THE JOURNAL OF THE RNLI

Volume XLVI Number 468 Summer 1979 25p

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THELIFEBOAT

Summer 1979

/̂ 1 .̂ ^ Notes of the Quarter, by Patrick Howarth 147

International Lifeboat Conference, by Patrick Howarth 148

XLVT Summary of Accounts for 1978 149

468 Lifeboat Services 150

Lifeboats of the World: Part II—Sea rescue outside Europe, by EricMiddleton 158

Chairman:MAJOR-GENERAL R. H. FARRANT, CB Footprints on the Sand of Time, by Edward Carpenter 161

Acting Director and Secretary: VfYaMby: The lifeboat station and her people, by Joan Davies 162JOHN R. ATTERTON, MBE

Building a Rother Class Lifeboat: Part XII—Trials 166

Managing Editor: Around the Coast 168PATRICK HOWARTH

Shoreline 169Editor:JOAN DAVIES jdea, Home Exhibjtion ,70

Headquarters: Some Ways of Raising Money 171Royal National Life-boat Institution,West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 Letters 1741HZ (Telephone Poole 71133).

Book Reviews 176

London Office:Royal National Life-boat Institution Offshore Lifeboat Services, December 1978, January and February 1979 17721 Ebury Street, London SW1W OLD(Telephone 01-730 0031). Inshore Lifeboat Services, December 1978, January and February 1979 . 178

COVER PICTURE

Launch of Si David's lifeboat, the 47ftWatson Joseph Soar (Civil Service No. 34).The photograph was taken by J. AnthonyAldersley who is a branch member at NewMi/ton, Hampshire.

At the annual presentations of awards atthe Royal Festival Hall in May, WilliamMorris, who is coxswain of St David'slifeboat and also verger of St David'sCathedral, received the bronze medal forgallantly for the service on March I I , 1978,to a motor fishing vessel with engine failurein danger of drifting on to rocks in heavy,breaking overfalls.

Editorial: All material submitted forconsideration with a view to publica-tion in the journal should be addressedto the editor, THE LIFEBOAT, RoyalNational Life-boat Institution, WestQuay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ(Telephone Poole 71133). Photographsintended for return should be accom-panied by a stamped and addressedenvelope.

Next issue: the autumn issue of THELIFEBOAT will appear in October andnews items should be sent by the end ofJuly. News items for the Winter issueshould be sent in by the end ofOctober.

Advertisements: All advertisingenquiries should be addressed toDyson Advertising Services, PO Box 9,Godalming, Surrey (TelephoneGodalming (04868) 23675).

Subscription: A year's subscription offour issues costs £1.40, including post-age, but those who are entitled toreceive THE LIFEBOAT free of chargewill continue to do so. Overseas sub-scriptions depend on the cost of post-age to the country concerned.

Printers: The Friary Press, Dorchester,Dorset.

145

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NOTES OFTHE QUARTER

by Patrick Howarth

fact that the RNLI, through providingthe central secretariat for the lifeboatorganisations of the world for manyyears past, enjoys a unique standing,which is readily and generouslyrecognised.

It also became clear at the con-ference that the RNLI's editing andproducing of Lifeboat International,the internal annual publication, isincreasingly appreciated. This publica-tion came into existence as a consequ-ence of a paper submitted by the RNLIat the eleventh international lifeboatconference in New York City. Theproposal to have such a publicationwas well received at the outset, for itwas generally recognised that, withmore and more important newdevelopments in technology, the gap offour years between conferences left avoid in communications which neededfilling.

THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL LIFEBOATCONFERENCE, on which a reportappears on page 148, was as always anextremely harmonious and friendlyaffair. Indeed it would be difficult tofind a gathering of pleasanter peopleanywhere in the world. To someone ofmy generation, brought up on the gen-eral assumption that the British didmost things better than other peopleand repeatedly disillusioned by theexperiences of the last 30 years, it wasparticularly gratifying to experienceonce again the esteem in which theRNLI is held internationally. To sug-gest that any one lifeboat service is bet-ter than any other, that it has bettercrews or better boats, would be botharrogant and absurd. Yet it remains a

Rear Admiral Wilfred Graham, the newDirector of the Royal National Life-boatInstitution.

New RNLI DirectorA new Director of the RNLI has

been appointed to succeed the lateCaptain Nigel Dixon. He is RearAdmiral Wilfred Graham, who recently

Every year many delegates from overseas are welcomed at RNLI headquarters, Poole. Onepage from the visitors' book, covering just three weeks in March, 1979, records signatures of12 visitors from the USA, Chile, China and the United Arab Emirates.

photographs by courtesy of Peter Hadfield

retired from the Royal Navy after 35years' service. He was Flag OfficerPortsmouth and Port Admiral from1976 until he retired. He graduatedfrom the Imperial Defence College(now the Royal College of DefenceStudies) in 1970 and is a member of theNautical Institute.

He commanded HMS Ark Royal andbecame well known to the general pub-lic when the BBC filmed the televisionseries 'Sailor' on board Ark Royal.

Admiral Graham was born in Kil-macolm, near Glasgow, and spent hisearly life there. He now lives in Cron-dall, near Farnham, in Hampshire andis married with four children.

New intermediate lifeboatsThe RNLI depot at Cowes has been

working for some time on designs for anew boat which could serve as anintermediate lifeboat between theAtlantic 21 and conventional offshoreboats. A prototype boat has been builtat Souter's yard in Cowes, and a happydecision was taken to call the new classof boat 'RNLI Medina'. The trial speedof this boat is estimated to be about 25knots. The hull is in cold mouldedmahogany, with an internal structuremainly of plywood and a conning posi-tion built of aluminium alloy just for-ward of midships. There is a righting airbag, which has to be inflated by thecrew in much the same way as in theAtlantic 21.

Another intermediate lifeboat,whose estimated trial speed is alsoabout 25 knots, is being developedsimultaneously. This is an adaptationof a commercial hull produced byLochin Marine in GRP. To meet theRNLI's requirements considerable stif-fening has been introduced to the hull.So have foam buoyancy, watertightdoors and watertight hatches. Theengines are twin Caterpillar diesels,each producing 203 hp.

Major lifeboat displaysThrough the generous support of

sponsors the RNLI will have both thecentral feature at the International BoatShow, Earls Court, in January, 1980and the largest and most importantphotographic exhibition on the subjectof lifeboats ever to be staged in thiscountry.

The sponsors of the RNLI's featureat Earls Court are the Midland BankLimited. A major contribution is alsobeing made by the Department ofTrade and Industry, and the theme ofthe central feature will be search andrescue.

The photographic exhibition is beingsponsored by Kodak Limited, whocelebrate their centenary year in 1980.The photographic exhibition, to whichmany fine photographers who havedone work for the RNLI will be con-tributing, will be staged in London inMarch, 1980. It is hoped to transportthe exhibition later to other leadingcities.

147

thirteenth

International LifeboatConference

THE NETHERLANDS, APRIL 22-26

by Patrick HowarthMORE NATIONS were represented at thethirteenth International Lifeboat Con-ference, which was held in the Nether-lands from April 22 to 26, than everbefore at one of these occasions. In theearly days the countries represented,apart from the United States andJapan, tended to be exclusively Euro-pean. This year there were delegatesfrom 25 countries, seven of them out-side Europe. Among countries rep-resented for the first time wereAustralia, China, the Faroe Islands andthe Netherlands Antilles.

The delegates were housed in thenew Hotel Atlantic at Kijkduin near theHague. All the conference sessionswere held in the hotel, the visitinglifeboats being moored in Schevening-en. The organisation of the conferencewas flawless.

Demonstrations by the lifeboats tookplace in Rotterdam's Europort. A visitwas also paid to Amsterdam, where the

delegates, their wives and crew mem-bers were graciously received byQueen Juliana of the Netherlands andPrince Bernhard. The final dinner tookplace in Rotterdam.

Of the lifeboats present the mostimpressive, and by far the costliest,was certainly the German rescue

(Above) Delegates from 25 coun-tries met in conference at theHotel Atlantic, Kijkduin, near theHague.

(Right) Wilhelm Kaisen, the Fed-eral Republic of Germany'srescue cruiser, with her daughterboat ready to launch. Notehelicopter working platformabove.

(Below) Visiting lifeboats weremoored in Scheveningen. Inforeground (I. to r.) lifeboats fromthe Netherlands, France andPoland.

cruiser, Wilhelm Kaisen. In addition tothose from the Netherlands, the Fed-eral Republic of Germany and Britain,there were lifeboats from France,Norway, Poland and Sweden. TheRNLI was represented by the newArun lifeboat to be stationed at Fal-mouth, which was under the commandof Captain Roy Harding, and by anAtlantic 21. A demonstration of thecapsizing and righting of the Atlantic 21was given by RNLI crew members andthen by a Dutch crew.

The opening ceremony took place inthe seventeenth century New Churchin the Hague, where a choir of Dutchpilots sang sea shanties, most of themin English.

At the conference sessions the chairwas taken alternately by the chairmenof the two Dutch lifeboat societies,A. M. Lels and J. F. Dudok van Heel.As always the proceedings took placeentirely in English. The Dutch lifeboatsocieties were fortunate in obtainingsponsorship for the conference and forthe various associated functions fromUnilever and from a number of Dutchcompanies.

At the first conference session it wasunanimously agreed by the representa-tives of the 25 nations present that theywould seek support for the award of theNobel Peace Prize to the InternationalLifeboat Conference in 1980.

The range of subjects discussed atthe sessions was exceptionally wide,particular interest being expressed in

the medical papers. One of these waspresented by Surgeon Captain F. W.Baskerville of the RNLI. The other,which was written by Lt-Cdr D. S.Smith, was presented by Dr R. L. Hor-ton, the Commodore of the UnitedStates Coast Guard Auxiliary, who ishimself a medical practitioner. TheAmerican paper gave examples of newthinking on the subject of hypothermia.

There was a lively discussion aboutthe use of auxiliary bodies, most ofwhich are based on the US example, inlifesaving and education. It was agreedthat auxiliaries would be welcome atfuture international lifeboat confer-

Photographs at Kijkduin and Scheveningenby courtesy ofCees van der Meulen, and ofWilhelm Kaisen by Grahame Farr.

148

ences and that they should form part ofnational delegations.

The RNLI delegation, which wasmost ably led by Major-General RalphFarrant and which included the ChiefInspector of Coastguard, Lt-Cdr J. T.Fetherston-Dilke, produced, in addi-tion to Surgeon Captain Baskerville'spaper, contributions on the develop-ment of the Atlantic 21, the RNLI'spolicy in providing lifeboat cover, therole of lifeboats in intense fires and thereasons why we have voluntarylifeboat societies. The conference pas-sed a resolution expressing concernabout the problems of lifesaving whenintense fires had broken out and resol-ved to ask the Inter-GovernmentalMaritime Consultative Organisation totake the necessary steps to ensure that'the complex problems involved couldbe studied and appropriate action taken

Demonstrations included thecapsize and righting of theRNLI's Atlantic 21 ILB. ABritish crew righted the boatfirst and then, after beinginstructed in the rightingdrill by Mike Butler of theRNLI Cowes base, a Dutchcrew took over for the firsttime and, as can be seen,successfully righted the cap-sized boat. The crew, led bySkipper J. Flohil, came fromOuddorp where they manone of South Holland's threeAtlantic 21s.

photograph by courtesy ofthe Dutch Atlantic 21 crew

to provide suitable rescue craft for thispurpose'.

It was decided that the fourteenthInternational Lifeboat Conference in1983 should be held in Sweden. Captain

Hans Hansson, the leader of theSwedish delegation, who has attendedevery international lifeboat conferencefrom 1947 onwards, stated that the sitewould be Gothenburg.

Summary of Accounts for 1978A VISUAL REPRESENTATION

Full accounts are available from Poole head-quarters and a detailed report of the annualgeneral meeting held on May 22 at theNational Film Theatre, London, will be pub-lished in the autumn issue of THE LIFEBOAT.

What it cost in 1978

Total £7.90m

How the money was raised

INVESTSMENTSJNCOME

MEMBERSHIP

Total £8.11 m

£ millions8.0

How expenditure was apportioned7.5 Ten years at a glance

7.0

6.5

6.0

5.5

5.0

4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0

+ 0.5

0

-0.5

Areas of Expenditure Key

1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978

LIFE-BOATSERVICE

LIFE-BOATSUPPORT

OperationalRecurrent

ManagementSupport

OperationalCapital

Fund RaisingSupport

149

North Eastern Division

Cargo vessel sinksHUMBER COASTGUARD informedSuperintendent Coxswain Brian Bevanof Humber lifeboat station at 2357 onTuesday February 13 that the Panama-nian motor vessel Revi was in distress30 miles north east of Spurn Light Ves-sel. At 0015 on February 14 the 54ftArun lifeboat City of Bradford IV slip-ped her moorings and set out at fullspeed.

The weather was cloudy with mod-erate visibility, except in snow storms.A north-easterly gale was blowing,gusting to strong gale force 9 andincreasing. The tide was five hoursebb.

By the time the lifeboat had clearedthe river and was about two miles northeast of Spurn Light Vessel she washeading into very large seas. Shecrested one and then crashed downsome 15 to 20 feet so hard that the elec-

tric breakers on all lights and windowwipers opened. Speed was reduced to14 knots in head seas which were nowestimated to be 35ft high.

At 0107 Revi informed the Britishship Deepstone, which was standingby, that she was slowly sinking andasked her master to stand in close to.At this time Humber lifeboat still hadeight miles to run. Three minutes laterRevi informed all stations that she wasgoing to increase speed to full and tryto make the River Humber.

The lifeboat arrived 'on scene' at0136 and took station close astern ofRevi, which was steaming 6 knots on acourse of 210°; she was being com-pletely buried by heavy seas. Thewind, recorded on the BP gas platformnearby, was now north east, stormforce 10. It was exceptionally cold withintermittent snow showers.

At 0145, with Deepstone close to theeast and Humber lifeboat close astern,the master of Revi said he was slowingdown and asked that his two crewmembers be taken off. At first Cox-swain Bevan thought this would beimpossible and asked Revi to stop tosee how she would behave. Stopped,she lay broadside to the weather withheavy seas breaking across her wholelength, and the danger to survivors andcrew members alike was so great that arescue in that position had very littlechance of success. Coxswain Bevantherefore instructed Revi to steer southat slow speed and to have the two menon the boat deck on her starboard quar-ter, ready to jump.

The lifeboat was fendered on the portshoulder and the crew fastened their

Superintendent Coxswain Brian Bevan was awardedthe gold, silver and bronze medals for gallantry forservices by Humber lifeboat in some of the worststorms of the past winter. These services were toRevi, Diana V and Savinesti respectively and . . .

. . . the coxswain with his crew, all of whom wereawarded the bronze medal for their part in the ser-vice to Revi: Crew Member Dennis Bailey, Jnr, CrewMember Peter Jordan, Motor Mechanic Bill Sayers,Superintendent Coxswain Bevan, Second CoxswainDennis Bailey, Crew Member Sydney Rollinson,Assistant Mechanic Ronald Sayers and CrewMember Michael Storey.

photographs by courtesy of T. M. Carter

lifelines to the forward pulpit rails. Justas the lifeboat was edged in underRevi's starboard quarter a heavy break-ing sea hit the casualty's port quarter,completely covering her stern. Thelifeboat's engines were put full asternto clear Revi as she dropped mena-cingly down on to the lifeboat'sforedeck. After a number of similarattempts with the casualty often rising20 feet above the lifeboat's foredeck,the two crew members were taken offone at a time.

Revi's master hoped to continue torun for the River Humber, but only fiveminutes later he decided that, as theaccommodation was flooding, he andthe mate should abandon the vessel;with her cargo of silver sand shifting,she had a list of 45 degrees to port. Thecaptain turned her bows west, giving alee on the low port side. Preparing totake the two men off from the portquarter, the lifeboat's fenders werechanged over—this with great difficultyin the prevailing violent storm—and thecrew again made fast their lifelines tothe pulpit rails. Revi was now settlingby the head, while heavy seas sweptclear across her full length as she laybroadside to the storm. As the lifeboatcame alongside her heaving deck on thefirst approach a large wave broke rightover both boats and swept the lifeboataway from the ship's side. The samething happened again and again and ittook about another twelve attemptsbefore the lifeboat could be broughtalongside at a moment when, therebeing a reasonable height between thetwo decks, a man was able to jump.The mate jumped six feet into the armsof the lifeboat's crew who broke his falland hurried him below.

Revi's bows were now almost sub-merged, No. 1 hatch was completelyawash and the stern was clear of thewater, poised dangerously above thelifeboat. The last survivor, the master,was hanging on to the outside of Revi'sstern rails, ready to jump. On aboutthe tenth attempt to get him off, as Cityof Bradford IV approached Revi'squarter, the stricken vessel's stern rose20.feet in the air and began to crashdown towards the lifeboat's foredeckwhere the crew were lashed to the railswith little or no chance of escape. Cox-swain Bevan rammed the throttles fullastern and the Arun's impressivepower pulled her clear by only a matterof inches.

While the lifeboat was preparing foryet another approach, Revi was com-pletely covered by three successiveseas and the captain was feared lost.However, when the water cleared hewas seen still hanging on to the sternrails. With Revi now in immediatedanger of rolling over, CoxswainBevan decided on a dash in to the casu-alty in a trough between two waves.The lifeboat was driven under the portquarter, striking the ship's stern, andthe captain, the last man, jumped; healmost fell overboard but the crew just

150

managed to hold on to him. It was 0233.A few minutes later Revi rolled overand sank.

The survivors were landed atGrimsby and were taken to the Missionfor Seamen. After some refreshmentfor the crew, Humber lifeboat sailed at0609 to make the return passage to sta-tion. At 0721, after refuelling andremooring, Humber lifeboat wasreported 'ready for service'.

For this service the gold medal foroutstanding courage was awarded toSuperintendent Coxswain Brian W.Be van. The bronze medal was awardedto Second Coxswain Dennis Bailey,Motor Mechanic Barry 'Bill' Sayers,Assistant Mechanic Ronald Sayers andCrew Members Michael B. Storey,Peter Jordan, Sydney Rollinson andDennis Bailey, Jnr.

North Eastern Division

Loss of powerA GERMAN SHIP, Sutinanhav, brokendown eight miles north east of Flam-borough Head, was reported to thehonorary secretary of Bridlingtonlifeboat station by HM Coastguard at0900 on Thursday February 15. Shewas being storm-driven in a blizzardtowards the headland at about l'/2knots. At first the lifeboat was asked tostand by; shortly afterwards came therequest to launch. Humber lifeboatmight be required for a service well tothe south (see below) and Flamboroughlifeboat, although the closest, wasinstructed by the divisional inspector oflifeboats (North East) not to launch asshe had no radar and the weather wasdirectly into North Landing.

