THE LIFEBOAT. The Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. VOL. XXVII.—No. 293.] FEBRUARY, 1928. [PRICE Qd. Our President's New Office. Master of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets. By George F. Shee, M.A., Secretary of the Institution. ALL who are connected in any way principally on account of his presence, with the Life-boat Service will have bringing the Institution over a thousand read with special pleasure the announce- pounds. Finally, readers of The Lifeboat ment which was made on 14th Feb- will be interested to know that the Prince ruary, that the King had decided to himself signs all the Vellums which make a personal link between the mer- accompany the award of medals for chant service and fishing fleets and gallantry, and also those which are the Royal Family, as the Navy and presented to Honorary Life-Governors. Army have long been linked to it, by It is not only because we know, creating a new post, " Master of the through the help which he gives the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets," Life-boat Service, the Prince's deep and by appointing to this post the interest in the sea services, that we wel- Prince of Wales. come his new appointment, but because, The Prince's record as a soldier during as Master of the Fishing Fleets he is the War, and the work which he has linked in a second way with the Institu- done since the War, for such organisa- tion. It is from the men of those Fleets tions as the British Legion, have possibly all round the coasts of Great Britain and led some people to forget how close has Ireland that the great majority of our always been his interest in and his con- Crews are drawn. It is their daily work nexion with the sea. Yet it was as a as fishermen which give the Institution's sailor that he was educated. He went volunteer Crews their unrivalled skill in to the Naval Colleges of Dartmouth and handling a Life-boat, and their intimate Osborne. He served afloat in the Navy, knowledge of all the intricacies of our as his father had done before him, and coasts. To them we feel sure it will be his brothers, the Duke of York and doubly gratifying that the Prince, who Prince George, have done since. It was is already President of the Life-boat only after his sea-training that he went Service, in which they willingly risk to Oxford, joined the Guards shortly their lives for the rescue of seafarers before the War, and, as a Guards round our shores, should now be subaltern, went to France. Master of the Fleets in which they have His interest in the sea services was won their long and hard experience, shown immediately the War was over, and in which they earn their daily when, in 1918, he became President of bread. the Institution, as his father and grand- May we not hope, too, that the Prince's father had been before him. His closer association with the fishermen of association with the Institution has been our coasts will prove of lasting value to very real and very personal. He pre- the nation by arresting the growing sided at the Annual Meeting in 1921, tendency of the younger men to forsake the first opportunity which his overseas the service of the sea, in which their tours allowed him. He was the principal fathers have found their strength of speaker at the Centenary Meeting in character as well as health of body. 1924, and in the same year presided at Such a result would not only be very the Centenary Dinner. Elsewhere in beneficial from the point of view of the this issue will be found an account of a recruitment of our Navy, but of en- Gala Performance which we owe to his during advantage to our position as a initiative, and which was a great success, maritime people. THE LIFEBOAT. [FEBRUARY,1928. The Record of 1927. A Year of Conspicuous Services. THE storms in the latter part of 1927 and the Motor Life-boats at St. Mary's, have supplied the answer, if any were Isles of Scilly, Lowestoft, Great Yar- needed, to the question which is some- mouth and Gorleston, Cromer, and times asked whether the gradual replace- Southwold. The great service of the ment of the sailing ship by steam and Moelfre Life-boat on 28th and 29th oil-driven vessels, the improvement in October to the ketch Excel, in the course the lighting of the coast, and the scien- of which one of the Crew died from tific development of the various means exposure, and the service of the St. by which mariners are warned of their Mary's Life-boat to the Italian steamer proximity to danger have not made the Isabo, were fully described in the sea practically safe for seafarers, and last issue of the Journal, and the rendered the Life-boat Service a costly accounts of the service of the Lowestoft and almost unnecessary organisation, Motor Life-boat to the sailing smack even for the people of these Islands. Lily of Devon on 21st November and They have reminded us of the truth of the service of the Motor Life-boats Sir William Hillary's words, in his at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, Appeal to the Nation in 1823, " So long Cromer, and Southwold to the Dutch oil as man shall continue to navigate the tanker Georgia on 21st and 22nd Novem- ocean and the tempests shall hold their ber, will be found elsewhere in this course over its surface, in every age and issue. The exceptional nature of those on every coast, disasters by sea, ship- services, in the dangers faced and the wrecks and peril to human life, must in- gallantry displayed, is recognised by the evitably take place " ; and the calls of awards which were made. For these distress of many ships which the terrible four services the Institution has given weather of the last three months of the three Gold Medals—the highest award year placed in jeopardy proved that the in its power to bestow—four Silver Life-boat Service is as necessary now as Medals and thirty-two Bronze Medals— when the founder of the Institution one of the Silver and three of the Bronze appealed to his fellow-countrymen to being awarded to the crews of shore- establish that Service. boats which took a gallant share in the But the storms of 1927 showed some- rescue of the crew of the Isabo. thing more than this. They have proved that, given the occasion, the Coxswains The Three Gold Medallists. and Crews of the Life-boats to-day are The three Gold Medals have been no whit behind their forefathers in the awarded to Second Coxswain WILLIAM highest qualities of courage and sea- ROBERTS and Captain OWEN JONES of the manship, and in the tenacity which holds Moelfre Life-boat, and Coxswain HENRY on to the task in hand, hour after hour, GEORGE BLOGG of the Cromer Life-boat. in the teeth of the bitter gale, in the face These are the first Gold Medals to be of repeated failure, and in spite of awarded since 1922. The last year in serious injury to the point of collapse, a which three were awarded was 1914, on tenacity faithful even unto death. the occasion of the famous service to the The year 1927 will be memorable in hospital ship Rohilla, and there had then the records of the Institution by reason been no award of three Gold Medals in of four services, two of which will rank one year since 1851. among the greatest in the history of life- Coxswain Blogg was awarded the saving from shipwreck, while the other Gold Medal in 1917, and he has the rare two would, in any other year, have stood distinction of being the only living man out as of conspicuous merit. who has twice won this, the highest The Life-boats which took part in honour of the Service. Only seven other these four services were the Pulling and men have received the honour twice, Sailing Life-boat at Moelfre, Anglesey, and the last occasion on which it was FEBRUARY, 1928.] THE LIFEBOAT. won a second time for an actual service Coxswains and Crews who took part in was in 1848.* these services, and who unhesitatingly The four Silver Medals have been risked the destruction of their Life-boats awarded to Coxswain WILLIAM FLEMING and the loss of their own lives, it is still of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, who more important to emphasise the quali- already has the Gold and Bronze Medals, ties of seamanship in both Coxswains Coxswain MATTHEW LETHBRIDGE of St. and Crews, and the qualities in the Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Coxswain ALBERT design and construction of the Life- SPURGEON of Lowestoft, and Mr. boats, which made it possible for these CHARLES JENKINS, of Bryher, Isles of risks to be taken without disaster. Scilly, who, as Coxswain of a motor boat, played a conspicuous part in the The Cost of Saving Life. service to the Isabo. Coxswain FRANK The value of lives rescued can hardly UPCRAFT of Southwold, whose Life-boat be estimated in terms of money, nor can played a gallant part in the service to payment be made, on any commercial the Georgia, is among those who have standard, to those who risk their own been awarded the Bronze Medal. lives in order to save others.