y passed out an inspiring cheer was
given by the crowd, and a rocket streamed up from the pier-head to
signal the lightship that assistance was on the way.

The lifeboat which thus gallantly put off to the rescue in a storm so
wild that no ordinary boat could have faced it for a moment without
being swamped, was a celebrated one which had recently been invented and
placed at this station--where it still lies, and may be recognised by
its white sides and peculiar build.

Its history is interesting. In the year 1851 the Duke of
Northumberland, then president of the Lifeboat Institution, offered a
prize of 100 pounds for the best model of a lifeboat. The result was
that 280 models and plans were sent to Somerset House for examination.
The prize was awarded to Mr James Beeching, boat-builder at Great
Yarmouth, who was ordered to construct a boat, after the pattern of his
model, 36 feet long, with 12 oars.

The boat was built, and was found to be the most perfect of its kind
that had ever been launched. It was the first self-righting boat ever
constructed.

The three great points to be attained in the construction of a lifeboat
are: buoyancy, the power of righting itself if upset, and the power of
emptying itself if filled with water. Up to this date the lifeboats of
the kingdom were possessed of only the first quality. They could not be
sunk; that was all. Of course that was a great deal, but it was far
from sufficient. Mr Beeching's boat united all three qualities.

Its self-righting principle was effected by means of two raised
air-cases, one at the stem, the other at the stern, and a heavy metal
keel. When overturned, the boat attempted, as it were, to rest on its
two elevated cases, but these, being buoyant, resisted this effort, and
turned the boat over on its side; the action being further assisted by
the heavy keel, which had a tendency to drag the bottom downwards. Thus
the upper part of the boat was raised by one action, and the bottom part
depressed by the other, the result being that the boat righted itself
immediately. In fact, its remaining in an inverted position was an
impossibility.

The self-emptying principle was accomplished by the introduction of six
self-acting valves into the bottom of the boat, through which the water,
when shipped, ran back into the sea! When we first heard of this we
were puzzled, reader, as doubtless you are, for it occurred to us that
any hole made in a boat's bo