In blizzard conditions with fallingsnow and ice re-forming as quickly as itwas cleared the 37ft Oakley WilliamHenry and Mary King had to be low-ered down both slipways on a checkrope. At 0945 she launched into heavybreaking seas, with visibility only a fewyards making it impossible to see thenext breaker. A storm to violent storm,force 10 to 11, was blowing from thenorth east. The tide was three hoursebb; the temperature was — 4°c.

Coxswain Fred Walkingon decidedthat it would be better to leave Brid-lington Bay by the south end of SmithicSands thus avoiding the extra largeshallow water waves between the northend of the sand and FlamboroughHead. The lifeboat was struck con-stantly by large seas and CoxswainWalkington instructed his crew to clipon their lifelines inside the cockpit.Smithic Buoy was left to port andcourse set to the north east. The seawas white over with drift and thelifeboat was heading into driven snowsqualls during which the wind becameeven stronger and visibility wasreduced. The main sea was easterlywith a cross sea breaking from thenorth. The throttles had to be eased

and the bows squared towards the fre-quent breaking waves. The boat wastwice lifted and tossed round 40degrees to starboard.

Shortly after the lifeboat left Brid-lington Bay she was informed thatSunnanhav had regained limited powerand was now four to five miles northeast of Flamborough Head but stillbeing driven south west. A mile or sofurther on, Bridlington lifeboat waslifted by a big sea which filled thecockpit with water (this had alreadyhappened on a number of occasionspreviously) and the radar went dead.Coxswain Walkington continuedtowards the last known position of thecasualty. A few minutes later theCoastguard informed him that Sun-nanhav had regained full power andwas making for Humber for shelterfrom the still worsening seas, whichwere now breaking at 30 foot. Visibilitywas about 50 yards and the ship couldnot pick up the lifeboat on her radar.

Coxswain Walkington decided toturn west hoping to make a landfall onthe high cliffs to the north of Flam-borough Head; if he had gone into Brid-lington Bay in the prevailing conditonswithout radar there would have beenthe possibility of arriving in very shal-low water without a positive indicationof position, thus not knowing whetherto turn north or south to return to sta-tion. After about 2'/2 hours runningwith the drogue streamed and beingconstantly pooped, cliffs were glimp-sed through the snow at a distance ofabout half a mile. They were soon iden-tified as the cliffs north of Filey Brig, anotorious outcrop of rocks; at almostthe same time Second Coxswain DenisAtkins shouted a warning that he hadsighted Filey Brig ahead at about 100yards. Coxswain Walkington put thewheel hard over to port. As the boatpresented her beam to the sea she wasstruck and knocked over to starboard.The engine cut-out operated and theengines stopped. Coxswain Walkingtonput his engines to neutral and orderedAssistant Mechanic John Sharp tomake the 'capsize switches' andrestart. The engines fired first time.

Filey Brig Buoy was sighted to portafter the coxswain had brought thelifeboat round head to sea. It was now1510. The crew, who had all been'hooked on' and braced against theheavy movement, confirmed that theywere well and course was set forFlamborough Head.

Motor Mechanic Roderick Stott hadbeen constantly trying to regain a radarpicture; it gradually improved after theknockdown and helped with the returnpassage to harbour. The Coastguardmanned both piers with lifesavingequipment until the boat had enteredsafely.

The lifeboat returned to harbour andrefuelled at 1700, though with great dif-ficulty as the fuel was freezing in thefunnel. So that she should not go 'offservice' inside the harbour at low

water, the crew decided to have a hotdrink, change into dry clothing andthen sail again to rehouse, which wasjust possible with great care. Theymustered again two hours later andsailed, eventually rehousing at 2200after considerable problems negotiatingthe slip in the icy conditions. It was 13hours since they were first called.

Bridlington lifeboat was reportedready for service at 2225.

For this service the bronze medalwas awarded to Coxswain Fred Walk-ington. Medal service certificates werepresented to Second Coxswain DenisAtkins, Motor Mechanic Roderick W.Stott, Assistant Mechanic John C.Sharp and Crew Members Anthony J.Ayre, R. W. Stork and Paul A.Staveley.

North Eastern and EasternDivisions

BlizzardON THURSDAY MORNING February 15 aRomanian cargo ship, Savinesti, with28 people on board was reported in dis-tress 125° 37.5 miles from Spurn Point;she had engine failure and was draggingher anchor. After liaison (made moredifficult because heavy snow hadbrought down telephone wires) be-tween Yarmouth Coastguard, the divi-sional inspector of lifeboats (NorthEast) and the stations concerned it wasdecided that Wells lifeboat shouldlaunch to try to cut off the casualtywhich was in danger of grounding onRace Bank or Docking Shoal. Anotherdistress call had come to the northwhich Humber lifeboat might have toanswer and no other lifeboat in the areacould launch.

The morning was heavily overcastwith continuous snow blizzards andpoor visibility; the wind was northeasterly strong gale force 9 to stormforce 10. Maroons were fired at Wellsat 1005 and at 1024 the 37ft Oakleylifeboat Ernest Tom Neathercoatlaunched from her carriage into WellsHarbour and set out to sea. It was 2'/2hours after high water.

By 1040 the lifeboat had reached theentrance bar and was confronted byheavy rolling seas and the full force ofthe wind. The lifeboat was being con-tinually hit and filled by the seas andlost her radar, MF radio and echosounder. Course was set north by east.At 1052 Savinesti's position was givenat 331° a mile and a half from SouthRace Buoy by Wells Coastguard.

By 1100 Coxswain David Coxrealised that the lifeboat was labouringto clear the water that she was shippingand had to reduce speed. Although thisprevented the labouring, she was stillfilling and all crew throughout the ser-vice had to remain in the after cockpitas the heavy breaking seas made theforward well untenable.

As Bridlington lifeboat had managed

151

to launch to the casualty to the north,the divisional inspector of lifeboats(North East) was able to releaseNumber lifeboat to help to the south,and at 1124, after her crew had boardedwith great difficulty, the 54ft Arun Cityof Bradford IV slipped her moorings. Acourse was set to clear the river at 17knots. Visibility was reduced to lessthan 75 yards by the blizzard and, witha temperature of —4°c, there was a 3inlayer of ice on the boat and rails.

The radar was giving a very poor pic-ture, only just showing Spurn LightVessel at 1.5 miles, and the DeccaNavigator did not appear to be receiv-ing properly. Superintendent CoxswainBrian Bevan eased back and the scan-ners were checked. They were found tobe coated in thick ice which was chip-ped away before the lifeboat resumedcruising speed.

On clearing the river speed had to bereduced because of tremendous buffet-ing and nil visibility. The DeccaNavigator could only be used if thelifeboat was slowed right down duringthe infrequent pauses in the heavysnow, when it was hurriedly 'set up'and a reading taken before carrying on.

At 1113 Savinesti informed thecoastal tanker Annuity that she had lostboth anchors but had enough power tohold into the weather. At 1124 Annuityreported that she was with the casualtyand gave her position as 014° 2.6 milesfrom South Race Buoy. At 1140 theferry Norwave was in the vicinity of thecasualty.

At 1213 Coxswain Cox consideredthat Wells lifeboat was near SouthRace Buoy and asked if Annuity orNorwave could see him on radar, but inthat weather, neither could. A minutelater the lifeboat sighted a ship and by1307 was standing by Savinesti. At1314 Coxswain Cox asked if he couldbe relieved by Humber Arun lifeboat assoon as possible as his crew were allextremely cold; then, for the next twohours, Wells lifeboat stood by thecasualty as she held her own just northof South Race Buoy.

The wind over this period wasnorth-easterly storm to violent storm,force 10 to 11 and there was a veryheavy swell with 40ft breaking seas; thebanks nearby were making the rollersrun for several hundred feet and thecontinuous heavy snow, and blownspray brought visibility at times downto nil. At times all that could be seen ofthe other vessels by the lifeboat wasthe tips of their masts. Several attemptswere made by Annuity and Norwave topass a tow line to the casualty, but itcould not be done. Throughout thisperiod the lifeboat VHP transmissionshad to be relayed to Yarmouth Coast-guard by Norwave.

Meanwhile the tug Lady Moira wason her way to help and Humber lifeboatwas also on her way at ten knots, stop-ping occasionally to chip off ice and fixposition.

At 1500 Humber lifeboat was only

seven miles away and Wells lifeboatwas released to try to make the Norfolkcoast in daylight. By now the wind waseast north east, violent storm force 11gusting to hurricane force 12. A courseand distance to South East DockingBuoy of 212° ten miles was given toWells lifeboat by Norwave and with herdrogue streamed she started her returntrip. It was soon found that the onlycourse she could sustain without vio-lent movement was south west and shewas held down to about half speed. Thesnow was now blowing directly into theafter cockpit and it was one crewmember's task to keep the screen andcompass glass clear.

Heavy white water was seen aheadat 1700. At first it was thought to be theshore but it proved only to be thebanks, so course was held. At 1815some shore lights, thought to be Bran-caster, were glimpsed. A parachuteflare was put up and an auxiliary coast-guard ashore confirmed the lifeboat'sposition as being just north of Brancas-ter Golf Club. An easterly course wasthen set for Wells Harbour. Theremaining seven miles took two hoursto make good with frequent use of thehelm and engines to bring the lifeboatup into the breaking seas.

At 2026 the lifeboat was just west ofWells B~ar but no leading lights could beseen through the blizzard. A local fish-ing boat, Strandline, came down chan-nel to act as a leading light and givepilotage help on VHP and, at 2110 withher drogue out to its full extent, thelifeboat entered over the bar, beingcompletely swept again by three seasas she came. As the lifeboat could notbe rehoused she berthed in the harbourat 2150. The crew were all helped

ashore and most found that they wereunable to walk. They were helped intoa change of clothes and driven to theirhomes.

In all, Ernest Tom Neathercoat, anopen 37ft lifeboat, was at sea for 11hours 24 minutes in violent storm con-ditions with very heavy swell andphenomenal seas frequently washingright over her, with continuous blizzard(Wells was cut off by snow for the fol-lowing three days), poor visibility andsub zero temperatures.

Back at the scene of the casualty,during the afternoon four or five rock-ets were fired across Savinesti by Nor-wave in an attempt, which provedunsuccessful, to establish a tow; alllines parted. The tug Lady Moiraarrived at 1800 but considered condi-tions were too bad to risk men on deck.

By the evening Savinesti was makingfour knots northwards with the inten-tion of steaming north of DowsingLight Vessel and then running beforethe sea into Humber. By 0035 on Feb-ruary 16, the snow had moderated tolight showers and the wind to stronggale force 9. When in position 000°Dowsing Light Vessel five miles, thecasualty and her escorts turned beforethe sea on a course for the river.Savinesti entered the River Humber at0303 escorted by Norwave and LadyMoira and was boarded by a pilot.

Humber lifeboat returned to stationand refuelled, reporting ready forservice at 0425.

For this service the silver medal wasawarded to Coxswain David J. Cox ofWells lifeboat and the bronze medal toSuperintendent Coxswain Brian W.Bevan of Humber lifeboat. Medal ser-vice certificates were presented to

In the February blizzards when East Anglia roads were blocked by huge snowdrifts, GreatYarmouth and Gorleston's 44ft Waveney lifeboat Khami launched to take three patients, onea girl of 14, up the River Yare to Norwich for urgent medical treatment. It was the same day,February 15, that Bridlington lifeboat launched to go to the help of Sunnanhav and Wells andHumber lifeboats to the help of Savinesti.

photograph by courtesy of 'Eastern Daily Press'

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Second Coxswain Anthony T. Jordan,Motor Mechanic Albert Court, Assis-tant Mechanic Alan M. Cox and CrewMembers Albert Warner, John R.Nudds, Graham B. Walker and JohnW. Belts of Wells lifeboat, and SecondCoxswain Dennis Bailey, MotorMechanic Barry 'Bill' Sayers, Assis-tant Mechanic Ronald Sayers and CrewMembers Michael B. Storey, PeterJordan and Dennis Bailey, Jnr, ofHumber lifeboat. Framed letters ofthanks signed by Major-General RalphFarrant, chairman of the Institution,were sent to the master of Norwave,Captain Wally Patch, and to the skip-per of MFV Strandline, John Ward.

North Eastern and EasternDivisions

Dutch coasterA DUTCH COASTER Diana V, in distress101° 74 miles from Spurn Head,was reported to Superintendent Cox-swain Brian Sevan of Humber lifeboatstation by HM Coastguard at 1400 onDecember 30, 1978; her cargo of maizehad shifted in rough seas near WellBank. At 1410 the 54ft Arun lifeboatCity of Bradford IV slipped her moor-ings. On clearing the river she encoun-tered very heavy seas whipped up by astrong easterly gale and visibility wasreduced to 100 yards by heavy snowshowers. The tide was two hours flood.

At 1419 HMS Lindisfarne reportedthat she was 20 miles north west ofDiana V and heading for her.

Meanwhile, Cromer lifeboat hadbeen put on stand by and at 1451, the46ft 9in Watson relief lifeboat WilliamGammon, Manchester and DistrictXXX, on temporary duty at Cromer,launched on service to give extracover.

At 1559, Humber lifeboat was driv-ing at full speed into the head seas, andhad covered 25 miles from Spurn Point,when she suddenly lost speed; an oilpipe supplying the starboard enginewas found to be fractured. Knowingthat Cromer lifeboat was on her way,that HMS Lindisfarne was now in com-pany with Diana V and that the situa-tion on board the coaster was improv-ing. Coxswain Bevan decided to returnto Grimsby for emergency repairs.

During the return passage MotorMechanic Barry 'Bill' Sayers andAssistant Mechanic Ronald Sayers,who are brothers, working in a con-fined space in the engine room of theviolently moving lifeboat, managed tostrip down the pump in preparation forfitting a replacement pipe; arrange-ments had been made with the shorefor repairs.

HMS Lindisfarne had assumed onscene command and at 1700 shereduced the distress signal to urgency.Diana V was able to get under way at 9knots for Humber, escorted by Lindis-farne. At 1730 Cromer lifeboat

The 46ft 9in Watson relief lifeboat William Gammon, Manchester and District XXX, ontemporary duty at Cromer, launches on service to Diana V.

photographs by courtesy of Poppyland Photographs

reported she was returning, heading forGreat Yarmouth as, in the rough seasprevailing, she could not have beenrehoused at Cromer. She reachedharbour at 2250.

On Humber lifeboat's arrival atGrimsby at 1845 a suitable piece of pipewas located. It was found, however,that, because of the heavy swell, ifrepairs were to be made in harbour thelifeboat would have to lock in to theFish Dock—and then might be lockedin and thus off service until 0400.Rather than that, Coxswain Bevandecided that the repair should be madein the river and asked the dock masterto open the pen. Despite the heavyswell breaking on the dock gates, Cityof Bradford IV was penned out withoutdamage at 2030 and 'dodged' downriver and towards Spurn to refuel whilethe mechanics made the repairs.

At 2045 Lindisfarne reported that

conditions had become worse and thatDiana V was taking water. Helicopterhelp had been requested (a USAFhelicopter arrived on scene at 0030 buthad to return to base because of theweather). Humber lifeboat informedthe Coastguard that she was taking onfuel and would complete her repairsshortly. By 2136 she was once more onher way to the casualty, ETA two hours.Diana V was now 097° 28 miles fromSpurn Point.

The lifeboat was heading almostdirectly into the 25ft short, steep seasat full speed and taking a terrific pound-ing, at times taking off and crashingdown into the next wave. At 2235,when still eight miles from the casualty,she crashed down from an exception-ally large sea and all lighting, windowwipers and fans failed. Crew MemberDennis Bailey, Jnr, was thrown againstthe wheelhouse bulkhead, injuring his

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right eye, knee and elbow. Speed wasreduced to ten knots to give themechanics a chance to find the faultand restore the lighting.

Before repairs could be made, Lin-disfarne reported that the lifeboat wasnow urgently needed to take off DianaV's four crew and two women andasked Humber lifeboat to make bestspeed to join her. Coxswain Bevanincreased speed to full and briefed hiscrew to prepare to go alongside usingonly the two hand torches.

Humber lifeboat arrived on scene at2301 and prepared to go alongsideDiana V which was steering down seaon an erratic course at 5 knots with aheavy list to port. The lifeboat crewfound that both the inflatable dinghyand liferaft had broken loose from theirfastenings. They lashed them down andthen fendered the starboard bow. Withthe wind now gusting to 56 knots,storm force 10, and the -4°c tempera-ture freezing the sea water to deck andrails, moving about on deck was verydifficult.

Coxswain Bevan instructed the mas-ter of Diana V to have his crew on hisport quarter ready to jump and Lindis-

farne illuminated the coaster with hersearchlight. All the lifeboat's crewexcept for the two mechanics fastenedtheir lifelines to the rails forward. Justas Coxswain Bevan edged the lifeboatin to Diana V's port quarter a breakingsea hit the stern of the casualty, almostwashing her crew off the deck; the twovessels were thrown together, part ofthe lifeboat's rubbing strake being rip-ped away and her anchor stowagemoved aft. Her engines were put fullastern as her bows were then some tenfeet above Diana V's deck.

After making sure that the crew wereall ready, a second approach wasmade. This time a heavy sea struck thelifeboat's starboard quarter, crashingher starboard bow against the coaster;a fender exploded with a very loudbang and more rubbing strake was tornaway. The engines were again put fullastern to clear the casualty's sternwhich, as she heeled over, was onlythree feet away from the coxswain inthe upper steering position on the flyingbridge.

On the third run in, as the lifeboat'sbow hit the casualty some five feetbelow where her people were waiting, a12-year-old girl was dropped into thearms of the lifeboat crew and, as thelifeboat rose up the coaster's side, theother woman and four men jumpedaboard, the crew breaking their fall.The engines were again put full asternto avoid being 'laid over' by Diana V.

The survivors, wet, cold and suffer-ing from shock, were taken below andcared for while the lifeboat took stationon Diana V's port quarter; her captain,his crew safe, had decided to try tosave his ship. With only her fo'csle andbridge visible most of the time as seasbroke clear across her hatches, andescorted by HMS Lindisfarne and

Humber lifeboat, Diana V headed forthe River Humber 20 miles ahead. Theriver was safely entered at 0145. At0200, when in smooth water, a pilotboarded and Humber lifeboat returnedto Spurn Point and the waitingambulances.

The lifeboat was refuelled andreturned to her moorings, reportingready for service at 0345 after 133/4hours on service.

For this service the silver medal wasawarded to Superintendent CoxswainBrian W. Bevan. The thanks of theInstitution inscribed on vellum wereaccorded to Second Coxswain DennisBailey, Motor Mechanic Barry 'Bill'Sayers, Assistant Mechanic RonaldSayers and Crew Members Michael B.Storey, Peter Jordan and DennisBailey, Jnr. A framed letter of thankssigned by Major-General Ralph Far-rant, chairman of the Institution, wassent to the commanding officer of HMSLindisfarne, Lt-Cdr A. J. C. Morrow,RN, and a letter signed by Cdr BruceCairns, chief of operations, was sent toJ. J. Smith, honorary seretary ofCromer lifeboat station, expressing theInstitution's appreciation to CoxswainRichard Davies and his crew.

