon branch.No visible means of propulsion...

Reading about the test launch of the lifeboat at Hunstanton with the aid of a tractor, brought back memories of my boyhood when I used to watch the testing of the RNLI tractors after they had been overhauled at F.A. Standens Works at St Ives in Huntingdonshire.

These tractors were driven down a slope into the Great Ouse river, the driver being clad in armpit waders, where the tractor was completely sub- merged with just the extended air intake and exhaust pipes visible above the water. The driver was then returned to the bank by a boat, the tractor being left with its engine still running.

After a suitable time the driver was returned to the tractor, which then returned to the bank. This caused quite a stir among holidaymakers who suddenly became aware of a man standing in the middle of the deepest part of the river, especially as their view of the air intake and exhaust pipes were obstructed.

To see this man, suddenly and apparently without effort, start to glide towards the bank, left many a holidaymaker with their mouths wide open.

I only wish there had been more home movie cameras about in those times.

Phil Radford, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

Underwater tractors...

The 75 years ago column in the Spring issue raised interest in the Hunstanton boathouse. The story is one of our stock 'olden days' tales related to visitors. We have a fine model of the trial tractor with the carriage. It is strange that as no less a person than the deputy surveyor of machinery nearly got wet, he did not suggest water-proofing the driver.

Victor Dade, our driver for many years, is full of praise for the luxury 'underwater' Talus MB-4H tractor now on station. Launching tractors here have proved to be invaluable over the years and they even have their own service board recording rescues by the tractor without the use of the lifeboat.

David Harrison, honorary secretary, Hunstanton lifeboat station.Mystery of Lindisfarne I was intrigued by David Herriott's letter in the Spring 1995 issue about the old lifeboathouse on Lindisfarne.

In 1955 as a teenager, I visited Holy Island with my mother, brother and our alsatian dog on a boat trip from Seahouses. When the time came for the return journey the tide was way out and we had to embark through the lifeboathouse and down the launching slip. We could see the rocks far below.

Half of the steps gleamed with fresh black paint. The central runner was newly greased and we could not use the handrail. My mother, clutching my eight-year-old brother and I, gripping the terrified dog, had to place our feet very accurately on the remaining narrow treads - not an experience to be forgotten.

I have not managed to find that boathouse on subsequent visits - via the splendid causeway - and my husband thinks I dreamed the whole episode! I think it must have been the successor to Mr Herriott's boathouse, later closed in 1968, but wherever was it? The mystery is half solved! Penny Keevil, Rowlands Castle, Hants..