THE JOURNAL OF THE RNLI

Volume XLVI Number 464 Summer 1978 25p

The Captaintakes his hat off

totheRNLL

THELIFEBOAT

Summer 1978

f~~\ _ _. A. _ „ A. Notes of the Quarter, by Patrick Howarth 3

Summary of Accounts for 1977 4

Volume XLVI Lifeboat Semces 5

N^IYlber 464 Inshore Lifeboats: dedication ceremonies at Abersoch, Port Isaacand St Ives 13

Matthew Lethbridge, Jnr, BEM: coxswain of St Mary's lifeboat, byJoan Davies 14

Chairman:MAJOR-GENERAL R. H. FARRANT, CB Across a Crowded Room: thoughts on the annual presentation of awards

for gallantry, by Alan Neal 17Director and Secretary:CAPTAIN NIGEL DIXON, OBE, RN . . . „... , j o» r> i- i-r L.A Corner in Cumbria: Workington, Silloth and St Bees, three lifeboat

stations on the Solway Firth and its southern approaches 20

Building a Rother Class Lifeboat: Part VIII—Ballast Keel 24Managing Editor:PATRICK HOWARTH Shoreline 25

Edltor: Some Ways of Raising Money 26JOAN DAVIES

Letters 30

Headquarters:Royal National Life-boat Institution, Lifeboat People 31West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH151HZ (Telephone Poole 71133). Offshore Lifeboat Services, December 1977, January and February 1978 . 34

Inshore Lifeboat Services, December 1977, January and February 1978 . . 34London Office:Royal National Life-boat Institution,21 Ebury Street, London SW1W OLD(Telephone 01-730 0031).

COVER PICTURE

The John Gellatly Hyndman, a 52ft Burnettrelief lifeboat on temporary duty at St PeterPort, under the command of Coxswain JohnPetit, on service to the oil rig Orion whichran aground on the north-west shore ofGuernsey when she parted from her tug instorm force winds on the night of FebruaryI , 1978. Having taken off two men thatnight, the lifeboat returned on February 10,in continuing gales, to take off the salvagecrew of six. Orion was eventually safelyfreed from the rocks and went on her way. Afine example of international co-operation:an American oil rig under tow of a Germantug bound from Rotterdam to Brazil; thesalvage company was Dutch, the rescueservices British.

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.

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NOTES OFTHE QUARTER

by Patrick Howarth

FOR THE FIRST TIME the RNLI hasawarded a gallantry medal for a rescuefrom an oil rig. The rig involved, Orion,was on tow from Rotterdam to Brazilwhen she went aground on the Guern-sey coast. The rescue operation was insome respects of a kind not experi-enced before. The rig, which was drift-ing at about 6 knots, had huge legs,mounted on a tanker hull , whichtowered some 250 feet above the waterline. The approach presented a prob-lem in manoeuvring which at one timeseemed impossible to solve. CoxswainJohn Petit did manage to bring the StPeter Port lifeboat alongside but a hugewave lifted her into the overhanginghelicopter platform. The lifeboat'smast was snapped and crashed on tothe wheelhouse. The direction findingloop was carried away by the net, andthe radio aerials jammed the radarscanner, which then filled with water.Nevertheless two men were success-fully rescued by the lifeboat and theremaining men on board by Sea Kinghelicopters from Culdrose and effortsof parties on the shore.

John Petit also had the distinction ofbeing the first man to be voted twomedals for gallantry for separate ser-vices at the same meeting of the Execu-tive Committee of the RNLI. His otheraward was for the rescue of four peoplefrom a yacht in exceptionally severeconditions, which again made the taskof bringing the lifeboat alongside adangerous and difficult one. A greatfamily tradition is being maintained inGuernsey, for the present coxswain'sfather, Hubert Petit, was one of onlyfive men to win the RNLI's gold medalfor gallantry since the end of WorldWar II.

Some days after the rescue which led

to the award of John Petit's silvermedal the St Peter Port lifeboat took offa number of men who had been putaboard the rig by a salvage company.Channel Television filmed virtually thewhole of this rescue, and through thegenerosity of two Guernsey residents.Sir Charles and Lady Hayward, a filmof the operation has been made availa-ble to the RNLI. Its first showing inLondon took place on May 30 at the BPcinema in Britannic House.

Blue Peter SilverThe first award of the RNLI's silver

medal for gallantry to a member of thecrew of a Blue Peter inshore lifeboat,has also recently been made. The ILBwas Blue Peter IV, which is stationedat St Agnes in Cornwall. This is one ofthe four stations whose inshorelifeboats were provided by viewers ofthe famous BBC programme, who col-lected paperback books to raise thefunds. David Bliss at the helm of BluePeter IV rescued a man from a narrowcove in conditions which onlookersdescribed as 'impossible'. He control-led the boat with extraordinary skillbased on experience of operating insurf. Choosing the right moment be-tween waves and the right speed, hemanaged somehow to avoid all therocks in his path along the 50 yardlength of the cove which he had toenter. The boat filled with water andwas seen from the cliffs above to becompletely engulfed by the waves.Coming out of the surf the lifeboatbecame airborne.

Another first-ever award was that ofa medal for a rescue carried out by oneof the RNLI's two lifeboats of theThames class. The casualty was ajack-up barge which was pitching soheavily that its legs were swingingthrough 30 degrees. Coxswain ArthurWest of Falmouth performed a remark-able feat of seamanship and determina-tion in taking off the crew of the barge.Accounts of these and other rescues forwhich awards were made appearin 'Lifeboat Services' starting onpage 5.