Western Division

Fishermen taken offTHE COXSWAIN of Angle lifeboat wasinformed at 0007 on Friday December1, 1978, that the 39ft fishing boatCairnsmore, on passage to Scotland,was in trouble five miles south west ofthe Hats and Barrels. Maroons werefired and at 0030 Angle's 46ft 9in Wat-son Richard Vernon and Mary Gar-forth of Leeds launched and set courseat full speed for the casualty.

The wind was easterly force 5 onlaunching but the weather deterioratedrapidly, the wind veering south easterlyand reaching near gale force 7 by thetime the lifeboat had cleared St Ann'sHead. The sky was overcast, withheavy rain and sleet. It was low watersprings.

The weather continued to deterio-rate, with the wind rising to strong galeforce 9, and there was a weather fore-cast of gale to storm force imminent.Realising the urgency of getting toCairnsmore as quickly as possible,Coxswain/Mechanic William ReesHolmes maintained full speed. Heheard by radio that RFA Sir Percivalwas on her way to stand by the casual-ty, ETA 0300, and that the tug Bar-racuda was also on her way from a pos-ition 30 miles north of South Bishops.

The lifeboat arrived at the casualty at0430, a quarter of an hour after Bar-racuda, and it was decided that the tugshould tow Cairnsmore to MilfordHaven while the lifeboat stood by asescort.

The tow began at 0502, speed 4knots. The wind was now force 9 gust-

ing to storm force 10 with breaking seasof about 20 feet, and Cairnsmore wasrolling her wheelhouse nearly horizon-tal. Her crew were sheltering, as bestthey could, on deck around thewheelhouse.

At 0940 Crew Member GeraldEdwards reported to the coxswain thatone of the crew of the fishing boat wasin the water. Informing the tug and tel-ling his crew to keep the man in sight,Coxswain Holmes began to manoeuvreinto position to recover him. With thelifeboat dropping 20 feet off the wavesand the waves breaking over the man inthe water, he wanted to come up intothe sea so that he had the greatest con-trol of his boat. He therefore turned,ran down sea and turned to come up tothe man, lying slightly off while one ofthe crew threw a heaving line. The linecaught round the man, he was pulledalongside the lifeboat and got inboardand down to the after cabin. He waswearing a lifejacket but was very coldhaving been in the icy water for aboutten minutes.

The tugmaster then asked CoxswainHolmes to take off the remaining twofishermen because he thoughtCairnsmore might capsize. While thetugmaster tried to keep the bows of thefishing boat into the sea, CoxswainHolmes took the lifeboat alongside, amanoeuvre requiring all his experienceas Cairnsmore was rolling and pitchingso heavily that, as she went over, herbottom was clearly out of the water.Nevertheless, the lifeboat was safelybrought alongside and the two mentaken off.

The tow began again and MilfordHaven was reached without furtherincident at 1306, when the lifeboat putthe men ashore. The man who had beenin the water was taken to hospital for acheck up but was released later thesame day.

The lifeboat arrived back at her sta-tion at 1510 and was rehoused andready for service at 1542.

For this service a bar to his bronzemedal was awarded to Coxswain/Mechanic William J. Rees Holmes.Medal service certificates were pre-sented to Crew Members Gerald C. W.Edwards, Roger V. O'Callaghan,Norman A. Knowles, Jeffrey Stringer.Danny J. Richards and Stephen J.O'Leary.

South Eastern Division

Storm searchBRIXHAM COASTGUARD asked the hon-orary secretary of St Peter Port lifeboatstation at 2030 on Thursday January 4to put the lifeboat on stand by for MVCanlonad, a 2,200 ton Greek freighterwith a crew of 16, reported listingheavily about four miles south of theChannel Light Vessel.

The crew were assembled; thencame the request to launch. At 2109 St

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Peter Port's 52ft Arun lifeboat Sir Wil-liam Arnold slipped from her mooringsand set out at full speed. She had 31miles to go to the reported position andthis became 38 miles eventually, due tothe casualty's set and drift.

The wind was east north east, gale tohurricane force 8 to 12, and remainedso for the entire 12 hours of this ser-vice, with poor visibility and snowshowers. It had been blowing from theeast at gale to storm force since theprevious day. It was now two hoursbefore high water and the lifeboatencountered rough seas as soon as sheleft harbour.

Within 15 minutes, as the lee ofHerm was cleared, the liferaft brokeadrift from its stowage on the foredeckand Coxswain John Petit turned sternto sea for it to be resecured. As theafter door was opened a sea broke overthe after deck and entered the cabin, sothat the crew had to suffer wet condi-tions almost from the outset. Messagesrelayed from St Peter Port were nowindicating that the casualty's plight wasworsening and so Coxswain Petitresumed course as rapidly as possibleand continued at full speed of 19 knotsin spite of the steadily increasing sea.

Two helicopters had been 'scram-bled' and another vessel was also onher way to help. At 2244 this vesselreported that Cantonad had now dis-appeared from her radar screen in posi-tion 49°54'N, 03°05'w. The lifeboatduly altered course for this position.

Soon after 2300, Coxswain Petitturned in the helmsman's seat to speakto the radar operator, behind him on hisstarboard hand. At the same momentan exceptional sea broke just forwardof the starboard beam. The lifeboat wasrolled about 45 degrees to port and felldown the opposite side of the wave.The coxswain was thrown out of hisseat into the port after corner of thewheelhouse, striking his head on thefire extinguisher, which knocked himunconscious for a few moments andactivated the extinguisher. CrewMember John Robilliard was alsothrown across the wheelhouse. crack-ing two of his ribs.

At 2351 the helicopters were sightedby the lifeboat and one of themreported that they were having extremedifficulty because survivors could notget into the strop. The lifeboat repliedthat she was making best speed toassist. The helicopter then droppedsmoke floats to mark the search areafor the lifeboat and said that the otherhelicopter had now departed for BerryHead with one survivor picked up froma liferaft at 0011. Eight minutes laterthe lifeboat sighted two bodies and,after extreme difficulty, three crewmembers managed to get them aboard.

The lifeboat searched in co-operationwith the helicopter unti l it was apparentthat there was no further hope. At 0400the lifeboat reported that conditionswere now so bad that it had becomeimpossible to search upwind at all. A

Nimrod aircraft had joined the searchand dropped flares for the helicoptersuntil about 0520. The helicopters thenleft to return to Culdrose and thelifeboat was recalled to station tenminutes later.

As the lifeboat set course for home,with the wind now on her port bow,progress was limited to six knots byphenomenal seas so that St Peter Portwas not finally reached until 0900. Thelifeboat was refuelled and returned toher moorings at 1000.

For this service a third bar to hisbronze medal has been awarded toCoxswain John H. Petit. Medal servicecertificates were presented to ActingSecond Coxswain Robert Hamon,Motor Mechanic Eric C. Pattimore,Assistant Mechanic Robert Vowles andCrew Members John H. Robilliard andGraham Eker.

South Western Division

Trawler broken downA FISHING TRAWLER, Fairway, brokendown and drifting towards shore abouteight miles south of Lyme Regis wasreported to the honorary secretary ofTorbay lifeboat station at 0032 onSaturday December 2, 1978. Thetrawler's crew, who were trying torepair her engine, gave no indication ofurgency and a tug had been declined.However, with the wind south southeast strong gale force 9 to storm force10. and knowing that Exmouth lifeboatcould not launch until 0230 because ofconditions on the bar and that helicop-ter help could not be expected until0700, it was decided at 0155 to launchTorbay lifeboat. So Coxswain ArthurCurnow and his crew, who werealready assembled, boarded Torbay's54ft Arun lifeboat Edward Bridges(Civil Service and Post Office No. 37)and at 0200 she slipped her moorings.There was heavy rain and the springtide was in the first hour of flood.

After leaving harbour. CoxswainCurnow and his crew cleared the upperdeck to the wheelhouse and radio cabinand the after watertight door wasclosed. A course of 065°M was set at 18knots, but three minutes later, as thelee of Berry Head was cleared, move-ment of the lifeboat became so violentwith the very heavy sea just abaft thebeam that speed had to be reduced to15 knots; with an adverse tide of aboutI knot as well as the heavy seas, speedover the ground was reduced to about13'/2 knots.

Radio/telephone contact was nowestablished with the coxswain ofExmouth lifeboat: although she couldnot clear the bar until 0230, it wasagreed that she should stand by. EssoCardiff and another vessel offered helpby creating a lee, but the casualty wasnow dragging her anchor into shallowwaters which would present a hazard tothese two vessels, so Coxswain Cur-now declined their offers with thanks.

Fairway was still over eight milesaway when the lifeboat's radar failedafter a wave broke over the scannerduring a heavy roll. Fortunately boththe lifeboat and casualty had DeccaNavigator so that accurate plotting ofinterception courses was still possible;heavy rain prevented a visual sightingfor a further 35 minutes.

At about 0345. as the lifeboatapproached. Fairway reported heranchor warp parted. She could now beseen with all lights burning, and Cox-swain Curnow asked the skipperwhether he wanted the lifeboat to takeoff the entire crew or to stand by. Theskipper asked him to stand by; workwas continuing on the trawler's engine,but it proved to be of no avail.

At 0410 Coxswain Curnow went tothe upper conning position on the flyingbridge and took the lifeboat in towardsthe casualty. He spoke to the trawleron VHP: 7 am 20 yards off your stern;do you want to abandon?' Receivingthe answer 'Yes' he asked the skipperfirst to let go the trawl board, whichwas hanging over the side, and then toassemble his six crew on the port sideamidships with lifejackets on.

Fairway was lying almost starboardbeam to the sea, bows east, her partedanchor warp stil l out, and she was drift-ing north westwards at nearly 1 knottowards the shore in a shallowing areaof Lyme Bay from which local fisher-men keep well clear in south-easterlygales. She was rolling and pitching vio-lently in steep seas ranging to 25 feet.

Coxswain Arthur Curnow broughtthe lifeboat close in towards Fairway'sport side and Second Coxswain KeithBower once more shouted to the casu-alty to let go her trawl board and toassemble the crew amidships ready tobe taken off one at a time. Onelifeboatman stood by on the foredeckwith a lifebuoy and heaving line as aprecaution while the others stationedthemselves along the lifeboat's star-board side to receive the survivors.

When the trawl board dropped clear,Coxswain Curnow brought his star-board bow in against the casualty andthe first man was taken aboard. Thecoxswain then held his bow off with hisport engine so that the flare should notoverlap the trawler's rails as the twoboats rolled together. As the lifeboatcame alongside again three more menwere taken aboard amidships whileanother man leapt for the lifeboat'safter guardrail and hung over it, legsoutboard. Coxswain Curnow saw alarge sea approaching, realised that theman was in danger of being crushed,and put both his engines full astern.Fairway rolled heavily and her port gal-lows came down scraping thesurvivor's back as the lifeboat pulledastern. The crew then rolled himinboard, comparatively unharmed.

There was one man still left aboard.The lifeboat was again taken alongsideand this last rnan dived on to theforedeck head first as Coxswain Cur-

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now went astern to clear. The time was0425.

As soon as all the survivors weresafely below in the after cabin and allwas secured on the upper deck, acourse of 240°M was set for Brixham.There was less than half a knot ofadverse tide on the return passage butthe lifeboat made good only 11 '/2 knotsin the severe seas, arriving at Brixhambreakwater at 0630.

The following morning Fairway wasfound ashore on the rocks at ChartonBay, five miles north north east of therescue position, her bottom holed andengine room flooded.

For this service the bronze medalwas awarded to Coxswain Arthur L. V.Curnow. Medal service certificateswere presented to Second CoxswainKeith W. Bower, Acting MotorMechanic William J. Hunkin and CrewMembers Nicholas Davies, Richard R.Brown, Michael Mills and Ernest C.Fradd.

Ireland Division

Fishing boat sinkingROSSLARE HARBOUR OFFICE informedStoreman R. Walshe at 1130 on Thurs-day December 7, 1978, that a Swedishcargo vessel had relayed a distresssignal from a fishing boat sinking offTuskar Rock. Maroons were fired at1135, the deputy launching authority ofRosslare Harbour lifeboat station wasinformed and at 1155 the 46ft 9in Wat-son relief lifeboat Sir Samuel Kelly ontemporary duty at Rosslare launchedon service.

A storm force 10 to violent stormforce 11 was blowing from the southeast and there was a very heavy searunning. High water was at 1140.

Acting Second Coxswain SeamusMcCormack was in command on ser-vice for the first time, the coxswainbeing away on lifeboat business. Onclearing harbour he set course throughthe approach channel for Tuskar Rock.Progress was difficult in seas estimatedat 10 metres high and extra lookoutswere posted to watch for navigationbuoys through the driving rain.

At 1215 the casualty's position wasamended to 3.5 miles 210°M from Tus-kar Rock and Acting CoxswainMcCormack altered course to inter-cept, allowing for the northerly drift.The Swedish cargo vessel was sightedat 1300 and the casualty, Notre Damedu Sucre Coeur, ten minutes later. Ahelicopter was seen to recover a manfrom the sea and to stand off.

With the storm still blowing at force10 to 11, Acting Coxswain McCormackcircled the casualty to observe hermotion in the seaway. He chose hismoment to bring the lifeboat alongsidethe starboard quarter and one fisher-man was dragged aboard by CrewMember Thomas Billington and Assis-tant Mechanic Sean Martley. A second

run was made on to the port quarterand a second fisherman recovered.After checking that there were nofurther survivors aboard, the fishingboat, obviously sinking, wasabandoned.

The lifeboat returned to harbour atreduced speed in the following seaway,arriving at 1445. The fishermen werelanded and the lifeboat made ready forservice at 1530.

For this service the bronze medalwas awarded to Acting Second Cox-swain Seamus McCormack. Medalservice certificates were presentedto Motor Mechanic Matthew W.Wickham, Assistant Mechanic Sean P.Martley and Crew Members ThomasBillington, Peter Breen, Brian J.Wickham and Bernard A. Keogh.

Eastern Division

Struck wreckWARDEN POINT COASTGUARD informedthe deputy launching authority ofSheerness lifeboat station at 2046 onSaturday December 30, 1978, that a redflare had been sighted in GillinghamReach. Maroons were fired at 2049 andat 2106 Sheerness lifeboat, the 44ftWaveney Helen Turnbull, slipped hermoorings and headed up the Medwayat three-quarter speed because of theprevailing conditions.

The night was heavily overcast withsnow flurries and moderate to poorvisibility. A strong gale, force 9, wasblowing from the north east and therewere rough breaking seas. It was fourhours before high water springs.

At 2118 the lifeboat was given detailsof a cabin cruiser, Ma Jolie II, overdueon passage down the Thames from StKatherine's Dock to the Medway. By2137 Helen Turnbull was off DarnettNess and put up a parachute flare sothat the people who had raised thealarm could gauge the lifeboat's posi-tion in relation to the distress flare. At2145 she was informed that she was inthe vicinity of the flare sighting and,realising that the tide and wind wouldset a casualty south west, Coxswain/Mechanic Charles Bowry headed upPinup Reach. By this time all crewmembers were on deck searching withthe aid of searchlights, although in thesnow, now heavy and continuous, thelights were not very effective.

A small white light flashing sos wasseen at 2151; it came from Cinque PortMarshes, near the position, the cox-swain knew, of a partially submergedwreck. The approach from the edge ofthe channel to the casualty was throughyacht moorings.

Not knowing the condition of thecasualty, which could only be glimpsedthrough the snow and spray and themany moorings, and not wanting tolose any time, Coxswain Bowrydecided that he could not anchor andveer down. Instead, accepting the fact

that even if he should damage bothpropellers he should still be able to getthe survivors off and then ride out theweather on the lifeboat's anchor, heheaded in towards the casualty with thecrew trying to illuminate the yachtmoorings on all sides.

The lifeboat had to use full rudderand maximum revolutions to comeround head to sea about 15 feet fromthe casualty, which was lying head tosea with her anchor out but dragging.Before the nearness of the yacht moor-ings made the lifeboat's position unten-able and Coxswain Bowry had to clearto the north, the crew managed toascertain that the boat was Ma Jolie IIand that she had struck an obstructionand lost her propeller.

The snow was heavy and continu-ous. With the force 9 wind, the near-ness of the land and the strong springtide coming between the islands the seawas very rough and confused and spraywas being driven right across thelifeboat and the casualty.

The lifeboat had taken station offNo. 26 buoy in Gillingham Reach toassess the situation. Coxswain Bowrydecided that the cabin cruiser musthave hit the wreck, and that this wreckshould now be on her other side. Hetook the lifeboat in again through themoorings, turned head to sea and easedin starboard side to Ma Jolie II's portside. One man was taken off before theheavy seas and the hazard of the moor-ings meant that the lifeboat had again tobe taken clear. A third approach wasmade in the same way and, at 2208, thesecond man was taken off and thelifeboat cleared the area and re-enteredthe channel.

The two men were landed at Gilling-ham Pier into the care of the pier mas-ter at 2220. The lifeboat then returnedthrough the Medway and was berthedagain and ready for service at 2359.

For this service a bar to his bronzemedal was awarded to Coxswain/Mechanic Charles H. Bowry. Medalservice certificates were presented toEmergency Mechanic Grant Burnhamand Crew Members Colin J. Washford,Ian J. McCourt and Martin R. Oliver.

South Western Division

Injured manA YACHT AGROUND in Worbarrow Baywas reported to the deputy launchingauthority of Weymouth lifeboat stationat 0006 on Sunday September 24, 1978,and at 0030 the 54ft Arun lifeboat TonyVandervell, with Coxswain AlfredPavey in command, slipped her moor-ings and headed for Worbarrow Bay,about nine miles to the east.

It was an extremely dark night withan overcast sky. The wind was west-erly force 3. It was high water and therewas a ground swell of eight to ten feet.

Communication with the Coastguard

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was established on Channel 0 VHP, andit was learned that there was a veryseriously injured man on the cliff atWorbarrow Tout, about eight feetabove water level, and that the onlypossible means of taking him off wouldbe by sea.

Coxswain Pavey decided that thelifeboat's inflatable dinghy would haveto be used but first, on arrival at thescene at 0110, he took the lifeboatwithin a few feet of the rocks where thecasualty lay to make a thoroughappraisal of the situation which thedinghy would encounter.

The injured man was seen to be lyingface down on the rocks. He had aCoastguard strop around him, the linefrom which was held by CoastguardGerald Plant, who had made the verydifficult and dangerous climb downover the cliffs and was now astride apinnacle of rock about two feet abovethe casualty's head.

