Heroes of lifeboats help the victims of cruel sea

WHILE the rest of us are tucked up snugly in bed or going about our daily business those who crew the lifeboats of the UK and Ireland and those who save lives as lifeguards on our beaches are often risking life and limb to bring others to safety.

It takes a very special person to put themselves in such danger, but each year the 4,500 men and women who volunteer on boats and beaches for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution answer around 8,000 call-outs and save an average of 8,700 lives around our coastline.

They are butchers, bakers, secretaries, teachers, doctors, housewives, farmers...people from all walks of life who are willing to drop everything at a moment’s notice to go to the rescue of strangers whose commercial vessel is in distress, leisure sailors in difficulty, swimmers swept away by the current, or holidaymakers whose exploration of the shoreline has taken them too far and they have been cut off by the tide.

The courage and commitment of those who work with the charity are being celebrated by the ITV1 series Mayday! Mayday! It’s fitting that, alongside the valour of our other emergency services, lifeboat personnel who face the onslaught of the elements are appreciated by landlubbers and coastal communities alike. Each guard or crew member who hurries to answer a call for rescue is treading in the footsteps of many generations of courageous folk who have trodden the same path.

The man who started it all off was the Yorkshire-born Sir William Hillary (1771-1847), a former royal equerry who married well and for some unknown reason raised a private army which carried out exercises in the grounds of his stately home in Essex. Bankruptcy and divorce led to exile on the Isle of Man where he witnessed many mighty storms and ensuing loss of life from unfortunate ships caught up in them. In 1822 the Royal Navy cutter Vigilant ran aground in Douglas Bay at the mercy of immense waves whipped up by high winds. The crew were in peril and Sir William intervened, jumping into one of two small rowing boats in a rescue attempt. The captain jettisoned as much of his load as he could and against the odds the two small rowing boats managed to to pull the Vigilant free and the ship was brought back to the safety of Douglas Bay.

Hillary was distraught when he could not raise a crew to help other ships in similar trouble but when he offered a cash reward men did come forward. Within weeks another major operation was launched but, although many were saved, six crewmen from HMS Racehorse were lost along with three local fishermen who’d attempted the rescue. Hillary despaired that the families of the lost men would have to live in penury.

He rallied interest in an organised rescue service through a pamphlet named: ‘An appeal to the British nation on the humanity and policy of forming a national institution for the preservation of lives and property from shipwreck.’ Slowly the idea money from a group of wealthy philanthropists, and in March 1824 the first meeting of what was to become the RNLI was held in London. Donations totalled £10,000 in a year and the committee set about organising the purchase of boats and construction of boathouses around the entire coastline of Britain and Ireland (Irish lifeboats are still part of the RNLI today).

A cash incentive helped to bring volunteers, especially in areas of low employment. Today lifeboat crews and those who help to launch them and bring them in are paid £5 per call-out. Welfare payments were also introduced for the families of anyone who died in service. And so a tradition was born, with coastal communities welcoming an organised rescue service which has, over nearly 200 years, save around 140,000 lives. Today the RNLI boasts 34,000 volunteer fundraisers who are vital to keeping the charity afloat, alongside the generous legacies supporters leave when they die. It cost £145m to run the RNLI in 2010, and each all-weather boat costs £2m-£3m.

“Most people, even in seaside villages, are not aware of when the lifeboat goes out,” says Karen Farrington, co-author of Mayday! Mayday! the companion book to the TV series. “When we think of the seaside we think of sunshine and calm waters, but crews usually go out when the sea is at its worst and they’re looking at walls of water. But they never say they’re tired of busy.”The Yorkshire coast has eight lifeboat stations with 12 boats, and the Humber lifeboat station has the only full-time crew.

Among the many heroes in the history of coastal rescue was new volunteer Henry Freeman, who was flung in at the deep end with the Whitby lifeboat on February 9, 1861, when bad weather meant several call-outs. Already weakened by their exertions they went out a fourth time but their rowing vessel was caught by a huge wave and overturned.

Freeman, the only man wearing a new style cork life jacket (donated by the RNLI although – although Whitby’s lifeboat operation was run independently at the time) rather than the old canvas style which was worn too low around the body. He survived intact and continued as a volunteer for 40 years. Forty-six children were made fatherless that day, and it was decided that Whitby should join the RNLI. A self-righting lifeboat and the new safer life jackets were then given to the whole crew.

Research into boat construction, equipment and technology has always been part of the RNLI’s work, says operations director Peter Bradley.

“Our work is about good people, great boats and equipment to ensure safety, and wonderful support from our many volunteers and the public who seem to hold the RNLI very dear. We are very lucky that support is so strong, and even in poorer neighbourhoods people put money in the box.”

Mayday! Mayday! The History of Coastal Rescue in Britain and Ireland by Karen Farrington and Nick Constable is published by Collins, £20. To order from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop call 0800 0153232 or go to www.yorkshirepostbookshop.co.uk ITV1 is showing Mayday! Mayday! at 7.30pm on Tuesdays until November 1.