Healthier state of reservesThe governors of the Institution were

told by the RNLI's chairman, Major-

First silver medal for aBlue Peter ILB crewmember was awardedto Helmsman DavidBliss of St Agnes. Afterthe award wasannouced, David Blissand his crew were theguests of the BBC'sBlue Peter televisionprogramme, (left toright) John Noakes,Helmsman David Bliss,Crew Members RogerRadcliffe and BarryGarland, and LesleyJudd.

photography bycourtesy of Blue Peter,

BBC TV

General Farrant, at the annual generalmeeting held in the Royal Festival Hallon May 16 that a policy decision hadbeen made to bring to an end the pausein the boat-building programme, whichwas introduced a few years ago, and tostep up expenditure. This has beenmade possible by the extraordinaryefforts of the RNLI's fund-raisingbranches and guilds, by the number oflegacies received and through theeconomies practised. As a result of allthese the free reserves of the Inst i tu-tion, which amounted to only 13weeks' expenditure at the end of 1976,had risen to 19 weeks' expenditure atthe end of last year.

The two main aims of the RNLI'spresent capital programme are ensuringthat the whole offshore fleet has a self-righting capacity and that fast lifeboats,which can lie afloat, are placed at keystations. The cost of completing thisprogramme will exceed £5 million, ofwhich about a quarter will, it isexpected, be spent this year.

A brief summary of the accounts for1976 appears on page 4 and a full re-port of the annual general meetingand presentation of awards will be pub-lished in the autumn edition of THELIFEBOAT.

Fraserburgh reopenedA happy outcome of some eight

years of discussion, anxiety and doubthas been the decision to reopen theFraserburgh lifeboat station on thenorth-east coast of Scotland. In 1970the Fraserburgh lifeboat capsized withthe loss of five men. Seventeen yearsearlier another Fraserburgh lifeboatcapsized, six men being lost on thatoccasion, and after the second tragicdisaster the station became temporarilynon-operational.

In January this year a public meetingwas held at Fraserburgh attended by anRNLI delegation, which included thechairman of the Search and RescueCommittee, Vice-Admiral Sir ArthurHezlet. At the meeting it was agreedthat the station would man and operatea Solent lifeboat. The first boat to go onstation is the 48ft 6in Solent relieflifeboat The Royal British LegionJubilee. The training of a new crewunder the supervision of the divisional

inspector for north Scotland, CaptainR. M. Dabbs, has already begun.

First RNLI branch in BelgiumAn historic meeting took place in

Bruges on April 21 , the first to be heldby the Belgian branch of the RNLI.The central event was a film show, forwhich more than 150 people boughttickets. A number of the Belgian mem-bers had visited the RNLI's stand atthe International Boat Show at thebeginning of the year, and John Atter-ton, deputy director of the RNLI , whoattended the meeting, reported evidententhusiasm among the Institution'snew Belgian supporters. One speakersaid that Great Britain had brought anumber of good things to the EuropeanEconomic Community, of which one ofthe very best was its highly efficientlifeboat service: he might also havementioned Ireland because the RNLIadministers the lifeboat service in twoEEC countries.

Humberside police's five-strong mounted section hasbeen patrolling localbeaches and inland water-ways for the past three yearsas part of their generalduties. Last summer anemergency lifeline wasadded to their equipment.

photography by courtesy ofHumberside police

Plans for visits and for fund-raisingevents in Belgium on behalf of theRNLI were discussed.

Any Belgians or Britons living in

Belgium who wish to join the newbranch are asked to communicate with:Monsieur Jan Corveleyn, Zantiende 13,8320 Bruges 4, Belgium.

Summary of Accounts for 1977Full accounts are available from Poole Headquarters.

£ millions

6.5

How expenditure was apportioned

Ten years at a glance

0.5

1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977

Areas of Expenditure Key

LIFE BOAT SERVICE

LIFE BOAT SUPPORT

OperationalRecurrent

ManagementJ Support

OperationalCapital

Fund RaisingSupport

What it costin 1977

Total: £6.30m

How the moneywas raised

INVESTMENTINCOME

MEMBERSHIP

Total: E6.74m

South Western Division

Storm searchA PROLONGED SEARCH was made byPadstow, St Ives and Clovelly lifeboatsin a south-westerly storm for theDanish coaster Lady Kamilla, whichfoundered off Trevose Head onChristmas Eve, December 24, 1977,and for her crew of nine. In addition tothe three lifeboats, HMS Sherington,Nimrod aircraft, Wessex and Sea Kinghelicopters and various merchant ves-sels which were in the vicinity alsotook part. HM Coastguard rescue teamsalso carried out a shore search. LadyKamilla, which had originally reportedtaking water in her hatches, founderedand sank before help arrived. The crewabandoned ship and two survivorswere picked up from a liferaft byhelicopter. No other survivors werefound, although wreckage identified ascoming from Lady Kamilla wassighted.

Padstow lifeboat, the 48ft 6in OakleyJames and Catherine Macfarlane, wasat sea searching for 14 hours 42minutes; Clovelly lifeboat, the 71ftClyde City of Bristol, for 14 hours 45minutes; and St Ives lifeboat, the 37ftOakley Frank Pen/old Marshall, whichsuffered damage when hit by an excep-tionally large sea, for 6 hours 16minutes.

At 0003 the honorary secretary ofPadstow lifeboat station was informedby Trevose Head Coastguard that LadyKamilla, 15 to 20 miles west of TrevoseHead, was taking water. Maroons werefired and at 0030 James and CatherineMacfarlane launched on service witheight crew aboard, Coxswain AntonyWarnock taking an extra crew memberbecause of the severe weather.

At 0010 the honorary secretary of StIves lifeboat station heard a 'mayday'call from Lady Kamilla and telephonedto the Coastguard to discuss launching.Maroons were fired and at 0044 FrankPenfold Marshall launched on service.