The yacht, Sartorious, was alreadysmashing up on the rocks below theinjured man as Coxswain Pavey tookthe lifeboat into deeper water to launchthe dinghy. Tony Vandervell had onlyabout 100 feet within which to man-oeuvre between the shallow ledges.She rolled heavily as she lay beam-onto the swells in this confined area sothat launching the dinghy was onlyaccomplished with difficulty. Cox-swain Pavey kept one of his crew onthe searchlight and another on theAldis lamp, illuminating the casualtyand the dinghy, while a third crewmember was assigned to report con-stantly on the echo sounder readings.

With Motor Mechanic Derek Sargentas helmsman, Second Coxswain VictorPitman, a qualified first aider,embarked in the dinghy taking with himthe Neil Robertson stretcher. Anothersurvivor had told the Coastguard thatthe injured man was only semi-conscious.

After some difficulty. MotorMechanic Sargent found a place wherehe could bring the dinghy in to therocks near the casualty and SecondCoxswain Pitman jumped ashore withthe stretcher. He was faced with a45-degree slope of rock to climb which,even in daylight, would have beenhazardous. Meanwhile, MotorMechanic Sargent lay off in the dinghyand tried to circle clear of rocks. Therewere nevertheless a number of anxiousmoments when the skeg struck rocksand the engine stalled, although italways restarted with the first pull.

On reaching the casualty, SecondCoxswain Pitman found that the manhad three large cuts across his back,which later required 16 stitches, and ahead wound which would also have tobe stitched. It was also found later thathe had six broken ribs. He was a bigman, six feet tall and weighing between14 and 15 stone and the second cox-swain had great difficulty in getting thestretcher around him, particularly as itwas apparent that he was severely

injured above the waist, and there wereonly footholds on the rocks.

Eventually, with the man secured inthe stretcher, Vic Pitman passed thestretcher's headrope up to GeraldPlant, who was still holding the stroprope; he then took the rope off theCoastguard strop and secured it to thehead ring of the stretcher for loweringdown the rock face. Motor MechanicSargent brought the dinghy in again tothe same place as before while SecondCoxswain Pitman, helped by the unin-jured yachtsman, worked the casualtyslowly round the cliff to a point abovethe dinghy. With Coastguard Plant pay-ing out the rope, the two men edged thestretcher down to the dinghy's bowlevel, Motor Mechanic Sargent comingforward to help lift it on board. WithVic Pitman embarked, Derek Sargenttook the dinghy back to the lifeboat.

The lifeboat was turned head to swelland it took four men on deck to bringthe injured man aboard while CoxswainPavey manned the searchlight himselfso that he could see to keep the boatclear of the rocks.

Such were the difficulties andhazards of the situation that it hadtaken an hour and a quarter to embarkthe injured man in the lifeboat. WhileSecond Coxswain Pitman accompaniedhim on board, Motor MechanicSargent, with Crew Member BernardWills, took the inflatable dinghy oncemore inshore to bring the second manout to the lifeboat. He then returned totake off Coastguard Plant, landing himon a nearby beach with the remainderof the Coastguard team; with them wasthe third member of the yacht's crew,who had originally raised the alarm bya seemingly impossible feat of cliffclimbing, and he was ferried out to thelifeboat.

The lifeboat arrived at Weymouth atabout 0340.

For this service the thanks of theInstitution inscribed on vellum wereaccorded to Second Coxswain Victor J.Pitman. Framed letters of thankssigned by Major-General Ralph Far-rant, chairman of the Institution, werepresented to Coxswain Alfred T. Paveyand Motor Mechanic Derek J. Sargent,and vellum service certificates werepresented to Emergency MechanicEric L. Pavey and Crew Members Ber-tie Legge, Chris Tett, Bernard R. Willsand Colin E. Pavey. A letter was sentfrom the RNLI to the chief coastguardcomplimenting Coastguard GeraldPlant on his part in the service.

Scotland North Division

KnockdownA COASTER, Fendyke, in trouble offCarnoustie a few miles north of theentrance to the River Tay was reportedto the honorary secretary (operations)

of Broughty Ferry lifeboat station, whois also the harbour master, by HMCoastguard at 2212 on SundayDecember 24, 1978.

The average readings of the gauge onAbertay Light Vessel, which aretransmitted to a recorder in the harbouroffice, gave a wave/swell height of 20 to25 feet with an occasional height ofabout 30 feet. The honorary secretaryconsidered these bar conditions wellwithin the ability of Broughty Ferry's52ft Arun Spirit of Tayside and alertedCoxswain John Jack. The lifeboat slip-ped her moorings at about 2225 andheaded down river on service.

Off the moorings there was an east-erly fresh to strong breeze blowing,force 5 to 6, with a moderate sea. Thetide was just after high water and start-ing to ebb.

Conditions worsened as the lifeboatapproached the bar with the windincreasing to easterly gale to stronggale, force 8 to 9. Coxswain Jackchecked the weather with Fendykewhich was nearer the bar than the lightvessel and decided to continue. Speedwas reduced to half and a course ofabout 070° was set.

With the light vessel on reducedpower, the channel buoys out of posi-tion, the radar only intermittently pick-ing up the coastline and conditionsmaking it impractical to plot. CoxswainJack had to rely on local knowledge.The wheelhouse windows had badlysteamed up. Deciding that pilotagewould be better from the upper conningposition, he and Second CoxswainHugh Scott went up to the flyingbridge.

The seas were now coming in fromdifferent directions over some 30degrees on the starboard bow. To ridethese the coxswain was on the wheeland the second coxswain using thethrottles as necessary. Seas were about20 to 25 feet high and breaking, withsome 70 feet between the crests (periodfive to six seconds).

As the lifeboat neared the middlebuoys she was struck on the starboardshoulder by a heavy sea and pushedwell over to port. A few minutes later,at about 2315, a heavier sea, estimatedat between 30 to 35 feet high andappearing as a solid wall of water, wasseen coming in on the starboard bow.As the coxswain tried to head the sea,the second coxswain opened up thethrottles to meet the sea and then throt-tled back as it hit the starboard shoul-der engulfing the lifeboat. The lifeboatthen dropped some 20 feet into thetrough and was knocked right over toport causing the capsize switches toreduce the engines to idling. This seacarried away the top mast together withthe blue flashing light and mastheadnavigation light, and also the search-light which had been mounted on theport side.

Motor Mechanic William Pikeimmediately re-engaged the engines

continued on page 177

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Lifeboats of the WorldPART II—SEA RESCUE OUTSIDE EUROPE

by Eric MiddletonTHE LIFEBOAT ORGANISATIONS of theworld are to a large extent concen-trated in Europe. Taking the wideraspect of general sea rescue, outsideEurope it is mainly in the hands of thenaval services or, as in the UnitedStates and Canada, an organisationclosely allied to the navy: the CoastGuard. Unlike the British Coast-guard—and the fact that we spell it asone word and the US and Canada astwo will have been noted—the US andCanadian Coast Guard are very muchsea-going services and carry out a widevariety of tasks of which sea rescuemay not be considered the major one.The US Coast Guard (USCG) isresponsible for the provision andmaintenance of all navigational marks,work undertaken in Britain by TrinityHouse. It also operates ice-breakers,runs the North Atlantic iceberg patroland for good measure does a certainamount of law enforcement. There isalso a large and enthusiastic AuxiliaryCoast Guard organisation which has anattractive uniform and undertakes anumber of general Coast Guard dutiesunder supervision.

The USCG fleet is an imposing oneand includes a wide variety of vesselsranging from fine sea-going cutters to44ft steel lifeboats and small openboats. There is also an extensive airarm and it is interesting to note that theUSCG considers the amphibioushelicopter to be the most versatile searescue craft.

Canada has a fleet on much the same

lines as the US and performs much thesame duties. The two services work inclose co-operation in their adjacentwaters. The Canadian Coast Guard hasoperated hovercraft for some years andhas recently added the latest types toits fleet. Its other specialised searchand rescue vessels consist of threelarge and nine small rescue cutters, 14self-righting lifeboats, seven crashboats, a catamaran and 30 inshorerescue boats. It is planned to increasethe fleet in the next year or two byacquiring two small cutters for PrinceRupert and Campbell River, threesmall cutters for the Great Lakes, StLawrence River and lower St Law-rence, a tug and a self-righting lifeboatfor Newfoundland, a self-rightinglifeboat for the Magdalen Islands andtwo SAR launches for Vancouver and

Thunder Bay. A Volunteer CanadianMarine Rescue Auxiliary has also beenorganised by the Canadian CoastGuard during the past year.

Perhaps not surprisingly there isnothing like the concentration of rescueservices in the southern hemispherethat there is in the north. There is ofcourse a lot more water and a lot lessland but nothing like the same amountof shipping or indeed population. Muchof the coastal areas of the southernhemisphere are devoid of both industryand people and the need for lifeboatservices correspondingly small.

In South America Argentina, Brazil,Chile and Uruguay all have sea rescueservices both state controlled and vol-untary but they are small in relation tothe length of their coastlines by Euro-pean standards.

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In Argentina the search and rescueorganisation is under the control of thecommander in chief of the navy, withrescue stations at Buenos Aires, Mardel Plata, Puerto Belgrano andUshuaia.

Brazil's sea rescue service is underthe control of the naval operationscommand which operates five rescuestations and 13 rescue vessels whichprobably have other duties.

Chile has the Valparaiso LifeboatVolunteer Institution, which wasformed in 1925 by Captain Oluf Christ-iansen as a means of rescue for thecrews of ships threatened by the heavygales experienced in the Bay of Val-paraiso in winter. Ex-RNLI lifeboatshave been purchased for this serviceincluding one obtained in 1955. One ofthe more unusual services by Val-paraiso lifeboat was the landing of anofficer from a Chilean naval vessel rid-ing out a gale in the bay. The officerwas due to be married that day and thevolunteer crew were delighted to help!

The sea rescue service of Uruguaytranslates its comprehensive and mellif-luous name as 'The Honorary Associa-tion of Maritime and River Salvage'.This is perhaps misleading as the workis almost entirely devoted to savinglife. The association is based at Mon-

Bermuda Search and RescueInstitute has a 9.1m offshorerescue boat. Jet-engined,she is designed to work overcoral reefs.

Japan: Line-throwing rocketfiring exercise for volunteer r

crew members of NipponSuinan Kyusaikai.

tevideo and also operates an ex-RNLIlifeboat. The influence of the RNL1 onsea rescue does indeed extend world-wide.

Other rescue services include theBahamas Air-Sea Rescue Association.

the Turks and Caicos Rescue Associa-tion, the Cayman Air-Sea Rescue Insti-tute and the branch of the SocieteNationale de Sauvetage en Mer estab-lished in Martinique. Plans are alreadyadvanced for the formation of a searescue organisation in the NetherlandsAntilles.

Moving east across the wide expanseof the South Atlantic to South Africawe find that the Department of Trans-port is responsible for search andrescue. The commercial ports of SouthAfrica are state controlled and the portcaptains are allocated areas of respon-sibility for sea rescue. The ports con-cerned are Port Nolloth, Cape Town,Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth and Dur-ban. For some reason East Londonappears to have been omitted.

In addition there is a flourishing andeffective voluntary organisation, theNational Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).It has a state subsidy and comes underthe overall control of the Search andRescue Committee in Pretoria(PECSAR). The NSRI has numerousrescue stations from Saldanha Bay onthe south-west coast to Richards Bay

(Above) Chile: Valparaiso lifeboat is ane.x-RNLI 14m Watson.

(Opposite, above) US Const Guard 15.8msteel lifeboat on winter patrol in YaquinaBuy, Oregon.

(Left) Canadian Coast Guard has for someyears used hovercraft in its rescue work.The first, a British Hovercraft CorporationSRN5, became operational at Vancouver in1969.

(Right) South Africa: Hubert Davies, one ofthe National Sea Rescue Institute's 10mlifeboats, in Table Bay.

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north of Durban and operates a varietyof high speed rescue craft. The NSRIhas carried out many excellent rescuesand has a high and well-deservedreputation.

Australia has a number of enthusias-tic and efficient sea rescue teams roundthe coast, including the Australia Vol-unteer Coastguard, the Royal Volun-teer Coastal Patrol and the Surf LifeSaving Association of Australia, butnever appears to have operated morethan a few conventional lifeboats.Probably the best known lifeboat wasthat at Queenscliff at the entrance toPort Phillip Bay, the approach to Mel-bourne. Records show that a lifeboatwas stationed at Port Phillip Heads in1853 and in view of the narrowness ofthe entrance, a sudden 90 degree turnto starboard and strong tides, it wasclearly a dangerous spot for sailingships. Entering in a large modern ves-sel one might well wonder how sailingcraft managed to negotiate the entranceat all.

Later, lifeboats were stationed atWarrnambool, Port Fairy, PortlandBay and Port Albert, but there is norecord of a lifeboat being stationed atSydney or Freemantle although an ex-lifeboat served as a pilot boat at thelatter port. A steam lifeboat of theRNL1 type was stationed at Adelaide in1896 but apparently did very little ser-vice. It was recently reported that anew lifeboat was being built for use atQueenscliff. In general it would seemthat normal working craft are used forrescue work, backed up by the navyand air force. A Marine OperationsCentre in Canberra co-ordinates allsearch and rescue operations, working24 hours a day.

New Zealand has the SumnerLifeboat Institution which was foundedin 1898 as a voluntary organisation; it isstill a flourishing and efficient servicewhich has moved with the times. Atpresent it operates an ex-RNLI Liver-pool lifeboat and a fast jet-powered surfboat with top speed of about 30 knots,

carrying out some fine rescues. TheSumner Institution is a member of theInternational Lifeboat Conference(ILC).

To the north and north-west ofAustralia and New Zealand lie the EastIndies, China and Japan. Until recentlyonly Japan was a member of the ILCwith full details of her sea rescue ser-vices available. As might be expectedof an island race with a great seafaringtradition, these are very compre-hensive.

Japan has two sea rescue ser-vices—one a voluntary institutionaided by municipal grants and the otherstate controlled through the MarineSafety Board (MSB) which has aircraftand rescue vessels stationed all roundthe coast.

The voluntary organisation, the Nip-pon Suinan Kyusaikai (NSK), orJapanese Lifesaving Institute, main-tains 86 lifeboats ranging from 4.14 to20 metres and has some 18,000 mem-bers in its branches. The NSK receivesfinancial help from local authoritiesbecause they are required by law toprovide assistance to aircraft and ves-sels in distress in their areas. The MSBalso assists and encourages the volun-tary institution in many ways.

China was at one time reported tohave 200 lifeboats and more than ahundred rescue stations and it has beensuggested that this rescue service wasstarted in 1737, therefore pre-dating thefirst British lifeboat. No western his-torians have been able to confirm thetruth of these reports. In 1979 Chinawas represented for the first time at aninternational lifeboat conference. Areport was presented on the rescuefacilities afforded by the Shanghai,Suangzhou and Yantai SalvageCompanies.

It will now be apparent that the searescue facilities provided by the mem-bers of the ILC, extensive as they are,still leave many miles of coastline andvast expanses of ocean without protec-tion. What happens to any vessel

The Sumner Lifeboat Institution, New Zea-land, operates an ex-RNLI 10.9m Liverpoolclass lifeboat, Rescue III, and a fast jet in-shore boat. Aid II. When a call-out comes,both lifeboats, a control tower and a mobilebase in a Landrover are all manned withinfour minutes.

unfortunate enough to need help inthese seemingly unfriendly areas?

In the first place much of the coast-line involved is uninhabited but wherethere are habitations the people maywell do what they can for seamen indistress.

On the oceans of the world a ship indistress may look for help from anyvessel near at hand but the nearestmight be several hundred miles away.This situation has been eased consider-ably by the introduction by the UnitedStates of the AMVER system, whichstands for 'Automated Mutual-assistance Vessel Rescue'. Ships'courses and speeds are fed into a com-puter and on receipt of a distress signalthe nearest available ship for rescue isinformed immediately. Prior to this avessel in need of help would have torely on a vessel within range picking upthe broadcast distress signal.

But possibly the best chance ofrescue that the mariner in some remotespot might have may come from an airorganisation. The International CivilAirlines Organisation (ICAO), whichhas its headquarters in Ottawa, issuesdetails and maps of a world-wide searescue service covering every mile ofevery route travelled by aircraft allover the world. There is no stretch ofwater flown over by aircraft which isnot covered by both air and sea rescuecraft, from helicopters to long rangeaircraft and including short range andlong range sea craft. These facilities areprovided by the various nationalauthorities adjacent to the sea areasconcerned and constitute the mostextensive rescue service organised byany authority. Although primarilydesigned to deal with aircraft forceddown into the sea, the ICAO rescueorganisation has in the main dealt withships and craft afloat, rather than air-craft, whose requirements for searescue have been mercifully small. Nodoubt the rescue facilities provided bythe various countries under the ICAOarrangements are usually multi-purpose and available for any rescuework.

So it will be seen that sea rescuefacilities, not unnaturally, tend to beconcentrated close to the busiest ship-ping lanes and that there are vastexpanses of ocean where a ship is verymuch on her own. However, casualtiesin the wide ocean wastes are mercifullyfew and far between, the biggest dangerto the mariner being the proximity ofland. Nevertheless, some ships are lostfar from land and nearly every yearsome unfortunate vessel disappears,often without a trace.

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Footprints on the Sand of TimeGALLANTRY ON THE ROMNEY MARSH COAST IN

THE STORMS OF 1891

by Edward CarpenterTHE YEAR OF 1891 was one wellremembered for the terrible storms thatcaused many lives to be lost in theChannel. The Romney Marsh coastwas no exception. On March 9, 1891, ina severe gale the Coastguard, with localfolk, were called to a wreck atDengemarsh in the west bay. Using arocket line, they rescued the crew ofeight. Meanwhile, a more serious inci-dent was taking place off No. 2 Coast-guard Station (Lade); the schoonerHugh Barclay of Fleetwood wassighted in trouble at about seveno'clock in the morning. The coast-guards, who at that time formed thecrew of Littlestone lifeboat, SantaMagna, had been alerted but, withwaves dropping on to the beach from aheight of 20 feet (never in living mem-ory had conditions been so bad), it tookfour attempts before they could launch.

Hardly had they gone any distancewhen a great wave hit them, turning theboat over. She righted immediately,but one man, Coastguard Bennett, wasswept out. He was quickly pulled backinto the boat by his shipmates butanother tremendous wave hit the boat,this time washing out Coastguard Wil-liam O'Ryan, who was rapidly sweptfrom sight. The next sea to hit themoverturned the boat, throwing every-body out. Fortunately, by this time,they were nearly back on shore in theentrance to the Romney Hoy and, withthe aid of their cork lifejackets, most ofthe exhausted crew managed to scram-ble ashore. Two more of the crew,however, were drowned: 52-year-oldThomas Sullivan, who was chief boat-man in charge of St Mary's CoastguardStation and who had joined the crewat the last moment, and CoastguardSamuel Hart.

