WONDERFUL LIFEBOAT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 23 July 1929, Page 5

WONDERFUL LIFEBOAT

GIFT FROM P. AND 0. GROUP '*. "f"' COULD. SAVE 300 IN ONE TRIP."-.,, The largest motor lifeboat ift-ihe'l world has been built for the- Royal" National Lifeboat Institution by Messrs S. E. Saunders, Ltd., at Cowes. She has been built out of the gift of .£14,000V which the Peninsular and Oriental group ' of shipping companies has made, through Lord Inchcape, to the institution, in re-,;; spouse to the Prince of Wales' appeal» last year. She is to be named Princess ' Mary, and will be stationed at Padstow, ;" Cornwall. This new lifeboat is sixty-one feet','. long with fifteen feet beam, and is of ; two thicknesses of teak. She has .fifteen .. main and 100 minor watertight com- ,; partments, and displaces forty-five tons ; of water. Her excess buoyancy will" be' ". equal to nearly one and a half times ; that weight, so that even if severely damaged, she will remain afloat and manageable. She will be driven by two 80-hprse-power engines, which will continue to work even if entirely submerged,, provided the air inlets are above water. Not only, are the engines in water-, tight compartments but they are themselves watertight. These engines will give the boat a speed of between nine and ten knotSj with a reserve of power which will enable her to travel at full speed under practically any conditions of weather. The boat has two cabins with accommodation for between fifty' and sixty ■ people, and in a calm sea could take 300 people on deck. Under the worst weather conditions she could carry 150 people in addition to her crew. She\ carries 500 gallons of petrol, which • at« a cruising speed of eight knots gives a' range of 500 miles. She is fitted with jets in all compartments, by which an outbreak of fire can* be smothered by foam, and has oilsprays in her bows for spraying on heavy seas. She carries a line-throw-ing gun with a range of 80 yards, it is r by electricity,- and has an electric search- « light, an electrically driven windlass,-' and a lifesaving net into which the shipwrecked can jump as the lifeboat lies alongside their vessel. Since 1824 the Royal National Lifeboat Institute had saved 61,000 lives, about eleven lives per week, it was reported at the annual meeting held at Liverpool in April.