The weather was very bad withwinds south west strong gale to storm,force 9 to 10, poor visibility and aphenomenally high sea. Tide was 2hours flood.

Padstow lifeboat headed for the posi-tion of the casualty and at 0215 Cox-swain Warnock fired a parachute flare.

This was not seen by the casualty, butwas reported by St Ives lifeboat and byHMS Sherington. Lady Kamilla wasthen asked to fire a red flare, but thiswas not seen by the lifeboat and LadyKamilla's captain reported that it wasnot a good flare and that conditionsaboard were now very bad. At 0218 heinformed Trevose Head Coastguardthat he was having to abandon ship.

St Ives lifeboat had been headingnorth towards the reported position ofthe casualty. At 0225, when she was 14miles north of St Ives Head, a messagewas received from the Coastguard thatred flares had been reported offPortreath/Porthtowan and the lifeboatwas asked to investigate. CoxswainThomas Cocking altered course to thesouth east. At 0255, the lifeboat was ona south east heading at full speed whenAssistant Mechanic David Smith,standing on the coxswain's right, sud-denly saw a 'wall of water' to starboardand shouted, 'Look out!'. CoxswainCocking looked up through the top ofthe canopy and saw the wave breaking.He estimated its height at 30 to 35 feet.He shouted to the crew, 'Hold on!' andimmediately put his arms through thespokes of the wheel and held on to thebinnacle, in a semi-crouched position,to lock his hold on the wheel. His rightleg was hooked between the legs of hisstool.

The wave broke down on to the star-board side of the lifeboat, rolling her toport. Second Coxswain John Perkin,standing on the coxswain's left,remained jammed against the port sideof the cockpit. Emergency MechanicJohn Thomas, standing behind the cox-swain, remained jammed between thecoxswain's seat and the after end box.David Smith, was wrenched off thestarboard guardrail, to which he washolding, and thrown to port. MotorMechanic Philip Penberthy remained inthe radar seat. Both Signalman EricWard, who had been standing behindJohn Perkin to port, and AssistantMechanic Smith found themselves'floating' and thought they had beenthrown out of the lifeboat. David Smithfelt John Thomas and the coxswainbeneath him. Radio Operator ThomasCocking, Jnr, on the starboard seatunder the canopy, stood on the side ofthe battery box cover, jammed his headand shoulders under the starboarddeckhead of the canopy and held on tothe handrail. From this position he sawthe entire cockpit fill with water exceptfor a small air pocket, in which was hisown head.

The boat seemed to hang in this posi-tion, which is thought to have beenapproaching a 90 degree roll. As Cox-swain Cocking's eyes cleared helooked forward and realised the portnavigation light was submerged. He leftthe throttles at full speed and the boatseemed to slide down the back of thewave in this attitude before rightingherself. Both side-dodgers had beencarried away inboard and the boat

quickly drained the top four feet ofwater. The remainder took a littlelonger.

The wind was estimated by Cox-swain Cocking at west south west force9 to 10, which corresponds withrecorded anemometer readings at Islesof Scilly, Lands End and St Mawgan. Ithad been blowing steadily from thesouth west at force 5 to 8 sinceDecember 21 and had graduallyincreased throughout December 23.The tide at this point should have beenrunning against the wind 230° at 0.8knots. The depth of water would havebeen about 55 metres and there were nosignificant fluctuations in the bottom inthat area, the shallowest patch beingabout 49 metres.

The radar and MF radio wereswamped and put out of action but theVHP remained working and CoxswainCocking continued searching off Porth-towan until 0630, when the search inthis area was called off and concen-trated in the area of the original posi-tion given. In view of the damage shehad sustained to her electronic equip-ment, St Ives lifeboat was recalled tostation. Frank Penfold Marshallentered harbour at 0700 and wasre-carriaged and placed on restrictedservice at 0800.

Meanwhile, Padstow lifeboat hadarrived at the search area at 0320 andstarted a box search to the north andnorth east.

At 0610 the staff coxswain in com-mand of Clovelly lifeboat, MichaelHouchen, was requested by HartlandCoastguard to search three to five milesoffshore from Hartland Point down toPentire Point to look for survivors fromLady Kamilla. City of Bristol left hermoorings five minutes later andsearched the coast area until 1130 whenshe was directed to carry out a boxsearch off Trevose Head. At 1224 aNimrod aircraft sighted wreckage 24miles west north west of Trevose Headand City of Bristol was diverted toinvestigate. At 1347 the coxswainsighted wreckage about four miles eastof the position given and picked up anumber of gas cylinders which wereidentified as belonging to the casualty.

Coxswain Warnock, in Padstowlifeboat, was continuing his searchunder very difficult conditions. At 1430it was reported that two survivors hadbeen picked up from a liferaft by ahelicopter in a position about 20 milesto the north. As Padstow lifeboat couldnot arrive at this new search areabefore dark she was recalled by theCoastguard. She arrived back at stationat 1512 and was rehoused and ready forservice at 1600.

Clovelly lifeboat was diverted at1530 to the position where the two sur-vivors were found in the dinghy andcontinued to search this area, togetherwith a helicopter, until 1715 when thesearch was called off because of dark-ness. City of Bristol, after sheltering forthe night in Lundy Island Roads,

returned to her moorings at Clovellythe following morning at 0810.