On October 22, 1891, the coast-guards again launched Santa Magna ina severe gale blowing from the west, togo to the aid of the Norwegian barqueJarlen of Moss, 1,025 tons, on passagebetween Pensacola and Rotterdam,carrying a cargo of pitch pine. Jarlenhad run into the sandbank opposite No.2 Coastguard Station (Lade), then was

A footnote to 1891: Mrs Doris Tart, wife ofex-Coxswain Ben Tart, and Mrs Joan Bates,the last of the famous women launchers ofDungeness, were this year awarded the goldbadge of the Institution. Doris, who hadbeen a shore helper for 44 years, is thegranddaughter of both Isaac Tart andCharles Oilier; Robin Tart was her greatuncle. Ben, who retired as coxswain in 1974and who was himself awarded the silvermedal during his years of service, is thegrandson of William Tart. Mrs Bates hadbeen a shore helper for 37 years.

driven helplessly way down past Lit-tlestone where she became fast in thesands. Heavy seas were breaking overher and her crew were in great danger.The lifeboat managed to put to sea andthe considerable skill of Coxswain Clif-ton and his crew resulted in Jarlen'screw of 15, together with the captain'swife, being brought to safety.

From October 22 every day saw highwinds and rough seas and on the morn-ing of November 11 hurricane forcewinds were lashing the south coast,causing damage inland as well as at sea.At first light on this fateful day coast-guards and local people were sum-moned from their beds by the rocketapparatus to a vessel in distress in thewest bay. She was Marguerite Marie ofGranville, thrown, literally, on to thebeach at Dengemarsh. Owing to therough seas it was some hours before allthe crew were rescued, but for therescuers there was no rest as a secondship, a Swedish brigantine, Domin, wasin a more serious position. She wasabout 400 yards off shore, being bat-tered on to her side, and was beginningto break up. A line was got aboard byrocket and two men hauled ashorebefore the seas moved the stricken ves-sel, the line parted and all the remain-ing crew of six were drowned.

Meanwhile that treacherous sand-bank off Lade had claimed another vic-tim, the Swedish brigantine Aeolus(God of the Winds) with a crew ofeight. Attempts to launch Dungenesslifeboat RAOB proved impossible inthe terrible conditions and although,after many failures, the coastguardsashore did manage to secure a lineaboard Aeolus, it parted.

More attempts were made to launchthe lifeboat, RAOB, and finally she gotaway, the boat making slow progressthrough the terrifying walls of water.By the good seamanship of CoxswainJames Lucas and the strenuous rowingof his crew RAOB finally reachedAeolus but the force of the wind madeit impossible to bring her alongside.She was blown past the wreck forabout a mile, where she anchored hop-ing that Aeolus would drift down toher. And then a heavy sea caught thelifeboat and capsized her. Five of hercrew were thrown out. As the boatrighted three men were hauled back,but Coastguards Henry Reeves andDaniel Nicol were carried away by theviolent seas and lost.

Realising that his crew were in nocondition to go to the aid of Aeolus,Coxswain Lucas set course for theshore and it was only after tremendouseffort that the short and weakened

crew reached the beach. The remainderof the crew were Second CoxswainCharles Taylor and Coastguards Fran-cis Crispin, Henry Mills, WilliamBrede, Thomas Nibbs, John Williams,Michael O'Leary and Albert Freathyand another man named Sarachaga.The thirteenth man was William Tart, aFisherman of Dungeness.

Once care had been taken of thesemen, the general talk on the beach wasof making another attempt to rescuethe crew of Aeolus by taking the Little-stone lifeboat, Santa Magna. It seemedlike sure death to do so and one mansaid, ' You must be mad, there's beenquite enough drowned for one day.'But seeing men clinging to the riggingwas just too much for the men on thebeach. One man, Isaac Tart, took theinitiative to form a crew. 'It's no use,lads,' he said. 'It may be sure death togo in Santa Magna, / dare say it is, butit shall never be said that Isaac Tartstood and watched sailors drownedwithout even trying to rescue them, soI'm going—now who will go with me'/'

Seven coastguards stepped forward,together with Isaac's brother, RobinTart, Charles Oilier and GeorgeRichardson, all fishermen of Dunge-ness, Alec Proctor, brother of Dr J. C.Proctor of Lydd, and the curate of thecoast, the Reverend C. A. W. Robins, aman very much respected by the fish-ing folk and coastguards alike.

The storm was increasing and on themile walk in the driving rain alongthe beach to Littlestone boathouse, thefurious winds nearly blew the men offtheir feet. News spread quickly andthere was no lack of shore helpers. Ittook four attempts to launch beforethey got afloat and then there weremany times when they seemed nearlylost; but they just kept pulling.

At last they were upon Aeolus andthe sailors, who had clung to theirtotally wrecked vessel for ten hoursand had almost given up hope, wereplucked from the rigging. All safeaboard, the cry was then, 'Pull for theshore!' Having achieved the seeminglyimpossible, safety still had to bereached. They put all the energy theycould muster into their rowing and,after a long time, the shore suddenlyloomed up and the lifeboat was scrap-ing on the beach.

The King of Sweden had a specialmedal struck and Lloyd's awarded abronze medal for the courageous con-duct of that day. Coxswain JamesGeorge Lucas was awarded theRNLI's silver medal.

At the funeral service for HenryReeves and Daniel Nicol it was said ofthem: 'They rest from their labours,and their works do follow them. Theyhave gone down to the grave, but haveleft behind them in meek and lowlyexample, footprints on the sand oftime'. These words could be equallyaptly applied to all those people of thebeach who took part in the 1891rescues.

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Whitby

photograph by courtesy of Aeromarine

I HE LIFEBOAT STATIONAND HER PEOPLE

by Joan Davies

A HAVEN OR REFUGE on a dangerouscoast along which small sailing ships intheir hundreds once traded betweenLondon and the north; a commercialport for small merchant ships; a har-bour for boats fishing the unpredictableNorth Sea; now a growing centre foryachting and pleasure boating. It is notsurprising that Whitby has a long andproud history of lifesaving at sea. Itsfirst lifeboat was one of the earliest'Originals' built by Greathead of SouthShields. She was stationed on the westside of the harbour in 1802 and hercoming was the start of a traditionwhich has remained unbroken to thisday. For many years there were in factthree pull ing and sailing boats servingthis key Yorkshire harbour, a lifeboatbeing stationed on the east side in 1822and at Upgang in 1865. Whitbyreceived its first motor lifeboat in 1919

From Ordnance SurveyMap sheet 94: CrownCopyright n:\erveil.

162

but, although the Upgang boat waswithdrawn that same year, the originalNo. 1 pulling and sailing station re-mained operational until 1934 and theoriginal No. 2 station until 1957.

Whitby still has two lifeboats, andthey are two of the most modern in theRNLI fleet: a 44ft Waveney fast afloatsteel offshore lifeboat The White Roseof Yorkshire which is backed up by aninflatable D class ILB.

Altogether, Whitby lifeboatmen haverescued nearly 900 people and havebeen awarded 33 medals for gallantry:five gold medals, 14 silver and 14bronze, the last silver being awarded toCoxswain Robert Allen and the lastbronze to Helmsman Richard Robinsonfor the service to Admiral Van Tromp,wrecked after grounding near BlackNab Rock in.1976. Such a fine recordwas not achieved without sacrifice andover the years 21 Whitby lifeboatmenhave given their lives for fellow sea-men. The greatest disaster occurredduring a storm in February, 1861 when210 ships were lost along the north eastcoast, nine of them wrecked on thesands of Whitby. Whitby lifeboats hadsucceeded in launching five times andhad rescued the crews of five of thesenine ships before a lifeboat was herselfcapsized with the tragic loss of 12 of the13 men on board. It was after this greatstorm that union with the RNLI tookplace.

Of the many services of Whitbylifeboats, two are perhaps particularlyrenowned: those to the brig Visitor in1881 and to the hospital ship Rohilla in1914.

It was a bitter January day in 1881when Visitor sank in Robin Hood's Bayand her crew of six had to take to theirboat and come to anchor. There was noway that Whitby lifeboat could reachthem by sea but , the townspeoplenothing daunted, she was hauled sixmiles over hills seven feet deep insnow, her carriage dragged by horseswhile men went ahead to dig out a path.In little more than two hours she hadreached the cliff top, been manhandleddown the treacherous path into the bayand immediately launched. An hourlater, her steer oar and six other oarsbroken in the terrific seas, she wasforced back to the shore. With newoars and manned by a double crew shelaunched again, finally reaching thesurvivors an hour and a half later andbringing them 'exhausted andbenumbed' to safety. Having in the lastyear passed through just such a wildand bitter winter we are, perhaps, thebetter able to appreciate the strength,stoicism and dogged determination ofthose early lifeboatmen and of all theWhitby people who defied the seem-ingly impossible.

One of the greatest epics in the wholehistory of lifesaving was surely the ser-vice to the hospital ship Rohilla,wrecked at Saltwick Nab in an east-south-easterly gale and tremendousseas on October 30, 1914. The story of

the next 48 hours of struggle againstraging wind and sea has been told manytimes and will never be forgotten: howWhitby No. 2 lifeboat, John Fielden,after being dragged along the rockyshore, took off 35 survivors before sheherself, repeatedly bumping on rocks,became unseaworthy; how Upganglifeboat was brought through the townand lowered by ropes down the cliff;how Scarborough, Teesmouth andWhitby No. 1 lifeboats all tried to reachthe wreck towed by steam boats, but tono avail; how Upgang lifeboat strug-gled to within 50 yards of Rohilla buthad to give up in the end, her crewutterly exhausted; and how finallyTynemouth motor lifeboat, after bat-tling 45 miles against the gale down thedangerous unlit coast, managed to takeoff the last 50 survivors. For their partin the rescue Coxswain Thomas Lang-lands of Whitby was awarded the goldmedal and Second Coxswain RichardEglon the silver medal. Another silvermedal was awarded to George Peartwho, with conspicuous bravery,repeatedly went into the sea to helpthose who had jumped from Rohilla orwho had been washed overboard.

That was at the beginning of the FirstWorld War and at the end of the war, in1919, a motor lifeboat came to Whitby.Nevertheless, Whitby has the distinc-tion of being the last station to man apulling and sailing lifeboat. When the34ft Robert and Ellen Robson, pullingten oars, was withdrawn in 1957 shebrought to an end a chapter of maritimehistory. Now, in honourable retire-ment, she still helps the lifeboat servicebecause she is one of the main exhibitsof Whitby Lifeboat Museum, in the oldboathouse, created and cared for byEric Thomson who was station honor-ary secretary when Robert and EllenRobson was operational. Schoolchild-ren and holidaymakers in their hun-dreds visit the old boathouse every

year and are welcomed by Eric and hisprincipal helper, William Dryden, aformer member of the crew. He hadserved as assistant mechanic from 1938to 1951 and as motor mechanic from1951 to 1967; he was awarded thebronze medal for gallantry in 1940.

As part of the RNLI's 150th anni-versary celebrations in 1974, Robertand Ellen Robson was exhibited at boththe International Lifeboat Exhibition atPlymouth and at the London BoatShow which came at the end of the'Year of the Lifeboat'. She was alsolaunched again—this time on theThames to be rowed by a crew ofex-Oxford and Cambridge boat clubpresidents.

And so the pages turn. What ofWhitby today? The cliffs, the rocks,the sands, the sea—they are still there,friends and enemies, as they havealways been. At one end of Whitby Baylies Sandsend Ness, described by theAdmiralty Pilot as 'as abrupt pointfringed by rocky ledges'; at the otherend is Saltwick Nab, '« dark and rocky-promontory'; and Black Nab, 'a dark,rocky islet'. Then there are outcropsrunning out from the land: UpgangRocks, to the north west of the harbourentrance, and the Scar and WhitbyRock close to the east. These rocks,covered in weed and kelp, dry in placesand swell breaks heavily over them. Itis a coastline the lifeboat crew mustknow well and in great detail, so prac-tice in coastal recognition, both visualand radar, plays an important part inthe station's regular lifeboat exercise.Old wisdom goes hand in hand withmodern aids. Time-honoured know-ledge of landmarks and their bearingsgleaned from long experience, commit-ted to memory in traditional local sawsand passed down by word of mouthfrom one generation of fishermen to thenext, has its place. So does the study ofpresent-day charts and in particular of

Northerly gale: Short, steep seas break on the bar at the harbour month.photograph by courtesy of Dale Robinson

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Dedication of D class 1LB Gwynaeth: Miss Milburn with theILB crew; Senior Helmsman Michael Coates on right.

photograph by courtesy of Tindale's

the large scale Ordnance Survey mapwhich shows every rock and indenta-tion. Radar practice includes bringingThe White Rose of Yorkshire back intoher harbour pen 'blindfold' and ofcourse knowledge and experience ofthe harbour itself and its approaches inall states of the sea is vital. The Har-bour Authority gives the followingdescription:

'Whitby Harbour is situated at themouth of the River Esk, with a total areaof about 80 acres. The arms of the en-trance piers extend out to sea in a north-erly direction leaving the entranceexposed in strong winds from the northwest through north to north east, andsheltered from other directions.

'The flood tide sets across the entrancefrom west to east and care has to beexercised when entering on a spring tideflood

So Whitby is on a lee shore in north-erly gales, and, with no land betweenSpitsbergen and the Yorkshire coast, astorm-driven sea will have come a longway before it breaks its fury on theland. A shelf or rock running out underthe water five miles, then droppingsteeply away, produces very short,steep seas with heavy surf and thehazardous conditions which may haveto be met crossing the bar at the har-bour mouth are well illustrated by thephotograph on the previous page. Suchwaves will certainly stop a boat tryingto put to sea unless she has the powerto butt her way through. The WhiteRose of Yorkshire, with her twin Gen-eral Motors 8V53 diesel engines eachdeveloping 260 shp at 2,800 rpm, hassuch power; she can always get outeven though, the service done, she mayhave to take shelter elsewhere, until,the weather abating, it is possible toreturn safely to station.

Fishing is a major industry in Whit-by. Cod, plaice, whiting, skate, sal-mon, crabs and lobsters are broughtinto the fish quay in the lower harbourand now, as in the past, the lifeboatfufils a protective role towards the fish-ing fleet, launching to stand by coblesmaking the dangerous run into harbourin wild weather. Although, withimproved weather warnings and with

(Above, right) 44ft Waveney The WhiteRose of Yorkshire in Whitby Harbour: Shewas named in May 1975 by HRH The Duch-ess of Kent, who went out for a trial runafter the ceremony.

photograph by courtesy of J. P Morris

Coxswain Peter Thomson aboard The WhiteRose of Yorkshire in her pen. Moored onvertical sliding moorings, with low frictionfenders, she rises and falls with the tide.Boarding is by vertical ladder.

the coming of larger, stouter trawlerswhich can stay at sea for two or moredays, this is a diminishing responsibili-ty, nevertheless, there are still smallboats and there is still the danger thatthey may be caught out. Lifeboats gen-erally stand by inside the harbour whilethe boats come in but The White Roseof Yorkshire can, if necessary, easily goout to meet them to tell a skipper theexact state of the sea in the entrance.

Whitby also has a long history ofcommerce and shipbuilding. As earlyas the sixteenth century alum mined atGuisborough was being shipped outfrom this harbour, there was trade incoal from Newcastle in the seventeenthcentury, and the port provided aclosed-season home for whalers andBaltic traders in the eighteenth andearly nineteenth centuries. CaptainJames Cook, eighteenth century cir-cumnavigator, explorer and marinesurveyor par excellence, first went tosea as an apprentice to Walkers, ship-owners of Whitby, sailing to New-castle, Norway and the Baltic.

Sea trade lapsed in the years ofdepression between the two world warsbut the docking of a timber ship fromthe Baltic in 1958 was the start of arevival and now some 250 cargo vesselsof 300 to 1,000 tons come in each year,trading in steel, paper, timber, fertilis-ers, chemicals and general cargomostly with north Europe but alsogoing as far as Portugal, Greece and theBlack Sea. In bad weather these cargovessels may have to stand off, and thatin itself can be a potential danger.

Side by side with the revival in com-mercial shipping has been an impres-sive growth in pleasure boating. Just

after the war there were 18 boats inWhitby Yacht Club; now there aresome 400. Holidaymakers have comein increasing numbers to enjoy this pic-turesque town and its beaches andmost of the ILB's calls are to go to thehelp of small boats or bathers in dif-ficulties, or people cut off by the tide.The cliffs present a particular hazardfor the unwary; being crumbly theyprovide a rewarding hunting ground forgeologists or for students searching forfossils, but it also means that they arevery treacherous.

The harbour forms a natural focusfor the lifeboat station. The harbourmaster. Captain Gordon Cook, is thelifeboat launching authority, while hisdeputy, Captain Noel Jameson, is alsoa lifeboat DLA. From their office onthe west side, looking out over the har-bour and its approaches, there is 24-hour cover. Coxswain/Mechanic PeterThomson is also coxswain of the pilotboat; Second Coxswain/AssistantMechanic Dennis Carrick is a boatman;and Crew Member Howard Bedford isharbour foreman. Together with CrewMembers Terence Hansell, a fisher-man, and Alfred Headlam, who is anex-merchant seaman, they make up theregular crew for The White Rose ofYorkshire. Reserve members comefrom the ILB crew, who go out regu-larly on exercise with the offshoreboat. Senior ILB Helmsman MichaelCoates, who runs a yacht chandlery,also works down by the harbour.

Bonds are very close at Whitby. Thebranch chairman, Alan Marshall, andstation honorary secretary, Ben Deanwere both 'founder' crew members ofthe first inshore lifeboat back in 1966. It

164

was Ben Dean, then senior helmsman,who trained Peter Thomson as an ILBcrew member before he became motormechanic and later coxswain/mechanicof the offshore boat. Peter's father,Eric, was still at that time station hon-orary secretary. ILB Crew MemberBrian Hodgson, who, like MichaelCcates, has been awarded the bronzemedal for gallantry and also the thanksof the Institution inscribed on vellum,is married to the daughter of CaptainDavid Stevenson, the former harbourmaster and launching authority.

Lifeboat station and Coastguardwork together very closely, too. TheCoastguard station is up on the eastcliffs and from that look-out point agood watch can be kept on the bay, thesands and the cliffs as well as out tosea. In the days before radio a systemof light signals had been worked out outby which the Coastguard, from theirhigher viewpoint, could direct thelifeboat to a casualty. Now, during aservice, the CG mobile gives a movingCoastguard presence parallel with thelifeboat. Each service can, of course,help the other with searchlights andflares.

