Life-Boat and Life-Saving Service

In the year 1849, came another tragedy at the mouth of the Tyne. The life-boat "Providence," when out on service, capsized, and of her double crew of 24 no fewer than 20 were drowned. Tragic though this event was, it yet served to re-direct public attention to the needs of the life-boat service, and as such marks a turning point in its history. These first twenty-five years of the institution's history had been years of great national stress, and the institution had inevitably suffered. In 1849-50 its income had fallen as low as £354, and the majority of the life-boats were no longer seaworthy. Public interest in it had almost ceased. The Tyne disaster helped to recall the public to the importance of their life-boat service and the need to support it. In 185o the Prince Consort became vice patron of the institution in conjunc tion with the king of the Belgians, and Queen Victoria, who had been its patron since her accession, became an annual contributor to its funds. In 1851 Algernon, fourth Duke of Northumberland, became the institution's president. He was known as the "Sailor Duke." He entered the Navy in the year of Trafalgar, was now a Rear Admiral, and a little later became First Lord of the Admiralty. He brought a new spirit to the work, and from that day to this the institution has never looked back. It has gone from strength to strength, and it is many years now since it was first able to say that a life-boat had been stationed at every point on the coast where it was required, and where an efficient crew could be found.

In 1850 its committee undertook the immediate superintendence of all the life-boat work on the coasts, with the aid of local com mittees. Periodical inspections, quarterly exercise of crews, fixed rates of rewards for coxswains and men, on a sliding scale accord ing to the season of the year, and the day or night, were insti tuted ; and the duke of Northumberland, realising that the "first and most obvious step was to endeavour to introduce an improved life-boat," offered a prize of one hundred guineas for the best model, and appointed a committee of experts to report on those sent in. In reply to the offer no fewer than two hundred and eighty models were sent in, not only from all parts of Great Britain but from France, Germany, Holland and the United States. The prize was gained by Mr. James Beeching of Great Yarmouth, whose model, slightly modified by Mr. James Peake, one of the committee of inspection, was adopted by the Institu tion. Mr. Beeching's model embodied most of Wouldhave's ideas with improvements of which he had never dreamed, and, coming sixty-two years later, was the model for the first genuine self-right ing boat ever built. This boat, with minor alterations, is prac tically the type of the self-righting life-boat of to-day.

The Watson Life-boat.

Another important step was taken in 1887, following on an accident at the end of 1886 to two self righting life-boats on the Lancashire coast, in which twenty-seven out of twenty-nine of the two crews were drowned. A permanent technical sub-committee was appointed by the Institution whose object was, with the help of an eminent consulting naval architect —a new post created—and the Institution's technical officials, to give its careful attention to the improvement of the design of life-boats. The immediate result was the designing of a new type

of life-boat, by Mr. G. L. Watson, the famous yacht designer, who had been appointed consulting naval architect, and held that post for many years. The Watson life-boat did not self-right. It was a larger and more stable boat than the self-righter, had beautiful lines, was safe, weatherly, quick in stays and with a good turn of speed. With the design of this type a new principle was introduced, the principle on, which the Institution's life-boats are still built. Broadly speaking, it is that with large life-boats intended to go well out to sea, it is better to set aside the self righting principle and aim at great buoyancy and stability. Besides the Watson boats there are six other types of life-boat which do not self-right, in the Institution's fleet. More than half the fleet consists of self-righters, more than a quarter of Watson boats, and the remainder of these other types. The choice of boat is largely determined by the conditions of the coast on which it will be placed, but the crews are always consulted, and no crew is given a new life-boat unless it has already inspected it and ex pressed itself as satisfied. The first of the Watson life-boats was designed in 1890, and in the same year the first steam life-boat, named "Duke of Northumberland," was stationed at Harwich.

The Motor Life-boat.

The first experiments with an internal combustion engine were made during the year 1903. With these experiments began the modern era of life-boat work. To design an engine which should comply with the stringent requirements of the service might well seem an insoluble problem. Such an engine had to be water-tight but not air-tight, and able to run under all con ditions of night and storm without attention. It had to have con trols not only simple but easy to distinguish by touch, so that they could be worked in the darkness. It had to run and to lubricate it self with certainty at any angle. At the same time, when the cap sizing point was reached it had to cut itself off automatically, for, otherwise, if the boat were of the self-righting type, she would right herself and be carried away by her engine, leaving the crew in the water. In addition to all this, the engine must interfere neither with the self-righting quality of the boat, nor with its sail ing powers. The first life-boat to be converted to motor power was completed in 1904, and sent to Tynemouth. She had a 12 h.p. two cycle motor. The Institution has now sixty-five motor life-boats in its fleet, and it is hoped in the next few years to increase this nurnber to over a hundred. By its ability to attain a speed and to cover distances impossible for boats which depend upon sails and oars; by its power to force its way in the face of winds and seas, before which rowing and sailing boats would be helpless, and, above all, by its great manoeuvring power when close to the wreck, the motor life-boat can save lives which, without it, would be be yond the reach of human aid.