For this service the silver medal forgallantry has been awarded to Cox-swain Thomas Cocking of St Ives andthe thanks of the Institution inscribedon vellum have been accorded to Sec-ond Coxswain John N. Perkin, MotorMechanic Philip P. Penberthy, Assis-tant Mechanic David L. Smith,Emergency Mechanic John B. Thomas,Signalman Eric T. Ward and RadioOperator Thomas Cocking, Jnr. In thehighest traditions of the RNLI, theirdevotion to duty was such that theyrefrained from advising either theCoastguard or the honorary secretaryof the degree of roll they had experi-enced or of their subsequent discom-fort and exhaustion, but had continuedwith the service. All that was reallyappreciated on shore was the damageto equipment. Letters of appreciationsigned by the director, Captain NigelDixon, RN, have been sent to the hon-orary secretary Coxswain AntonyWarnock and his crew of Padstow, andStaff Coxswain Michael Houchen ofClovelly lifeboat and his crew.

South Western Division

Union Crystal sinksJUST BEFORE 1915 on Wednesday,November 16, 1977, the honorary sec-retaries of both Sennen Cove and St Iveslifeboat stations were informed byLands End Coastguard that the 499-toncoaster Union Crystal was in trouble 12miles north of Cape Cornwall. Hercargo of rock salt had shifted and shewas listing. She carried a crew of six.The wind was onshore, from the northwest, strong gale to storm force 9 to 10,with rain squalls, and the sea was veryhigh; these conditions remainedthroughout the seven hours of theservice.

At St IveS the tide was setting northeast across the wind at about 1 knot. Itslowly decreased and turned south-wards, finally ebbing at about the samespeed south west by the end of the ser-vice. St Ives lifeboat, the 37ft OakleyFrank Pen/old Marshall, was launchedoff her carriage into the harbour at 1931and set course 315°M from St Ives Headat 1937.

At Sennen Cove a heavy swell run-ning in from the same direction as thewind, north west, was breaking acrossthe area of rocks known as the Cow-loes, which lie less than 200 yards northto north west of the slipway. The tidewas in the fifth hour of flood and run-ning in an easterly direction at about 4knots through the narrow passage bet-ween the lifeboat slipway and the Cow-loe rocks, The Tribbens. The honorarysecretary was most concerned aboutthe state of the sea off the slipway andhad doubts about the ability of thelifeboat to launch safely.

However, after having heard fromLands End Coastguard that, at 1919, afinal message from Union Crystal indi-cated that she was sinking, the honor-ary secretary, Captain Ewan Watson,and Coxswain/Mechanic Eric Pengillyfired the maroons and opened theboathouse doors to make a closerassessment of the conditions off theslipway.

To the east of the Cowloes lie moresubmerged rocks and the lifeboat has tofollow an accurate course betweenthese two hazards when going to sea,using leading marks astern which areilluminated at night. Even the small 14ft local fishing boats take great care tofollow the leading marks closely as thegap between the rocks is only about 150yards. To bring these leading marks inline the lifeboat must turn to starboardafter launching and thence to port on toher north west course seawards.

The scene from the top of the slip-way was formidable at best. The heavynorth west swell, breaking over theCowloes and reinforced by the stormforce winds, was falling heavily into thearea across the lifeboat's launch path.It was here joined by the swell and tiderunning eastwards through the narrowneck of The Tribbens, and the resultwas a sea described as 'mad' and a'maelstrom' by launchers and localresidents. The general consensus ofopinion was that the last time the seawas even comparable for launching thelifeboat was in 1953 for the service toLiberty, and those who witnessed bothlaunches feel that, on November 16,1977, conditions were worse.

Although the state of the sea in theharbour on the night of November 16clearly exceeded that which has alwaysbeen recognised in the past as the limitfor launching. Nevertheless, by 1930,Coxswain Eric Pengilly had decidedthat they must try, and he climbedaboard. He was immediately followedby his crew, each man making a posi-tive decision to go; it was a calculatedrisk which was undertaken purely outof a supreme sense of duty.

At 1933 the lifeboat, the 37ft 6inRother Diana White, was lowereddown the slipway, clear of the boat-house doors, where she was held toallow Coxswain Pengilly time toobserve the behaviour of the sea andtry to establish some sort of patternwherein a relatively safe period couldbe predicted in which to launch. Afterten minutes it became apparent that nosuch period was likely to occur, so, at1943, the coxswain gave the order toslip and Diana White was launched.

Immediately on entering the water,the lifeboat was hit by short, steepwaves as she began her turn to star-board. Her green light became fullyopen to onlookers on the slipway, sothat it appeared that she must bethrown on to the rocky shore by thecontinuous pounding of seas whichobservers described as 'mountainous'.

Many of these people, who were stand-ing at the top of the slipway, rushed upthrough the boathouse to the road andthence along to the beach because theywere certain the boat would be drivenashore.

At this point Coxswain Pengilly wasstruggling hard to control his boat.More than one reliable eyewitnessstated that during this time the lifeboat

fe

The late Coxswain Eric Pengilly of SennenCove, awarded the silver medal for gallantryfor the sen-ice to Union Crystal.

'stood on end'. Acting Second Cox-swain Maurice Hutchens and CrewMember Phillip Shannon were standingon either side of the coxswain helpinghim to keep his position behind thewheel and to get the wheel over asrapidly as possible, while, as CaptainWatson described it, the lifeboat'reared, plunged and twisted', so that,at one moment she was actually head-ing for the Cowloe rocks. But the tideswept her eastwards and, with CrewMembers John Chope and John Fenderlooking aft and reporting the leadingmarks, Emergency Mechanic HedleyHutchings looking out ahead and theone non-regular volunteer crewmember, Cedric Johnson, in the radarseat, the three men behind the wheelfinally succeeded in bringing her headto sea and she gained her leadingmarks. From then on, as Captain Wat-son put it, she 'ploughed through thesurf on the bar and then set off on hermission with nothing more than thecomparative luxury of a force 10 tocontend with'.

