THE LIFE-BOAT. The Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. VOL. XXX. MARCH, 1936. No. 325. THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 128 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 40 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to February 29th, 1936 - 64,549 Ibis Majesty Ikino (Beoroe it). BY the death of His Majesty King George V the Life-boat Service has lost not only a beloved Sovereign, but one who for forty-six of his seventy-one years was personally associated with its work. Since the Institution was founded, in the reign of George FV, each Sovereign in turn has been its Patron, but none has been connected with it in so many ways as King George V. In paying its last tribute of gratitude to his memory the Insti- tution would recall the last message which it received from him, when, for the first time, the representatives of the life-boat services of nine countries met in London : " I pray that God's blessing may be vouchsafed to all brave men who risk their lives in the humane and heroic work of the life-boat services of the world." At the first meeting of the committee of management after His Majesty's death it was proposed by the chairman of the Institution, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., seconded by the deputy chairman, the Hon. George Colville, and unanimously carried, that the following humble and loyal messages be presented to His Majesty the King and Her Majesty Queen Mary. " The committee of management and the officers and staff of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, the honorary officials of its branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guilds throughout the British Isles, and the coxswains and crews of its life-boats round their coasts, desire to express to Your Majesty their profound grief at the death of His Most Gracious Majesty King George V, the Institution's Patron, to offer to Your Majesty their loyal and deep sympathy, and to assure Your Majesty of the profound gratitude of the Life-boat Service of Great Britain and Ireland for your generous and personal association with its work, as its President, during the past seventeen years, and of the devotion of the Service to your Person and Crown." THE LIFE-BOAT. [MARCH, 1936. " The committee of management and the officers and staff of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, the honorary officials of its branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guilds throughout the British Isles, and the cox- swains and crews of its life-boats round their coasts, desire to express to Your Majesty their profound grief at the death of His Most Gracious Majesty King George V, to offer to Your Majesty their loyal and deep sympathy, and to place on record the profound gratitude of the Life-boat- Service of Great Britain and Ireland to His late Majesty for his generous and personal association with its work for forty-six years, as one of its vice-patrons, as a member of its committee of management, as its president, and finally, with Your Majesty, as one of its patrons during the twenty-six years of his reign." The following reply was received to this resolution from the private secretary to Her Majesty Queen Mary. " I have had the honour of submitting to Queen Mary your letter of February 13th, conveying a message of sympathy on behalf of the Committee of Management of the Royal National Life-boat Institution on the death of King George V. " In reply I am commanded to ask you to convey to the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, the Committee and to all associated with this message, an expression of Queen Mary's deep appreciation of their kind thought for Her Majesty in her great sorrow. " I am to assure one and all that the Queen is much touched by the reference to His late Majesty in regard to the services which he rendered to the Institution over such a long period of years, and Her Majesty wishes me to express her warmest thanks for this charming tribute to the memory of the late King." The Life-boat Service in 1935. The Busiest Year for Nineteen Years. THE year 1935 was for the life-boat The number of lives rescued was service the busiest for nineteen years. 498. That is 144 more than in 1934, There were 378 launches of life-boats and the largest number rescued for the to vessels in distress. To find a larger past seven years. Of these lives 393 number one has to go back to 1916, the were rescued by life-boats, and 105 by third year of the Great War, when there shoreboats, for whose rescue the Insti- were 386. tution gave awards. In one way it was a record year for Life-boats saved or helped to save launches. There have been other years from destruction 55 boats and vessels, in which the total of launches was the largest number for twenty years. In greater, but these were years in which addition life-boats stood by, escorted to the number of life-boats was also safety, or gave help to over 200 vessels greater. Nineteen-thirty-five, with a and boats. smaller fleet than any previous year, Up to the end of 1935 the Institu- owing to the increase in the number of tion had given rewards for the rescue motor life-boats, has a larger average of from shipwreck round the coasts of the launches per station than any other British Isles of 64,411 lives since it was year in the history of the Institution. founded in 1824. That is an average of The average was 2.24. 11 lives saved every week for 112 years. MARCH, 1936.] THE LIFE-BOAT. 114 Lives Rescued from Foreign Vessels. which was rapidly drifting towards the Although the great majority of the rocks in a gale, with her sails and lives rescued in 1935 were British, life- rigging overboard. The life-boat res- boats helped 16 foreign vessels, be- cued the last man less than a minute longing to 10 different countries, and before the schooner struck the rocks rescued 114 lives from them. They and began to break up. were also called out to 13 other foreign On Christmas night Coxswain Thomas vessels, but their help was not needed. Sinclair, of the motor life-boat at Of the 16 vessels to which help was Aberdeen, won the bronze medal for given, 3 were Swedish, 2 French, 2 rescuing one of the crew of the Aberdeen German, 2 Belgian, and 2 Greek. The trawler George Stroud, which had gone other 5 were from the United States, ashore inside the harbour-mouth in a Holland, Norway, Iceland, and Danzig. very heavy sea. Five times the life- boat was carried away by heavy seas, and each time she returned to the Services to Yachts and Fishing Boats. rescue, but a heavy sea smashed the The year was notable for the large wheel-house of the trawler, in which number of services to yachts and her crew of five had taken refuge and fishing boats. Life-boats went out to only two of the five were saved, one by the help of no fewer than 32 sailing the life-boat and the other by the yachts, 13 motor yachts and 1 steam Institution's life-saving rocket appara- yacht in distress ; rescued 44 lives from tus. them ; and saved or helped to save 26 On 30th December Coxswain William of the yachts. They also went out to Mogridge, of Torbay, Devon, won the the help of fishing boats on 126 bronze medal when the motor life-boat occasions; rescued 133 fishermen, and went to the help of the French trawler saved 26 of the boats. Satanicle. Three of the trawler's crew had been rescued by a liner which was standing by, and the life-boat then Eleven Medals for Gallantry. rescued the skipper. She travelled Eleven medals for gallantry were altogether some sixty miles at the height of the gale, and carried out the rescue awarded by the Institution during the 1 year. Its bronze medal was won in in a very heavy confused sea. January by second-coxswain George Pow, of Appledore, Devon. In the The Institution's Fleet. absence of the coxswain he took com- During the year five new motor life- mand of the motor life-boat when, in a boats went to the coast, to Port Askaig gale with a very heavy sea, she rescued (Islay, Argyllshire), Broughty Ferry the three men, one of them a cripple, (Dundee), Aith (Shetlands), Cromer of the Hfracombe fishing boat Lee Bay, (Norfolk), and Sunderland (Durham). which was helpless close under the cliffs. At the end of the year nine more motor In September, Mr. A. C. Jones, life-boats were under construction, and honorary secretary of the life-boat there were then 124 motor life-boats station at Barry Dock, Glamorganshire, and 44 pulling and sailing life-boats, who took command of the motor life- making a fleet of 168 life-boats round boat in the absence of the coxswain, the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. won the silver medal of the Institution, 1 The service by Appledore was fully described in The and each of the seven members of the Life-boat for last June, and the service by Barry Dock in crew the bronze medal, for rescuing the The Life-bojt for last December. The full accounts of the other two services will be found on pages 4 and 5 oJ crew of the French schooner Goeland.