There is another member of the'team' held in great affection by thelifeboat community of Whitby: MissGwynaeth Milburn, the donor of bothThe White Rose of Yorkshire, whichwent on station in 1974, and of the pre-sent inshore lifeboat, which went onstation in 1978. From the very firstMiss Milburn added to her gift a keen

interest in the lifeboat and her people.Warm mutual friendship quickly grew.As soon as The White Rose returnsfrom a service Howard Bedford, one ofthe crew, writes to Miss Milburn togive her a first-hand account of all thattook place and every one of those let-ters is treasured. Treasured, too, arethe model of the lifeboat made for herby Peter Thomson in 1976 and theframed pictures of the boats given toher by the crew. Photographs, news-paper cuttings, programmes, in fact allmementos of the lifeboat station arecarefully kept in scrapbooks.

It was after the station's former ILBhad been thrown back on to rocks invery heavy seas and irretrievably dam-aged during the service in June, 1977,portrayed on the cover of the last issueof the journal that Miss Milburn madeher second gift; and it was the expresswish of the crew that this new ILBshould be named Gwynaeth after her.Miss Milburn has also been elected anhonorary crew member and has prom-ised that if she hears the maroons fromher home in Harrogate she will mostcertainly come down to the boathouse.She does, however, have some reser-vations about manning the ILB!

Miss Milburn has herself workedhard for the lifeboat service. She reor-ganised the Harrogate ladies' guildafter the last war, acting as honorarysecretary from 1952 to 1961 andremaining as a member of the commit-tee since then. And that was only oneof her many contributions to the com-

munity in a very busy life in which shehas certainly lived up to the motto nilsine labore.

In the First World War she served asa VAD for five years, nursing in amilitary hospital at Bethnal Green.There were 60 men in each of the wardswhich bore such names as 'Innocence'and 'Patience'. 'On air raid nights Ialways seemed to be in "Hope"!' MissMilburn remembers with a smile. Afterthat war service and a short actingcareer, during which she played Beat-rice to a very young John Gielgud'sBenedict and appeared before royaltyin a London charity matinee, Miss Mil-burn taught elocution in her home townand served as secretary to the judgingcommittee of a Harrogate juveniledrama festival.

The Second World War found herleading a YMCA canteen in Harrogatestation yard—'We cooked 24 miles ofsausages in that canteen'—and latershe became honorary secretary ofYorkshire's Women's Auxiliary of theYMCA. She also served as a magistratefrom 1943 to 1969.

A busy life indeed, with its threadsnow woven firmly into the story of thelifeboat service. Miss Milburn is a lifegovernor of the Institution, but morethan that she is a well-loved honorarycrew member and one of the family ofa fine lifeboat station which, lookingback with pride to the earliest days oflifesaving at sea, is always ready forwhatever demands future maritimetraffic may make upon it.

Tribute to the braveThe day of the annual presentation of

awards at the Royal Festival Hall endswith an after-theatre supper at theRubens Hotel for all the medallists andtheir families. Mrs Anne Wall has verygenerously made this culmination of amemorable day her personal tribute tothe men and women in the front line ofthe lifeboat service, sending an annualcheque for what has come to be knownas the Anne Wall Supper and also toprovide small gifts for the wives andsweethearts of 'the men who do suchan admirable and indescribablypraiseworthy job'. The letter whichaccompanied Mrs Wall's cheque thisyear continues:

'I feel very deeply that it is the womenwho suffer, never knowing if their lovedones will return, though they proudlyshare in their men's honour which is sovery well deserved. If I may be permittedto express my admiration for them in thisway it may inspire other friends of thiswonderful work to do the same.'

Helicopter rescuesIn the spring 'Notes of the Quarter'

mention was made of the rescue bynaval helicopter of the crew of thecoaster Fendyke to which BroughtyFerry lifeboat had put out late onChristmas Eve (see page 157). In factthe rescue was carried out, not by a

naval helicopter, but by an RAF Wes-sex helicopter from Leuchars and anRAF Sea King from Lossiemouth, andwe apologise for this error. For thisservice the crew of the Wessex fromLeuchars have received the followingawards:

Air Force Cross: Fl Lt Adrian Murray,pilot (now retired) and Master AirLoadmaster Iain Brunton, winchman.

Queen's Commendation for ValuableService in the Air: Fl Lt Brian Canfer,navigator, and Fl Sgt Larry Evans,winchman.

AnniversariesSouthend-on-Sea lifeboat station has

been awarded a centenary vellum onthe occasion of the hundredth anniver-sary of the establishment of the stationin 1879, and Ramsey lifeboat stationhas been awarded a vellum on theoccasion of the 150th anniversary ofthe establishment of the station in 1829.

ObituariesIt is with deep regret that we

announce the following deaths:February

Thomas John Henry Cooper, cox-swain of Ramsgate lifeboat from 1963to 1975. He joined the crew in 1930, ser-ving as bowman from 1946 to 1952 andsecond coxswain from 1953 to 1963, andhe was awarded the thanks of the Institu-

tion inscribed on vellum in 1968.March

Mrs Dorothy Theresa Phillips, foun-der chairman of Little and BroadHaven ladies' guild and wife of ElsonPhillips, the station honorarysecretary.

Wavy Line appealThe Wavy Line Grocers' Associa-

tion, which supplies some 2,000 smallgrocers in England and Wales, islaunching a promotion to raise £137,000to fund a Rother class lifeboat. All itsgroceries carry the Wavy Line symbol,and the association will give 2p forevery empty Wavy Line containerreturned to one of their shops betweenJune and August this year. In additionthere will be a series of raft races andthree or four large charity dances, atthe last of which it is hoped to present acheque to the RNLI.

Maritime Book SocietyDue to unavoidable delays, some

subscribers to the spring issue of THELIFEBOAT may have experienced diffi-culty in returning their coupon in theadvertisement by the required date toclaim their free book 'Little ShipMeteorology'. The Maritime Book Soc-iety generously made an appropriateextension to the return date to allow fordelayed coupons.

165

Building a Rother Class Lifeboat

PART XII: TRIALS

THROUGHOUT HER BUILDING a lifeboatis under the regular scrutiny of theRNLI's own hull, machinery and elec-tronics overseers; she also receivesperiodic visits by Lloyd's Register ofShipping surveyors and an exception-ally high standard is required in allrespects because of the exceptionaldemands which she may have to meeton service in extreme conditions. Herbuilding complete, she is finally sub-mitted to a series of exhaustive sea tri-als, all of which she must pass beforeshe is accepted for operational service.First, however, come the rightingtrials.

So, last April, the 37ft 6in Rotherlifeboat which will be RNLB Shorelinewas launched down the slipway at Wil-liam Osborne's yard, Littlehampton,and taken across the River Arun to awharf equipped with a crane, ready forher righting trial.

A Rother's self-righting capabilityrests in the inherent buoyancy of hersuperstructure, together with abuoyancy chamber built into herwheelhouse roof, so, of course, beforethe trial starts all watertight hatches,battening down her engine room and

forecabin, are closed. A parbuckle ismade fast to temporary brackets fixed tostrong members on the boat's port side,passed under her keel and attached toa special release hook on the crane,which then hauls away, capsizing theboat to port. Watch is kept on a dialboard temporarily fixed to the stem(see photographs at top of oppositepage) which will show the boat's angleof heel when the switch shutting downthe engine to idling operates. When theboat is fully inverted, a trip line is pul-led and the parbuckle released from thecrane; within a matter of seconds thelifeboat will have righted herself andshaken herself free of the water. Sheis immediately boarded, the hatchesopened and a check made that all is inorder below decks.

Having successfully passed the right-ing test, the lifeboat is hauled out againand all remaining work completed inthe yard before she is relaunched forher final trials programme. During sixor seven days at sea the RNLl's sur-veyors and headquarters staff will thensatisfy themselves that she meets theInstitution's stringent requirements inevery detail.

There will be, for instance, at least16 hours machinery trials under thesupervision of an RNLI machineryoverseer, and these trials are spreadover several days so that they can beconducted in different states of the sea.Engines, generators, pumps, controls,fuel, water and ventilation systems—allmust be proved in normal workingconditions. There will be speed trials,too.

Accuracy of transmission being offirst importance, a final check is nowgiven to ensure the true alignment ofengine and propeller shaft.

One day is set aside to try out theoperation of the whole electrical instal-lation and for tests of all electronicequipment, each piece being put towork in actual service conditions andchecked by the RNLI's electronicssurveyor. Radio signals are exchangedwith coast radio stations and with theCoastguard; the depth recorder's read-ings are matched against knowndepths; radar and VHP direction finderare calibrated to ensure that bearingsare correct relative to the ship's head;and by the end of the trials any inter-ference and suppression problems willhave been ironed out.

On another day, every piece of deck,safety and medical equipment comesunder the detailed examination of anoperational officer from headquarters.Also included in the trials programme

Righting trials: Parbuckle made fast round hull . . . is lifted by crane . . .

. and up she comes . . . . . righting herself to starboard . . .

166

The future RNLB Shoreline, which will be stationed at Blyth, islaunched into the River Arunfor her righting trial and (right) broughtalongside at William Osbornes.

are the adjustment of the compass andan inclining test to determine centreof gravity, which is individual to eachboat. The opportunity is also taken toprocure official 'portrait' photographsof the boat under way.

Finally comes the day for the passout trials, when the Institution's sur-veyors and operational staff give thewhole boat a thorough inspection.Paintwork, fixings, woodwork, wiring,pipes, equipment—everything comesunder the magnifying glass. Anythingamiss is listed and put right, and onlythen is the lifeboat passed as ready foroperational duty at her future station.

(The end)

. . . capsizing boat to port until . . .

Note in background crane which will capsize the Rather for her right-ing trial and, on her stem, dial to indicate angle of heel when engineshut-down switch operates.

The builders of the boat: (I.to r.) V. Greenyer, D. Bel-chamber, T. Merritt, J.Legg, L. Durham, R. Silver-son, the senior boatbuilder,S. Merritt, K. Boulding, R.Churchill and E. Morgan.

. she is fully inverted, when parbuckle is released .

and shaking herself . . . . . . clear of the water.

167

AROUNDthe

COAST

Wessex HAR Mk 5 from HMSDaedalus, Lee-on-the-Solent,piloted by Lt Kay Colborneon exercise with Portsmouth(Langstone Harbour) Atlan-tic 21 Guide Friendship II. Incommand of the ILB isHelmsman Adrian West,and with him are CrewMembers Steven Alexander(I.) and David Parker. LtColborne is a very activemember of Gosport branchcommittee.

photograph by courtesy ofHMS Daedalus

WHEN THE NUCLEAR submarine HMSSpartan sailed from Barrow-in-Furnesslast February she had to navigate anexact course out into Morecambe Bay.A Decca trisponder chain of four'slave' stations was set up from whichdistance could be measured with anaccuracy of three decimal points of akilometer and Cdr John L. HammerIII, USN, representing the Hydro-grapher of the Navy, asked if he coulduse Barrow lifeboat slipway to cali-brate the chain. While he was thereSecond Coxswain Albert Bensonshowed him over the station's 46ft 9inWatson lifeboat Herbert Leigh, thecommander insisting on removing hisshoes first. In a letter of thanks follow-ing his visit, Cdr Hammer wrote: 7must say that I was impressed by yourstation and only just have I come torealise the versatility of the RNLllifeboats'.

When Cdr Bruce Cairns,chief of operations, visitedFlint in the spring he had aspecial word of praise for thevery high standard that hasbeen achieved by this ILBstation. Cdr Cairns (I.centre) with John Latham,honorary secretary, and (I.to r.) Crew Members, AlanMclndoe, David Moore,Terence Jacklin, JohnLatham, Jnr, Clive Moore,David Roberts and AlanForrester.

Anstruther: After a branch dinner at 'The Cellar' in April honorarymedical adviser Dr Chris Brittain presented first aid certificates to tenmembers of the crew and launchers; all who took the examinationpassed. Dr Brittain himself was presented with a certificate of thankssigned by all the first aiders and also a lifeboat tie and jersey. Backrow (I. to r.) James Stewart, David Legg, Howard Murphy, JohnSmith, Robert Murray and Stephen Small. Front row: James Gour-lay. Coxswain Peter Murray, Dr Brittain, Second Coxswain ThomasSmall and George Milne.

Lymington: An information case hasrecently been put on the side of the new ILBhouse. A solidly built metal structure withthree opening glazed doors, it was designed,constructed and erected by local 'friends ofthe lifeboat'. It forms a focal point forinformation about the station's Atlantic 21and about branch and guild events.Shoreline insignia and membership detailsare also displayed, and below the noticeboard is a half model collecting box.

Aberdeen: Coxswain Albert Bird accepting North Sea rum from W.Massie, area sales manager, MacKinlay-McPherson Ltd, on boardthe 54ft Arun BP Forties last February. Front row (I. to r.): RearAdmiral J. R. D. Nunn, the Reverend W. Geraint Edwards, Crew-Member George Walker, ILB Crew Member Marjorie Mitchell, CaptBrian Atkinson (honorary secretary) and Mrs J. R. D. Nunn. Backrow: Crew Members John Corstorphine, William Cowper and FrancisCruikshank. R. M. Addisoii, branch chairman, is in wheelhousedoorway.

168

ShorelineSection

OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS Shorelinehas taken great strides forward. Ourmembership has grown faster than everbefore, largely due to the support weare receiving from our members and,above all, from financial branches andguilds. We particularly appreciate thehard work of those branch memberswho, at certain harbours throughoutthe country, are making an appeal toyachtsmen; every yachtsman cominginto harbour is given an enrolment form(with a note attached apologising fortroubling them if they are alreadyShoreline members). The appeal isbearing good fruit: we are astounded bythe number of replies we are receiving.

* * *At the foot of this page you will see a

Shoreline enrolment coupon. If youpass on your copy of THE LIFEBOAT toa friend or colleague after you haveread it perhaps you, too, will find thatyou have introduced a new member tothe lifeboat service.

* * *Last March Lt-Col Brian Clark,

RNLI national organiser in Ireland,gave a talk illustrated with slides to thecommodore and members of the RoyalNorth of Ireland Yacht Club. At theend of his talk, almost everyone pres-ent not yet a member of Shoreline'joined up'; a wonderful response.

* * *Also, via Ireland, comes news of

Shoreline support in America. IrvingAnshen of Skipper Travel, Paboalto,California, arranged a holiday in Ire-land for Norman and Mildred Wood-bury, enrolled them in Shoreline andgave them the address of our Dublinoffice. Lt-Col Clark and his staff weredelighted when Mr and Mrs Woodburylooked in at their office and the Ameri-can visitors were assured of a warmwelcome at any Irish lifeboat station atwhich they might call.

* * *The Shoreline club at Portsmouth,

about which I told you in the winterissue of the journal, is proving a greatsuccess and it is hoped that this is anidea which could spread throughout thecountry.

I began considering the possibility offorming a Shoreline club many yearsago, when I was district organising sec-retary (South London) and when a

Our Shoreline volunteerenrolment team which hadsuch a fine record at theLondon International BoatShow in January was backat Earls Court in Marchhard at work throughout theIdeal Home Exhibition.Three hundred new memberswere enrolled. Beryl Apple-ton 'signs on' an eleven-year-old lifeboat supporter.

number of branch and Shoreline mem-bers said that they would welcome asocial club where they could meet andexchange ideas. When I became mem-bership secretary, therefore, this ambi-tion remained with me and I was stillpursuing ways and means by which wecould all be brought together in a socialenvironment when, to my great pleas-ure, I discovered by a change remarkthat Jack Chantler, a member ofPortsdown branch, was thinking alongthe same lines. From this meeting asub-committee was formed ofinterested branch and Shoreline mem-bers and we agreed to run a pilotscheme in the Portsmouth area. A cir-cular letter to 800 Shoreline membersbrought back more than 700 replies.Everyone liked the idea; there was nocriticism at all.

So, on November 1, 1978, by cour-tesy of the Lord Mayor of Portsmouthwho allowed us to use the Mayor'sBanqueting Suite and CouncilChamber, the inaugural meeting tookplace chaired by Sir Alec Rose. Morethan 150 Shoreline members andbranch workers attended. It wasunanimously agreed that a club shouldbe formed and there were many volun-teers to act on the committee. Regularmonthly meetings have since been heldat the Tudor Yacht Club, which allowsus to use its premises free of charge.Talks on various topics have beengiven, the first social function hastaken place and it is encouraging thatthe average attendance at each meetingis over 50 people.

It is now our hope that similar clubswill be formed throughout the country,rather on the lines of the Round Table,Rotary or Lions clubs, so that ourmembers will be able to visit clubs in

other areas, building up strong, wide-spread links of friendship based onmutual interest in the lifeboat service.

I would like to stress, however, thatthese clubs would not be fund-raisingbodies; while they would without doubthelp local branches and guilds theywould in no way cut across theiractivities.

* * *Coming back to the more mundane,

but nevertheless important, aspect ofour work, a letter from one of ourmembers asked why we needed to usea computer to administer Shorelinemembership. The answer is that thecomputer makes it possible for oursame small staff to deal with an ever-increasing volume of work. Since wewent on to a computer three years agoour membership has grown from 30,000to nearly 56,000. Without the computerwe should have needed an appreciableincrease in staff to deal with the extrawork. In this way alone great savinghas been made possible. I am very con-scious of the fact that the change hasalso meant that a certain amount ofpersonal approach has been lost and forthis I sincerely apologise. We try toanswer all letters containing a specificenquiry, but if you do receive astereotyped reply we hope that you willunderstand that it is not our intention tobe impersonal because we are fullyaware of the value of the support givenby each of you as an individual. Can Iplease ask you, therefore, to bear withus and be assured that every single oneof you is of personal importance to theInstitution in its work of saving lives atsea?—PETER HOLNESS, membershipsecretary, RNLI, West Quay Road,Poole, Dorset, BH15 1HZ (Tel. Poole71133).

To: The Director, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ.I enclose subscription to join Shoreline as a:

Name

Address

Over 104

MemberFamily MembershipMember and GovernorLife member and GovernorSend me details of how I can

,000 people would have been

£3.00 (minimum) D£5.00 (minimum) D£15.00 (minimum) D£150.00 (minimum) D

help with a Legacy. D

lost without the lifeboat service.

169

Ideal Home ExhibitionEARL'S COURT LONDON, MARCH 6-31

FOR THE FIRST TIME, the RNL1 had astand at the Ideal Home Exhibition thisyear. Modest in size, and situated onthe balcony floor, it was a market stall,colourful with souvenirs and Shorelinedisplay. The extensive range of attrac-tive gifts represented high quality andreal value for money, attracting goodbusiness from all age groups.

With the exhibition lasting almost thewhole month of March, the RNL1depended for the manning of the standon hard working teams of branch andguild members from the Southern,

Eastern, South Eastern, MidlandShires and North, South and CentralLondon districts, as well as theShoreline volunteer enrolment team.RNLI staff, working in pairs, providedbacking on a two day shift programme.Not only was the continuity main-tained, but the happy and friendlyatmosphere which has become thehallmark of such occasions, was evi-dent throughout the period.