At 2000 St Ives lifeboat, Frank Pen-fold Marshall, on her way to the area ofsearch encountered an exceptionallyheavy sea which threw MotorMechanic Philip Penberthy across thecockpit, striking his head and givinghim considerable discomfort andheadache for the rest of the service.

At about this time the Coastguardhad asked the tanker Texaco GreatBritain to co-ordinate the surfacesearch. St Ives lifeboat made for theoriginal position given and thensearched westwards towards TexacoGreat Britain. Both lifeboats thensearched under her direction, togetherwith other ships, illuminating the areafrom time to time with parachute flares,

searchlight, a new quartz-iodine hand-light and Aldis lamp.

HMS Penelope arrived at about 2130and was designated 'on scene com-mander'. Six ships, St Ives and SennenCove lifeboats and two helicopterswere now engaged. At 2200 they werejoined by a Nimrod aircraft whichbegan a creeping line ahead searchsouth westwards from the north east,and at 2226 the lifeboats wererequested to search downwind.

At 2234 the Nimrod sighted a liferaftcontaining one survivor, who was thenpicked up by helicopter. Thirteenminutes later a report from this helicop-ter stated that although six people hadleft the ship and all had been wearinglifejackets, only one liferaft had beenlaunched.

A quarter of an hour later the fishingvessel Pathfinder found wreckage inposition 50°22'N 05°31'w and thesearch area was moved north east-wards. Sennen Cove lifeboat was thenrecalled at 2317; from the informationreceived, there was virtually no hope offinding more survivors and the areawas now well saturated with searchcraft. Diana White could not, ofcourse, be recovered at Sennen and soshe made for Newlyn, arriving at 0120.

At midnight Texaco Great Britainwas given permission to go on her way.HMS Diomede joined at about that time,becoming 'on scene commander', andasking St Ives lifeboat to followPenelope and work with her, pickingup all possible wreckage. This thelifeboat did with great efficiency. Twomen were stationed in the forward welldeck with the hand light. Three werelooking out on the main deck, port andstarboard, using the searchlight andAldis lamp, while Motor MechanicPenberthy operated the radar and radioand stood beside Coxswain ThomasCocking on the wheel. The lifeboatstationed herself a hundred yardsastern of the naval ship, and whilePenelope illuminated wreckage withher 20in searchlight, port and star-board, the lifeboat crossed her stern toretrieve it. To do this, the lifeboatmenhad to lie on the deck, held by othercrew members, and any who were notalready thoroughly wet were soonmade so.

Frank Pen/old Marshall had recov-ered four lifepreservers plus wreckageby the time she was finally stood down,at 0200, and told to return to station.The merchant ships had been releasedan hour earlier.

The lifeboat was not rehoused until0400, but she launched in response toanother request for assistance fromHMS Diomede at 0900 to recover a bodyclose inshore down the coast. Thelifeboat suffered damage to both prop-ellers and her port shaft by strikingsubmerged wreckage in heavy swellson this occasion, necessitatingimmediate repairs. These, in turn,necessitated a further launch for engine

trials the following day, during whichthe lifeboat found and recoveredanother body. The sole survivor was,in fact, the master and he made a per-sonal visit to both St Ives and SennenCove lifeboat stations to thank thecoxswains concerned.

For this service the silver medal forgallantry was awarded to Eric Pengilly,Coxswain/Mechanic of Sennen Covelifeboat, who sadly died in January, afew weeks after this service. Thethanks of the Institution inscribed onvellum were accorded to Acting Sec-ond Coxswain Maurice Hutchens,Emergency Mechanic Hedley Hutch-ings and Crew Members Phillip Shan-non, John Chope, John Fender andCedric Johnson. The thanks of theInstitution inscribed on vellum werealso accorded to Coxswain ThomasCocking, Snr, of St Ives lifeboat andvellum service certificates have beenpresented to Acting SecondCoxswain/Assistant Mechanic DavidL. Smith, Motor Mechanic Philip P.Penberthy, Acting Assistant MechanicJohn B. Thomas, Signalman Eric T.Ward and Crew Members WilliamBenney and William Cocking.

Among letters received followingthis service was one from CaptainJames Summerlee, British Airways(Helicopters), who wrote of the SennenCove launch:

'May I, as a private individual,commend the integrity, skill andutmost bravery of those that tookpart . . . conditions for a Sennenlaunch could not have been morehazardous. Having crossed thatparticular piece of sea some 20,000times in the laft 13 years I can say Ihave never seen more violentweather and sea condition. Todecide to launch in those conditionsbecause of the peril of other marin-ers takes incredible courage. Tostep aboard a lifeboat and go intosuch a sea requires even greatercourage.

And the officer commanding HMSPenelope wrote to Coxswain Cockingof St Ives expressing the admiration ofhimself and his ship's company for thecoxswain's 'superb handling of thelifeboat and the devotion to duty' of thecrew, adding '. . .we watched you indetail for some considerable time andfound your performance to be out-standing'.

South Western Division

Surf ski riderHM COASTGUARD informed the deputylaunching authority of St Agnes ILBstation at 1626 on Sunday, July 17,1977, that a surf ski rider was in dif-ficulties off Porthtowan, about 3'/4miles south west from St Agnes. TheDLA fired the maroons and, at 1630,the 16ft inflatable ILB Blue Peter IV

was launched with helmsman DavidBliss in command; Barry Garland andRoger Radcliffe were his crew.

The wind was westerly fresh tostrong, force 5 to 6, with mist and rain,and a heavy surf running. The tide wasin the fourth hour of flood.

