A FINE RECORD.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 311, 24 October 1929, Page 3

A FINE RECORD.

, BRITAIN’S LIFEBOATS. According to its annual report, just i issued, 1928 was, for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a a year of splendid achievement, overshadowed by one tragic disaster.” The lifeboatmen rescued 591 lives from shipwrecks, the largest number in one year since 1923, but the whole of the Eye Harbour lifeboat crew of 17 men was lost on service. During the year there were 323 launches, and of the 591 lives rescued, 466 were rescued by lifeboats and the remainder by the shore boats and in other ways. A total of 52 boats was saved or helped to safety. As in previous years the majority cf lives rescued were those of British seamen and fishermen, but the two, principal services of the year were to foreign vessels. Altogether, 15 foreign vessels of eight different nationalities were helped, 83 being rescued from them.

The institution awarded pensions to the widows and dependents of the Rye victims on the basis of its pension ssheme of 1917, whereby they are treated in the same way as the widows and dependents of men of corresponding rank in the naval, military, and air forces of the Crown who are killed in action. The coxswain ranks as a chief petty officer or colour-sergeant, the second coxswain as a first-class petty officer or sergeant, the bowman as a secondclass petty officer or corporal, and the lifeboatmen as seamen or privates. Discussing the relative merits of self-right and non-self-righting lifeboats, the report states that, broadly speaking, the experience of the institution shows that with large lifeboats, intended to go well out to sea, whether sailing or motor, it is better to set aside the self-righting principle and aim at greater bouyancy, stability and Speed. At present rather more than half of the institution’s fleet are selfrighting boats, but as the ptulling and sailing lifeboats are replaced by motor lifeboats, the number with the self-righting principle is steadily growing less. Of the institution’s 70 motor lifeboats, at the end of the year, 21 were self-righting boats. Of the 14 motor lifeboats under construction only two were self-righting.

The report points out that it is perhaps not generally appreciated that ail the institution’s lifeboats are designed to be unsinkable.