Ten well-known personalities addedto the gaiety when they spent time atthe stand on various days during the

One of the famous visitors tothe RNLI stand at the IdealHome Exhibition wasRichard Evans, BEM, theformer coxswain of Moelfrelifeboat. Dick Evans, whowas awarded two gold med-als, one for the service toHindlea in 1959 and one forthe service to Nafsiporos in1966, signed copies of hisbiography, 'Lifeboat VC',written by Ian Skidmore.

photograph by courtesy of'London Daily Mail'

show, autographing cook books andnote books: Arthur Lowe, RodneyBewes, June Whitfield, Paul Heiney,Clive Dunn, Wendy Craig, Ernie Wise,Angela Rippon, Nerys Hughes, DavidVine. Another popular visitor wasex-coxswain Dick Evans who spenttwo and a half days at the exhibitionsigning copies of his biography'Lifeboat VC'.

Many other exhibitors had collectingboxes on their stands, and on LondonLifeboat Day, March 20, the exhibitionorganisers allowed our flag sellers tostand in the entrance hall. The RoyalNavy collected the staggering amountof £1,000 for the RNLI by 'givingaway' freshly baked ship's biscuits andbread rolls for a contribution in alifeboat collecting box. At a pleasantinformal ceremony on the last FridayMrs Linda Hunter of Kensington andChelsea branch, presented a plaque tothe Catering Division of the RoyalNavy for a truly splendid effort.

And that perhaps sums up this newventure. Due to the efforts of everyoneconcerned, especially the voluntaryworkers, the venture can be counted asuccess, with its aims realised. Fundswere raised, more than 300 newShoreline members were enrolled andan almost entirely new 'clientele' hadbeen introduced to the work of thelifeboat service.

The RNLI may well become anestablished feature of the Ideal HomeExhibition, as it is at the InternationalBoat Show.—H.D.

Fifth national lotteryERNIE WISE, one of the RNLI's mostloyal friends, visited Poole on FridayApril 27 to draw the fifth RNLInational lottery in the presence of MrsGeorgina Keen, a member of the FundRaising Committee and Cdr TedPritchard, appeals secretary. The drawwas also witnessed by members of thestaff and their families and by about 60ex-Round Tablers who were attendinga 41 Club international conference atBournemouth and who also happenedto be visiting the RNLI on that day.

It proved a merry gathering. AsErnie walked into the crowded commit-tee room, there, facing him among the

Ernie Wise, who was himselfonce in the Merchant Ser-vice, makes the fifth RNLInational lottery draw. Withhim (I. to r.) are Fred Wil-liams, appeals office super-visor, Joyce Pearce whoorganises the lottery at HQ,Cdr E. F. Pritchard, appealssecretarv, and Mrs DoreenWise.

guests, was Eric Morecambe's double.Hardly had he had time to shake handsbefore another 41 Club delegate (in thefront row) was proving himself a mas-ter of quick repartee. ' I t ' s like workingwith Eric!' Ernie declared as the roomrocked with happy laughter.

Then down to the business of theday. The drum was spun and Ernieplunged in his arm for the first of the 13winning tickets. These were theprize-winnerc-

£1,000: A. Taylor, Heckmondwike.£500: Mrs Helen MacAlister, Blackwater-

foot, Isle of Arran.£250: Joyce Ireson, Southall, Middlesex.£25: J. A. F. Vaudin, Southampton; Mrs

S. Fletcher, Droitwich; Miss P. J. Grant,Bexhill-on-Sea; L. J. Gilhooly, Bonnyrigg,

Midlothian; Mr Leach, Thame: R. C. J.Duncalf, Heswall; N. Hinman, Knowle, Sol-ihull; B. J. Young, Hythe, Hampshire; A. R.Murray, Hednesford; Margaret Beard,London SW19.

After the draw, Ernie autographedlifeboat postcards for the visitors, whowere asked to put a contribution in acollecting box. The admonishment,'The amount you put in is according tohow much you like me!' put everyoneon their mettle.

Commemorative platesCommemorative plate, being held by AliceWright, chief clerk. North West Districtoffice, is one of an edition limited to 250being sold on behalf of the Lord Mayor ofManchester's lifeboat appeal to fund aRother lifeboat to be named Manchesterand District XXXII. The plate bears the citycoat-of-arms and RNLI crest. Price £15from RNLI, Princes Chambers. 26 Pa/IMall, Manchester 2.

170

Some

During lh? IV7<J world cruise of the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2, nn English country fairwas held in aid of the American British Lifeboat Appeal. Introduced by f-'ather Mill.', andopened by Captain Douglas Ridley, the fair wax organised by cruise director Brian Pricehelped by the QE2's social staff and Mrs Georgian Keen, a member of the RNLI's Committeeof Management. A tug-of-war on the helicopter deck ended the fair, which was closed by theRev. Bill Christianson. Altogether SI,602 was raised. In addition to supporting the day'sactivities the officers and crew of the liner collect regularly and generously for the RNLI.

Fund raisers on the Isle of Angleseystepped up their efforts last year andincreased their income from £ 1 1 .(XX) in1977 to £15,(XX) in 1978. Part of thisincrease was made possible by the giftof two water colours painted anddonated by Cyffyn Wil l iams. RA. Anisland rattle was organised w h i c h , w i t hthe party at which the raffle was drawn,raised £1.300.

First year pupi ls of Truro School.Cornwall, took part in a sponsoredspell and raised a marvellous £100.

For the second year running. EastGrinstead branch raised well over£1.000 by giving a Spinners concert atCrawley Sports Centre. At Christmas,the Scriven sisters raised £40 by carolsinging.

During a week's intensive fund rais-ing the 28 children of class I H of StJohn's Primary School. Cheltenham,ran a raffle, a disco, a games lunch hourand a very successful sponsored bicyleobstacle race, raising £70.30 for theR N L I .

In IV75 when Herne Junior School in Petersfield first opened in Love Lane a pupil presentedSir Alec Rose with a flag for the Walmer lifeboat. Hampshire Rose, and said 'When itwears out can we buy another'.'' In February, almost four years to the day. the old flag havingworn out. Sir Alec and Lady Rose were presented with two flags, the RNLI house flag and asmaller ensign. The money for the flags was raised from a Christmas concert put on by thechildren.

photograph by courtesy of 'Eas t Hampshire Post'

Class 2 of Bengeo Junior School,Hertford, raised £37.30 among them-selves following a project on lifeboatssuggested by their teacher. Miss SarahHopkinson, a member of Royston andDistrict branch committee. In addition,they made cakes, buns and peppermintcreams to help a cake stall run by thebranch which raised £78.

A cheese and wine evening was heldin the home of Mrs J. Fearnhead, amember of Stretford branch. About 80guests took part in various competi-tions, including naming the turtle andguessing the advertisement, and at theend of a very successful evening £192was raised.

Members of Sutton, Cheam andWorcester Park branch were enter-tained by the Twilight Players, a bandof talented singers and dancers, at theirolde tyme musical evening beforeChristmas. From the sale of tickets,raffles and bar takings £154 was raisedwith a further £63.27 being made fromthe sale of Christmas cards andsouvenirs.

A sponsored canoe paddle on theRiver Weaver was organised by MrCurzon of Northwich. Cheshire. It wasundertaken by boys aged 13 to 15 yearswho paddled 11 miles in two hours andthen all the way back. They were spon-sored by parents and relatives andraised £80.

Sue Boyd. wife of the chief engineeron board BP tanker Brit is It Tiimitr, is asupporter of Falmouth ladies' guild.When she accompanies her husband onhis sea trips she becomes the crew'sbarber charging 50p per cut—all ofwhich goes into her RNLI collectingbox.

A patchwork quilt, big enough for a double bed, was handmade by members ofBangor ladies'guild, Co. Down. The material for the multi-coloured quilt was generously donated byWhiteweave of Belfast. The ladies who assembled the quilt are (I. to r.) Mrs M. Flynn, MrsPat McCarroll, vice-chairman, Mrs May Barnes, chairman, Mrs R. Lynas and Mrs M.Lockwood. After two years of sewing the ladies raffled the quilt and raised £213.

The Local Boat Owners andYachtsmen's Association of Rushden,Northants, raised £257.36 at a lifeboatevening at Bede House, Higham Fer-rers, Northants. A similar event held in1978 raised £231.76.

An Easter dance, organised by theWaveney Club, Burton-on-Trent,raised £180. Since the club was formedto support the lifeboat service a yearago donations, ranging from £165 to£278, have been given to Whitby, Blythand Humber lifeboats.

A skin care evening was organisedby Hythe (Hampshire) and Districtbranch in November. RosalindChristie, wife of a branch committeemember, is a Jafra skin care consultantand after the evening donated hercommission of £15 to the RNLI.

At the national championships of theRoyal Life-saving Society held inCoventry on November 18, Mrs H.Cawwood, souvenir secretary ofCoventry ladies' guild, set up a stalland sold £91 worth of RNLI souvenirs.

Two intrepid travellers, JohnFord and Melvyn Webster,made a 1,000 mile dash lastOctober from St Helier, Jer-sey, to Aith, Shetland, andraised £2,250 for the RNLI.First they flew from St Helierto Southampton, this legbeing sponsored by BritishIsland Airways; a 700 milecar journey followed, drivingthrough the night to Wick,Caithness, to catch anotherflight to Sumburgh Airport,Shetland. A 50-mile driveover wild moorlands tookthem to Aith where theydelivered a goodwill mes-sage from the crew at Jer-sey. The time taken to do allthis?—just 23 hours. Melvyn(I.) and John hand the mes-sage to Coxswain KennyHenry (r.) at Aith.

photograph by courtesy of'Shetland Times'

Two young school girls,Claire Durbin and ClaireWates, organised a spon-sored swim on behalf of theRNLI in the swimming poolof Button High School. Allten of the 10-year-old girlstaking part completed themaximum half mile, andbetween them raised themagnificent sum of £185.

The girls and boys in the nursery,infants and junior sections of BeachRoad County Primary School, Liver-pool, have held weekly collections forthe RNLI for many years now. Thetotal collected last year by the 250children was £84; with £34 already col-lected during the 1978 Christmas term,this year the children are hoping toraise a record £100 by July.

During the last year Flamboroughladies' guild organised a very full pro-gramme of events including the flagday, dances, Christmas fayre, summerfete, a garden party, sponsored knitand two charity concerts. At the end ofthe year the guild had raised £1,900which was a record total.

A Mad Hatter Easter party was givenby Mrs K. Flood and Mrs L. Hallidayof Southport guild. The party, held atthe Crab and Lobster Mere BrowRestaurant, owned by Mrs Flood,raised £800 for the RNLI.

Montagu Ventures Ltd, whoorganised the Beaulieu Boat Jumble onApril 8, very kindly gave a stand toLymington branch for their boat jum-ble, and also a stand to Lymingtonladies' guild for the sale of souvenirs,both free of charge. The branch, sellingitems such as sails, spars and galleyequipment, raised £859.40, double lastyear's total, and the guild sold £68.53worth of souvenirs. An auction ofgoods donated by stall holders at theend of the day raised a further £320.96.The total amount raised was £1,180.36.

Geoff Mears, second coxswain of Exmouthlifeboat, and Bill Parkhouse, area managerof Watney's, push over a column of twopence pieces at the Exeter Inn, Topsham.Worth £515.96l/2 (£463.56 around the col-umn in 2p pieces and £52.40'/2 inside) thepile was started on January I , 1978, andknocked over on December 15, 1978.

photograph by courtesy of John Sculpher

172

Artist Tony Hart of BBC TV's 'Vision On' programme spent almosttwo hours making lightning sketches at a coffee morning organised byGuildford branch in the city's Guildhall last September. The sketcheswere sold for £1 each and altogether the event raised £250.

T!Gordon Stokes, chairman of Burton-on-Trent branch, recentlyreceived a cheque for £410 from John Tester of Burton Diving Club.The money had been collected from a crowd watching the divingclub's annual raft race on Boxing Day. Since the money was collectedin Derbyshire it was later handed over to Mickleover branch.

photograph by courtesy of 'Burton Daily Mail'

(Below) Ken Voice, coxswain of Shorehamlifeboat, received a cheque for £625 onJanuary 26 from Mrs Joan Hilton, chiefranger of the Court Sussex Elm, Indepen-dent Order of Foresters. The money wasraised by court members during 1978.

Members of Prestatynswimming club gather roundJohn Owen, president ofRhyl branch, for the presen-tation of a cheque for£150.50 to go into the ASARNLI international spon-sored swim fund.

photograph by courtesy ofIan Davies Photography

Heswall and Gayton ladies'guild celebrated its tenthanniversary with a dinnerparty last February attendedby 50 guests. It was held atthe homes of Mrs SoniaJames, chairman, and MrsR. Walker, ex-chairman. Aspecial birthday cake in theshape of an RNLI collectingbox was ceremoniously cutby Mrs Margaret Collins,the founder chairman andSonia James. In that tenyears the guild has raisedsome £14,000, running,among other events, awinter luncheon club.

Class 1:0 of Owen's School, PottersBar, attacked an assault course in theschool gym. The children were spon-sored and raised £69.07.

Out of the 34 members of Filey andDistrict swimming club who took partin their sponsored swim last July, 29completed the maximum of 64 lengths;together with spectator fees and a raf-fle, £386.03 was raised. Rugby swim-ming club raised £860 at their swim inJuly. While anchored in Tanga, EastAfrica, the ship Clan Macnab wasabout a mile away from sister ship ClanMalcolm and three keen swimmersdecided to swim round Clan Malcolmand back; shipmates sponsored them at£1 each way and all together raised£117 for the RNLI.

A loofah, grown and harvested in anoffice in Luton by Mrs C. Parsons, wasexhibited to colleagues at one penny alook, or two pence if you picked it upand felt its skin. As a result £3 wasraised for the RNLI.

Aberdovey ILB station is well sup-ported by the local ladies' guild. Theirfund raising year starts on the springbank holiday with a film show and cof-fee evening. During the summer a stallis opened each Sunday by a youngcouple and another coffee evening isarranged, as well as a larger event suchas a concert and, of course, flag day; atChristmas guild members venture forthand go carol singing. In all last year theguild sent £1,814 to RNLI head office.

An ambitious attempt by Warminsterbranch to raise the funds to buy an ILBmet with an outstanding response andat the branch's AGM in 1978 two che-ques were handed over to Lt-Cdr Gif-ford Rosling, assistant district organis-ing secretary (Southern), one for £1,100towards general funds and the other for£3,126.50 for the ILB.

As a gesture of thanks to Southendlifeboat station and to celebrate itscentenary Leigh Motor Boat Club gavethe station a pound for each of the 100years. The cheque for £100 was pre-sented by Commodore Alan Aldridgeat an at home evening on board the clubbarge MV Trojan on March 24.

Mr and Mrs Frank Ellis, landlords ofthe Fountain Inn, were the winners of acompetition for the inn to collect themost money for the RNLI in theMevagissey branch area in both 1977and 1978. The trophy, which was firstpresented in 1978 and which will be

continued on page 174

173

Letters...Seafarers all

Kindly accept this 'widow's mite' inaid of your good service. I lost twobrothers at sea and three uncles and mygreat grandfather served under LordNelson as a commander.

1 admire the bravery of the sailors.God bless them all.—DOROTHY DUM-BELL, Mrs, Old Mill Lane, Freshfield,Formby, Liverpool.

This letter accompanied a donation toAngle branch.—EDITOR.

Incredible featI was delighted to read of Superin-

tendent Coxswain Sevan's richlydeserved award of a silver medal forthe service to Diana V.

However, may I suggest that eventhat magnificent performance paledinto insignificance when comparedwith his incredible feat some six weekslater when he and his crew rescued theentire complement of MvRevi momentsonly before she sank?

As an auxiliary coastguard at SpurnPoint and administrative officer ofWithernsea 1LB station, I can obvi-ously add nothing to the full opera-tional reports of the service which youwill already have received but, as acruising yachtsman of more years thanI care to remember, 1 can say withouthesitation that the conditions both as toweather and sea state on that nightwere the worst that 1 have ever seen inthe 25 years that I have lived on thispart of the coast.

To go through those seas at the speednecessary to reach the casualty in timewithout sustaining severe damage,must, in itself, have required skill andseamanship of the very highest order.But then, in the dark and appallingconditions prevailing, to lay alongside avessel sinking by the head some 30

times before the last of the crew wasevacuated must surely rank as a trulyincredible example of courage, deter-mination and seamanship.—BRIANNORDON, The Old Owthorne Vicarage,Hull Road, Withernsea, NorthHumberside.

Humber lifeboat's services to Diana Vand Revi are reported in 'Lifeboat Ser-vices' starting on page ISO.—EDITOR.

Model serviceI am sending a photograph of a model

of Shoreham lifeboat which my fathermade. She is 'stationed' at Southseacanoe lake and has been out 'on ser-vice' several times. These 'services'have included assisting power boatswith engine trouble to shore, rescuingyachts in difficulties and recoveringfootballs, one frisbee (rather tricky)and five plastic ducks of an orientalvariety.

We have taken the model toShoreham and sailed her in the harbournear the boathouse which amusedthose of the crew who were present. 1must express our thanks to Jack atShoreham for showing us over the 42ftWatson Dorothy and Philip Constantand also to Evan at Moelfre for goingout of his way to show us over both theold lifeboat and their new Rother. In

fact wherever we have visited boat-houses either with the model or not wehave met with nothing but kindness andinterest. Swanage and Selsey are twostations whose slipways we used forlaunching our model.

Milton/Southsea branch kindly fur-nished us with a collection box whichwe always have with us whenever wesail the boat and with which we werevery pleased to realise a total of £10over last summer season.—JULIANHOLM AN, 39 Mayles Road, Milton,Southsea, Hampshire.

Pierced coinsThe response to the RNLI's appeal

for foreign coins has been excellent;literally hundredweights of materialhave poured in from branches andguilds all over the country. There are,however, depressing aspects as well,for the sums realised could have beeneven greater but for a habit, all too pre-valent, of boring holes in things.

Sorting through a bin of pennies,centimes, bent pesetas and so on 1came across a lovely little coin: a lOc ofWilhelmina of Holland as a young girl,with flowing hair; one of the mostpleasingly designed of modern coins. Inmint state, as this coin was, its valueshould have been about £30; but some-one had pierced it through Wilhelmi-na's neck—something beautiful hadbeen destroyed and the coin unfortu-nately will now bring the RNLI onlyabout 5p, its value as scrap.—JOHNPHILLIMORE, The Old Hall, Wem,Shropshire.

John Phillimore is one of the twonumismatists who are helping the RNLIby sorting the coins collected.

A model of ShorehamHarbour's 42ft Watsonlifeboat Dorothy andPhilip Constant, made by-Mr Holman, Snr, is'stationed' at Southseacanoe lake.