Because of the urgency of the situa-tion the ILB was driven at maximumspeed and, in spite of the prevailing seaconditions, averaged 13 knots over theground against a strong stream. Radiocontact was made en route with StAgnes Coastguard mobile who advisedthat the surfer had been located in FlatRocks Cove, a quarter of a mile northof Porthtowan beach.

The stranded casualty was a surf lifesaver. There being no members of thepublic on Porthtowan beach that daydue to the weather, he had gone intothe sea in a wet suit on a wave-rider skifor practice exercise. After about 20minutes in the water he had then beentaken unawares by a sudden increase insurf height from 2 to 3 feet to 7 to 8 feetaccompanied by a proportionateincrease in the undertow and a fiercenorthwards current. This swept himhelplessly up the coast unti l a particu-larly large wave washed him into FlatRocks Cove. He bounced off rocks onthe way in and landed on shingle at thehead of the cove.

The cove was surrounded by sheer150ft cliffs with an overhang at the top.The skier knew that the tide was only alittle past half flood and the waves werealready reaching the base of the cliffswhere he stood. He therefore attemp-ted to climb to safety, but a piece ofrock came away in his hand and he fell30 feet, breaking his wrist and landingin about a foot of water. He next triedto paddle the ski out and then triedswimming. Both proved impossible,however, and he then heard his col-leagues shouting from the cliff top thatthe ILB was on her way.

The surf started at about the 10fathom line over half a mile off shore.The ILB's shortest course was insidethis line and soon after passing ChapelPorth observers on the cliff top saw anexceptionally large wave of about 9 to10 feet begin to break on to the ILB.The helmsman immediately turnedhard-a-starboard and the ILB dug intothe bottom of the white water andemerged safely on the other side. Onemore similar wave had to be negotiatedin the same way before the ILB couldcontinue. On each occasion the twocrew members, Barry Garland andRoger Radcliffe, moved as far forwardas possible before entering the breakingwaves, and then immediately movedaft again to help the boat to regain herplaning attitude.

The ILB was directed to the cove bythe casualty's colleagues on the clifftop and the helmsman stood off theentrance assessing the chances of asuccessful entry and exit by the ILB, asopposed to rescue by other means. He

knew that there were many rocks justbelow the surface inside the cove aswell as those that were showing, andthat the passage between them was asnarrow as 9 or 10 feet. He also knewthat the heavy surf would be muchworse as it funnelled into the cove andthere would be no turning back onceapproaching the entrance. He wouldalso have to keep going fast if he was tokeep enough control of his boat in thenarrow channel, so use of anchor wasgoing to be out of the question. Havingcapsized in surf in the past due to theengine having stalled at the wrongmoment, he knew that everythingdepended upon the continued perform-ance of the engine. If it failed for anyreason inside the cove it was doubtfulwhether anyone would survive.

On the other hand, the casualty'sposition obviously did not allowenough time for the assembly of thecliff rescue team and their apparatus,while the overhang of the 150ft cliffsmade the chances of rescue by helicop-ter highly unlikely. Helmsman Blissdecided that the ILB represented thecasualty's best hope and he headed forthe cove.

So skilful was his control of the boatand so extensive was his experience ofoperating in surf that he chose the rightmoment between two waves and theright speeds and avoided all the rocksin his path throughout the entire 50yard length of the cove. He beachedthe ILB close to the injured man, whowas standing at the base of the cliffagainst which the waves were alreadywashing up to three feet deep.

The ILB crew immediately turnedthe boat head-to-sea again, put a sur-vivor's lifejacket on the casualty,embarked him and re-launched into thewaves.

David Bliss told Barry Garland andRoger Radcliffe to lie on the forwardcanopy, which they unhesitatingly did,and told the survivor to hold tight in thebottom of the boat. Then, using half tothree-quarters throttle, he successfullypicked his way once more between therocks and through surf averaging 10feet in height. It was a heavy, churningsurf, with some tops reaching 14 feet asit was magnified by the narrowness ofthe cove. The maximum distance be-tween crests in the cove was only 10yards, for much of the time the inter-vals were only a few feet, and therewere times when it was continuous.The boat filled with water, inevitably,and the helmsman says that, but for theself-bailers the engine would have beenswamped.

Observers on the cliff saw the ILBcompletely engulfed by many 10 feetdumping waves, with the two crewmenprostrate on the forward canopy toprevent the boat from capsizingend-over-end. They also saw the boatbecome airborne on the far side of thewaves, in spite of the very reducedthrottle.

As soon as he was clear of the worstof the surf, Helmsman Bliss turned theILB southwards and eventually rodethe back of a wave on to PorthtowanBeach, where the casualty was safelydisembarked and taken to hospital.

The ILB was re-launched at 1820 andas the weather had deteriorated stillfurther, returned to St Agnes at muchreduced throttle, arriving at 1845.

For this service the silver medal forgallantry has been awarded toHelmsman P. David Bliss. The thanksof the Institution inscribed on vellumhave been accorded to Crew MembersBarry Garland and Roger Radcliffe.

South Western Division

Oil rig agroundST PETER PORT SIGNALS STATIONreceived an 'all ships' warning at about1900 on Wednesday, February 1, 1978,saying that, at 1850, Orion had partedfrom the German tug Seefalke in posi-tion 49°39'N, 03°08'w, and was drifting.The honorary secretary of the lifeboatstation was informed and he alerted thecrew who assembled in the boathouse.

The St John Ambulance mobile radarwas despatched to Pleinmont Point toplot bearings and positions. The honor-ary secretary and Coxswain John Petitwent to the Port Signals Station tomonitor the situation on VHP and plotthe casualty.

Strong efforts were being made toreconnect the tow and it was expectedfor a long time that they would suc-ceed. The rate of drift of the casualty,which was an oil rig being towed fromRotterdam to Brazil, had been given as1 V: knots, and it was not clear whethershe would pass north or south ofGuernsey. By about 2040, however, ithad become apparent from Decca posi-tions given by the tug that the rig hadbeen drifting much faster, and VHF/DFbearings confirmed that she was in factheading for the north west shore. Cox-swain Petit therefore decided to inter-cept her by passing round the north endof the island, and he went to theboathouse.

At 2100 the 52ft Barnett relieflifeboat The John Gellatly Hyndman,on temporary duty at St Peter Port,slipped from her moorings in the har-bour with Coxswain Petit in command.

The wind was west north west,strong gale to storm force 9 to 10, thenight was dark, visibili ty was fair withrain showers, and the tide was at halfflood.

The lifeboat steamed at her full speedof 9 knots and encountered high seas assoon as she was clear of the lee of thenorth end of the island. The numerouslights of the oil rig were sighted about6'/2 miles ahead at about 2205.

The four legs and platform of Orionwere mounted on a tanker hul l , withthe legs extending to about 250 feet

above the waterline. The wind was nowgusting to violent storm, force 11, anddriving the rig before it at 6 knots. Thefore and aft line of the hull was in linewith the wind, stern to the wind, andleaving such a wake that she appearedto be under way. At 2230 her skipperasked how long it would be before hewas aground and, on being told 'half anhour' replied that he wished toevacuate the rig.

The lifeboat fell in astern of her at2235 but it was ten minutes before shewas able to make radio contact withthe casualty to inform her that thelifeboat was now on her port quarterready to take off survivors. MeanwhileCoxswain Petit feared that the rigwould strike the rocks of the NorthWest Grunes and capsize. She in factjust missed them but the tug Seefalke,only 200 yards on the lifeboat's portbeam, did touch them. The coxswaintook the lifeboat in for as close a lookas possible at means of getting the crewoff the rig and experienced loss of con-trol at a critical moment when bothengines stalled as he put them astern.Fortunately, Assistant MechanicRobert Vowles restarted themimmediately, which was in time to pre-vent the lifeboat from over-running thelow stern of the tanker hul l , over whichseas were washing completely at times.

When the lifeboat was finally able toadvise Orion of her presence on herquarter the skipper replied that hewould lower a scrambling net from hishelicopter landing platform, which pro-jected about 50 feet clear of the portside of the hu l l . It was supportedbeneath by numerous struts, and, fromits outboard end, about 30 feet abovethe waterline, the scrambling net waslowered. This net was designed for usefrom the platform when raised in itsusual position up the legs of the rig.Now 60 feet of it trailed in the sea,beside the lifeboat, threatening herpropellers.

Two men crawled out across theplatform and began to descend on theinside of the scrambling net, presentingthe lifeboat with a seemingly impossi-ble manoeuvring problem to get atthem. Coxswain Petit, with only a 3knot advantage over the casualty butwith very litt le time left to effect arescue, closed the net as it fortuitouslytwisted sideways so that four lifeboat-men could drag one man aboard. Asthey did so, the net caught on thelifeboat's anchor fluke and guardrailsjust as the lifeboat dipped into a trough.The net snapped taut catapulting theother man into the sea. The fouled netswung the lifeboat in towards thetanker hull. Fortunately a lifeboat-man managed to free the net and thecoxswain was able to go full ahead andhard-a-port to avoid hi t t ing the casual-ty's side. At the same moment, how-ever, the lifeboat lifted on a wave, hermast hit the underside of the platform,breaking off at its base and crashing ontop of the starboard side of the

8

wheelhouse, missing everyone ondeck. The MF aerials stopped the radarscanner, breaking its belt drive anddamaging its forward fairing so that itfilled with water. The net tangled in theDF loop as it passed aft, carrying theloop away.

Coxswain Petit stopped the lifeboatas soon as she was clear, going asternwhile the crew threw a line to the manin the water and dragged him aboardwith great difficulty. Fortunately hewas not a big man. The rig had driftedon and the lifeboat now saw it bounceover an offshore rock and then run hardaground a minute later, remaininglevel. It was just after 2300.

There was no means of identifyingthe exact position at this time and thelifeboat crew in fact thought the rig washalf a mile further south than it eventu-ally proved to be. It was not until policecar lights on shore illuminated somefamiliar landmarks that Coxswain Petitwas able to establish the exact positionamong the rocks of this most hazardouslee shore. He could see, however, thatwith the casualty now apparentlyaground on a fairly even keel, theimmediate danger to the crew wasover. When, therefore, St Peter PortSignals Station reported that a SeaKing helicopter was expecting to arriveat 2340, Coxswain Petit advised Orionnot to attempt more evacuation by sea.

The lifeboat's VHF was stil l workingand she used it to report the rig's exactlocation. She then received instruc-tions to guide the helicopters in withparachute flares and this was duly doneat about 2350.

It was impossible for the helicoptersto land on the platform and the lifeboatstood by for three more hours while amost hazardous series of lifts was car-ried out by the Sea Kings. Their rotorblades were seemingly wi th in a few feetof the rig's legs in the gusting winds,while the winchmen swung the width ofthe platform. The survivors could notstand but had to crawl out on to theplatform, as the casualty haddeveloped a 9 degree list before oncemore becoming steady.

At 0245. after they had taken 25 sur-vivors off, the helicopters decided thatlifting conditions had become sodangerous that, with Orion now safelyjammed into the rocks, the evacuationof the remaining six men should bedeferred until conditions improved.The lifeboat then departed for St PeterPort with her two survivors.

Her VHF now failed, so that she waswithout any radio communications orradar for the difficult passage out fromshore and around the north coast.Communication with St Peter Port wasfaintly re-established at 0350, using ajury-rigged MF aerial, and hospitaltransport was requested on arrival forthe man who had been in the water.