Some ways of raisingmoney

from page 173

awarded annually, is a decoratedlifebelt given to the branch by HMSStubbington earlier in the year.

A supper, organised by Brough andDistrict ladies' guild, was held atHumber Yawl Club on January 26 with90 people attending. A cold supper wasserved with a selection of delicioussweets, and in all £184 was raised. Alocal travel agent donated the star prizefor the raffle—a weekend for two ineither Paris or Amsterdam.

By buying a 5p ticket pupils of Dere-ham Neatherd High School, Dereham,Norfolk were allowed to wear theirown clothes to school for one dayinstead of the normal school uniform.The idea, masterminded by fourfriends, Sharen Burdett, Teena Val-lerine, Kim Atkinson and LoraineCheetham, proved so popular that£18.50 was raised for the lifeboats.

Almost £200 was raised at an inshoredance organised by Datchet branch inFebruary. The music was supplied bythe Tommy Draper Band and thecabaret by escapologist and caricaturistLarry Barnes who both gave their ser-vices free of charge. Over 30 prizes for

the raffle were provided by local resi-dents and tradespeople.

To help the Skegness appeal to coverthe cost of radar for the lifeboat, Mrs F.Richardson gave up eating sweets forLent and was able to make a substan-tial donation to the station.

A cheque for £4,500, being themoney given by visitors to Portpatricklifeboat museum, was sent to theRNLI's Scottish office by Mrs PatsyMilligan. Mrs Milligan, sister of the lateCoxswain Andrew Mitchell, carries onthe family's lifeboat tradition withunabated enthusiasm. As well as look-ing after the museum, she is also treas-urer of branch.

174

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RATHER SPECIAL

REVIEWS• Grahame Farr, one of the honoraryarchivists of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts'Society, is a true historian andwhenever he publishes a paper contain-ing the results of his research he makesavailable a new and valuable chapter toall those interested in the detailed storyof the lifeboat service.

Aids to Lifeboat History No. 2 is ahistorical and geographical list ofBritish lifeboat stations. In his intro-duction Grahame Farr says:

'The origins of the lifeboat servicewere far more fragmented than peopleimagine. They rest within a multitude ofSocieties, Associations, Trusts—callthem what you will—which sprang upbetween 150 and 200 years ago. Theywere, of course, formed with the finest ofintentions whether they started as anoffshoot of a powerful harbour trust, oras the result of a subscription listinitiated by the clergy of a seasideparish.

'It is well known that many failed, buta strong nucleus succeeded and whenthe time was ripe, in the 1850s, thenational body founded by Sir WilliamHillary in 1824 was ready to integrate allwho wished to join while it expandedinto the wonderful service we knowtoday.'

In addition to the text there are somevery useful diagrams. One shows thefirst phase of British lifeboat stations,up to 1823; another is a family tree ofthe RNLI showing how the principalindependent lifeboat societies joinedthe national body; and a third is a graphof station lifeboats showing changes innumbers and types (sailing and pulling,steam, motor, ILB and FAB) from 1860to the present day.

The booklet is available fromGrahame Farr, 98 Combe Avenue,Portishead, Bristol BS20 9JX, price 60pincluding postage and packing.—J.D.

• Malcolm Robson's French Pilotvolumes one and two, which coverOmonville to Treguier and then west-ward (in volume two) Port Blanc to Hede Sein, are a welcome addition to hisChannel Islands Pilot and are producedin the same professional way. They willbe of great use to yachtsmen cruisingthe Brittany Coast.

As part of the enjoyment of anycruise is in the preparation, it is often ahelp to have photographs, aerial orotherwise, of the harbours or coasts itis proposed to visit, especially when

planning to sail to an area for the firsttime, and if any criticism of these pilotscould be made it might be the absenceof photographs. There are, however,excellent sketches and diagrams. In hisguide to pilotage, Malcolm Robsondepends largely on the traditional tech-nique of transit lines, making use ofrocks, lighthouses, churches, water-towers and other prominent landmarkswhich he has drawn from his own yachtas they appear from the cockpit whenactually steering along the line.

French Pilot is published by NauticalPublishing Co.; the price of volumeone, Omonville to Treguier, is £9.85and of volume two, Port Blanc to He deSein, is £10.85.—E.J.

• Not only does Practical Sailing byWendy Fitzpatrick (Ward Lock, £4.95)give a good introduction to the new-comer to sailing but its wealth ofphotographs, both colour and blackand white, is in itself a positive encour-agement to 'go down to the sea'; somuch of the joy of sailing as a sport andas a holiday way of life is portrayed.

The author is herself an experiencedsailor and, among other successes, wonthe first British Laser class champion-ship in 1973. Her book includes usefulchapters on suitable clothing, the rulesof the road and on understanding theweather and it is illustrated throughoutby good, clear diagrams.—J.D.

• Latest addition to the library oflifeboat station histories is The CromerLifeboats 1804-1979 by R. W. Malsterand P. J. R. Stibbons. Very readable,this booklet is also exceptionally wellillustrated with photographs both oflifeboats old and new and of lifeboatpeople. On one page there are portraitsof Cromer's seven coxswains betweenthe years 1872 and 1976, includingHenry Blogg (1909 to 1947) and Henry'Shrimp' Davies (1947 to 1976); anotherpage is a veritable mosaic of the facesof just some of the people associatedwith the station.

The booklet is available from Cromerstation honorary secretary, J. J. Smith,33 Hillside, Cromer, Norfolk, price 60pplus 15p postage and packing.—J.D.

• Lloyd's Register Today is a newbrochure brought out by Lloyd's Regis-ter of Shipping, the oldest and largestof the world's ship classificationsocieties, describing the services itoffers to help in the maintenance ofhigh standards in ship design and build-ing, in offshore services and in indus-try, and its links with the marine andindustrial world. Free copies are avail-able from the Public Relations Officer,Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 71 Fen-church Street, London EC3M 4BS.

• Readers of THE LIFEBOAT are alsooffered a free specimen copy ofEmergency Services News, a bi-monthlyjournal for all emergency and rescueservices. Please send a large (12in x9in) 9Vzp stamped addressed envelopeto Emergency Services News, 106Middleton Avenue, Chingford, LondonE4 SEE.

Lifeboat booksThe RNLI stocks certain

books on lifeboat subjects. A listof titles is available from RNLI,21 Ebury Street, London SW1.Please send a stamped addressedenvelope.

THE FIRST 'specialist holiday' longweekend for lifeboat enthusiasts, heldat Skidden House Hotel in March,proved to be a great success. The partyvisited St Ives, Sennen Cove, Lizard-Cadgwith and Penlee lifeboat stations,meeting the honorary secretaries, cox-swains and other lifeboatmen. Thephotograph shows the visitors climbingup from Lizard-Cadgwith boathouse.

Cornwall's Chief Coastguard,George Rounce, led one party to wrecksites at Land's End and, among otherevening film shows and lectures, ahelicopter pilot from Culdrose ex-plained the part played by helicoptersin search and rescue.

More lifeboat weekends are plannedfor October and November 1979, andMarch and April 1980. Details from JillElleston, Skidden House Hotel, StIves, Cornwall. A percentage of allcourse fees go to RNLI funds.

176

Lifeboat Servicesfrom page 157

and Coxswain Jack headed out towardsBell Rock. A few minutes later, whenclear of the bar, the coxswain handedover to the second coxswain, who hadinjured his ankle and, as he was unableto get an answer on the intercom, wentbelow to check on his crew. At the firstcount it was thought that one man wasmissing but he had knocked his headand was found unconscious in the we;the rest, who had been belted in,seemed only to be bruised. Damageinside was found to be mainly superfi-cial with small items of gear strewnaround.

Coxswain Jack, who had torn a liga-ment to his right leg, then went back upto the upper conning position togetherwith Crew Member Alistair Piggot.Second Coxswain Hugh Scott, whohad in fact broken his ankle, managedto get down the ladder to thewheelhouse and was lifted into theseventh seat and strapped in.

In view of the second coxswain's andhis own injuries and informationreceived from the Coastguard that therescue was now being carried out byhelicopter, Coxswain Jack decided tomake for Leith. He continued workingfrom the upper conning position forabout another half hour until he waswell clear of the bar, and then camedown to the wheelhouse for the rest ofthe passage.

Having heard that Fendyke was indistress, that two of Broughty Ferry'screw were injured and thinking that oneman was missing overboard, Arbroathcrew mustered at the boathouse.Shortly afterwards the honorary sec-retary authorised launch and the 42ftWatson lifeboat The Duke of Montrosewas released down the slipway at 0045under the command of Second Cox-swain Brian Bruce.

Acting Coxswain Bruce held the boatinside the breakwater until masts andradar scanner were erected and then,with the crew in position and lookoutsposted either side of the wheelhouse,the lifeboat headed out between thepiers to cross the bar. With the easterlywind blowing heavy spray across theport bow of the boat, and in very highseas, the bar was safely negotiated.While crossing the bar a message wasreceived from Forth Coastguard sayingthat the Broughty Ferry crew memberhad been found and that there was nocasualty for the Arbroath lifeboat.Informing Forth Coastguard that due to

Year of the TreeDuring the Year of the Tree, Torbay

lifeboat crew, as their own personal gift,presented 30 Scots pines to Brixham inappreciation of the support given to thelifeboat by the borough of Torbay. Thetrees were ceremonially planted in Bat-tery Gardens in March.

the sea conditions she would not returnto Arbroath, The Duke of Montrosealso made her way to Leith. In beamseas heavy spray made lookout difficultand restricted the coxswain's view butthe boat was handling very well and rid-ing waves so that very little water wascoming aboard. After rounding Fife-ness, course was altered to south westto pass north of the Isle of May. Theseas were now fine on the lifeboat'sport quarter and the drogue wasstreamed, making the lifeboat notice-ably easier to handle.

On arrival at Leith at about 0430,Broughty Ferry lifeboat was met by anambulance and the coxswain and sec-ond coxswain were taken to hospital.Coxswain Jack was released after a fewhours and Second Coxswain Scott waskept in for a few days for an operationto his ankle.

Arbroath lifeboat arrived at Leith at0810. After changing into dry clothingand having breakfast the crew weretaken home by road.

With blizzard conditions in Scotlandover the New Year, both lifeboatsreturned to station as soon as it waspossible, on January 2.

Western Division

Two towedAT ABOUT 1600 on WednesdayDecember 6, 1978, Robert Gorman, afisherman and ILB crew member atAberystwyth, saw a capsized sailingboat and the college rescue boat about400 yards off shore. Realising that theywould need help he prepared to sail hisown boat, FV Lona. A force 8 gale,gusting, was blowing from the southeast. Sunset was at 1550 and high waterhad been at 1207.

Robert Gorman reached the capsizedboat, which had drifted further out tosea, and took her in tow. The collegerescue boat headed for harbour but herengine failed, so that she now neededhelp. Robert Gorman took Lona along-side, passed a line and with both boatsin tow entered harbour at 1650 and sec-ured alongside. The four rescued peo-ple needed medical assistance beforebeing allowed to leave the station.

For this service a framed letter ofthanks signed by Major-General RalphFarrant, chairman of the Institution,was presented to Robert Gorman.

Ireland Division

Family adriftA FATHER and his three small childrendecided to go out in their boat onStrangford Lough at about 1600 on Fri-day September 1, 1978. Launchingtheir boat from Newtownards SailingClub, they had gone some way roundBarr's Bay when the engine suddenlyfailed and could not be restarted. Thefather started to row, tried to start the

engine again having given it a chance tocool down, but without success, andthen decided to row the boat all theway to shore.

One oar was in place but as he wasshipping the other it slipped out of hishand, fell into the water and started todrift away. He tried to reach it, circlingthe boat round with the oar he had, butit could not be done. He stood up in theboat and shouted for help but got noresponse from the shore.

While the children stayed in the boat,the father went into the water toretrieve the lost oar but found that hewas unable to return to the boat againstthe strong wind and current. Signallingto his children that he was going forhelp, he started to swim towards theshore.

Meanwhile, two power rescuelaunches set out, one from Newtown-ards Sailing Club and one fromWhiterock. The first was manned byReserve Constables Walter Nelson andDavid Canavan, John Travis andAngus Jardine who together rescuedthe father from the water.

The second boat was manned by DonClarke, a steward at Whiterock YachtClub and an auxiliary coastguard, whopicked up the children, took their boatin tow and headed for the sailing club.On the way he took off the people fromthe other launch and took their boat intow also.

All landed safely and were taken toNewtownards Sailing Club.

For this service letters of apprecia-tion signed by John Atterton, actingdirector of the Institution, were sent toReserve Constables Walter L. Nelsonand David J. Canavan and also to Auxi-liary Coastguard Don Clarke.

Services by OffshoreLifeboats, December,1978, January andFebruary, 1979Angle, DyfedDecember 1, January 21 and February 10Arbroath, AngusJanuary 11Arklow, Co. WicklowDecember 13Arranmore, Co. DonegalDecember 30, January 30, February 17 and26Baltimore, Co. CorkDecember 22, January 8 and February 9Barmouth, GwyneddFebruary 15Barra Island, Inverness-shireDecember 2, January 5 and February 28Barrow, CumbriaFebruary-18Barry Dock, South GlamorganDecember 2, January 13, February 25 and28Bembridge, Isle of WightDecember 30 and February 18Blyth, NorthumberlandDecember 17 and February 8Bridlington, HumbersideDecember 20, 21, 24, 27, January 10, 28

177

and February 15Brought) Ferry, AngusDecember 24 and January 2Buckie, BanffshireDecember 10Calshot, HampshireJanuary 28 and 31Campbeltown, ArgyllshireDecember 24, 30 and January 20Clovelly, North DevonDecember 1 and 13Cromer, NorfolkDecember 30Donaghadee, Co. DownFebruary 2Dover, KentDecember 16 and January 10Dungeness, KentJanuary 22 and 23Dunmore East, WaterfordDecember 2 and January 4Exmouth, South DevonDecember 1, 8 and 23Falmouth, CornwallDecember 5 , 1 2 and January 21 (twice)Filey, North YorkshireDecember 6, 21 and January 28Flamborough, HumbersideDecember 21 and January 28Fleet wood, LancashireDecember 17, January 28 and February 28Fowey, CornwallJanuary 1 and 21Galway Bay, Co. GalwayDecember 24 and 27Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, NorfolkDecember 23, 29, January 8, 31, February10, 15 and 28Hartlepool, ClevelandDecember 6, 14, 15 and 29, January 30 andFebruary 7Harwich, EssexDecember 6, 18, 29, January 18, 19, 29 andFebruary 22 (twice)Hastings, East SussexJanuary 13, 22 and February 4Holyhead, GwyneddDecember 31Howth, Co. DublinDecember 17Humber, HumbersideDecember 2, 7, 8, 18, 24, 30, January 1, 10,11, 19, February 4, 14, 15 and 25Islay, ArgyllshireFebruary 7Lerwick, ShetlandDecember 18 and January 13Lizard-Cadgwith, CornwallJanuary 5Lochinver, SutherlandDecember 24Lytham-St Anne's, LancashireDecember 18 and February 10Margate, KentJanuary 4Moelfre, GwyneddDecember 11Newcastle, Co. DownJanuary 9Newhaven, East Sussex

December 16Penlee, CornwallDecember 17, January 18, 20, February 13and 23Peterhead, AberdeenshireJanuary 19Poole, DorsetFebruary 16Porthdinllaen, GwyneddFebruary 4Port rush, AntrimDecember 7Ramsgate, KentJanuary 28 and 31Rhyl, ClwydJanuary 21Rosslare Harbour, Co. WexfordDecember 7, 20 and 28St Helier, JerseyDecember 29, February 11 and 12St Ives, CornwallDecember 11, 30, January 8, February 3, 16and 24St Mary's, Scilly IslandsFebruary 8St Peter Port, GuernseyDecember 1, 7 (twice), 16, 24, 30, January4, February 1 and 13Scarborough, North Yorkshire

December 6, January 1 and February 17Selsey, SussexDecember 30 and January 10Sennen Cove, CornwallFebruary 16Sheerness, KentDecember 12, 26 and 30Sheringham, NorfolkJanuary 29Shoreham Harbour, West SussexDecember 4 and January 4Skegness, LincolnshireDecember 11 and 30Stromness, OrkneyDecember 28Torbay, South DevonDecember 2, 16, 17 and January 13Troon, AyrshireDecember 19, February 10 and 18Wells, NorfolkJanuary 31, February 15Weymouth, DorsetDecember 12, 14 and 28Whitby, North YorkshireJanuary 1,2 , February 8 and 17Yarmouth, Isle of WightDecember 29, January 14 and February 27Youghal, Co. CorkJanuary 22

Services by InshoreLifeboats, December,1978, January andFebruary, 1979

Aberdovey, GwyneddDecember 8Abersoch, GwyneddDecember 10Atlantic College, South GlamorganFebruary 24Beaumaris, GwyneddJanuary 1 and 17Berwick-upon-Tweed, NorthumberlandDecember 16Blackpool, LancashireFebruary 26 and 28Broughty Ferry, AngusJanuary 2Criccieth, GwyneddDecember 14Eastbourne, East SussexFebruary 8Flint, ClwydJanuary 2Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, NorfolkDecember 21, January 19 and February 13Hartlepool, ClevelandDecember 9 and January 16Harwich, SuffolkDecember 10Hastings, East SussexFebruary 18Hayling Island, Hampshire

December 30Helensburgh, DunbartonshireFebruary 16 and 25Largs, AyrshireDecember 1, January 31, and February 11Littlehampton, West SussexDecember 5, January 18, February 12 and22Lytham-St Anne's, LancashireJanuary 3 and February 10Minehead, SomersetDecember 25Mudeford, DorsetJanuary 7 and 21Peel, Isle of ManJanuary 12Poole, DorsetDecember 3 and January 3Porthcawl, Mid GlamorganDecember 16Portsmouth, (Langstone Harbour),HampshireDecember 10, 16, 19 (twice), January 1, 4.14 and February 4 (twice) and 24Queensferry, West LothianFebruary 4Southend-on-Sea, EssexDecember 16,23, 31, January 5, 6, 7, 21(twice) and February 11Southwold, SuffolkDecember 24Staithes and Runswick, ClevelandDecember 9, February 4, 18 and 24Tenby, DyfedJanuary 10West Kirby, MerseysideDecember 3Whitstable, KentDecember 10 and 14

SERVICES AND LIVES SAVED BY OFFSHORE AND INSHORE LIFEBOATSJanuary 1, 1979, to April 30, 1979: Services: 364; lives saved 138

THE STATION FLEET(as at 30/4/79)

133 offshore lifeboats 125 inshore lifeboats operating in the summer50 inshore lifeboats operating in the winter

LIVES RESCUED 104,357from the Institution's foundation in 1824 to April 30, 1979

178

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