The lifeboat landed her survivors atabout 0420 and returned to hermoorings at 0430.

Oil rig Orion went agroundon the north west shore ofGuernsey on February I .On Friday February 10 itwas thought she was adrift:in fact, she had parted fromher barge, which had sunk,but was still held aground byher legs. Her salvage crewof six were at considerablerisk as the rig might havebecome unstable, so TheJohn Gellatly Hyndman,the 52ft relief Barnettlifeboat on temporary dutyat St Peter Port, launchedtotake them off. The wind waseast north east strong galeforce 9 and the sea was veryrough; it was one hourbefore high water, top ofsprings. The weather wasovercast with snow flurries.The six men were safelytaken off.photograph by courtesy of

Brian Green

For this service the silver medal forgallantry has been awarded to Cox-swain John H. Petit. The thanks of theInst i tut ion inscribed on vellum havebeen accorded to Deputy CoxswainLloyd de Mouilpied, Motor MechanicEric C. Pattimore, Assistant MechanicRobert Vowles and Crew MembersMichael Scales, Robert Hamon, JohnWebster and John Robilliard.

South Western Division

Storm towTORBAY DEPUTY L A U N C H I N G AUTHOR-ITY saw the 35ft pilot cutter Leslie Hleaving Brixham Harbour at 1145 onSunday, February 19, 1978. Theweather was so bad that heimmediately became concerned for hersafety and alerted the Coastguard andthe lifeboat coxswain, who summoneda crew by telephone to stand by in theboathouse.

The wind was east south east force 9to 10. It had been blowing from aneasterly direction at gale or severe galeforce, gusting to storm force, for morethan 30 hours. Visibility was poor, withrain, and the tide was in the third hourof flood.

At 1230 a 'mayday' was receivedfrom Leslie H saying her steering wasjammed, she was drifting southwards1 '/4 miles east of Berry Head andrequired the lifeboat. The Coastguardrang the boathouse.

Three minutes later the 54ft Arunlifeboat Edward Bridges (Civil ServiceNo. 37) slipped from her moorings inBrixham Harbour with CoxswainGeorge Dyer in command.

On clearing the breakwater, the seaswere such that the lifeboat could aver-

age only 10 knots. Her tall orangesuperstructure became visible to thecasualty long before the dark low pro-file of Leslie H could be seen from thelifeboat and the captain of the strickenvessel was able to con his rescuerstowards himself.

Coxswain George Dyer brought thelifeboat alongside the pilot cutter at1250 on the first attempt, in 30ft waveswith breaking crests, and immediatelyher two crewmen were safely takenaboard over the lifeboat's port side, thecaptain preferring to remain and securea tow line from the lifeboat. Thepilot cutter's rudders were jammedhard-a-starboard and her position wasnow about one mile south east of BerryHead. Fifty-six fathoms of 3'/2Jn nylontow rope was veered out and a slowtow was begun on a course of north byeast to gain an offing around BerryHead.

The tow proved very difficult anderratic, with the casualty's jammedrudders constantly yawing her to star-board so that the lifeboat's throttleshad frequently to be put into neutral toreduce the speed of tow.

It was necessary to control thelifeboat from the upper conning posi-tion (UCP) on the flying bridge whiletowing and, after the towing procedurehad been established, CoxswainGeorge Dyer handed the wheel to Sec-ond Coxswain Keith Bower withDeputy Coxswain Arthur Curnow onhis starboard hand to attend to thethrottles. Coxswain Dyer returned tothe flying bridge two minutes later andstood on its port side, next to the sec-ond coxswain, to give a course alter-ation to north by west at 1302, as thetow was now clear of Berry Head. Theintention was to make gradual altera-tions in a long sweeping arc to port in

order to coax the erratic tow slowlyround for a southerly approach courseinto Brixham Harbour, using thedeepest part of the bay in which toturn .

After about eight minutes on thiscourse the lifeboat was approaching the20 metre l ine. Apart from the three onthe flying bridge, there were two othermen on deck. Crew Member John Ash-ford was immediately aft of the flyingbridge standing between the handrailsof the walkway leading aft on top of thesuperstructure, while Crew MemberRon Bradford was on the after deck, toport of the watertight door to the radiocabin (which was shu t ) and holding thestarboard handrail of the ladder leadingto the upper walkway and UCP.

Acting Motor Mechanic John Hun-kin and Acting Assistant MechanicBrian Caunter were both inside theradio cabin with the two men alreadytaken off the casualty. All crew mem-bers were wearing lifejackets and crashhelmets.

At 1310 Coxswain Dyer ordered bothengines into neutral as the pilot cuttersheered once more to starboard. Thelifeboat lost way and the windimmediately veered her beam-on to thesea. A moment later, a freak wave of 30to 35 feet with an additional 12 feetbreaking to top. suddenly appeared onthe starboard beam of the lifeboat.John Ashford saw it coming, turned toface it and ducked down with his armslocked under the handrail in front ofhim and his back braced against thehandrail behind him.

All crew members say that the waveseemed to push the lifeboat slowly overto port and laterally through the wateras it hit and broke on to her beam. Thecoxswain on the port side of the UCP,just abaft the helmsman's position,glimpsed the radar scanner turning inthe water before he himself was com-pletely submerged for two or three sec-onds. Second Coxswain Bower, behindthe wheel, stood on the port bulkheadof the UCP and was partially in thewater. He estimates that the watercame within a foot of the centreline ofthe UCP. Deputy Coxswain Curnow onthe starboard side looked down from abraced horizontal position.

Ron Bradford held hard on to theafter ladder and met the sea a fewinches from his face, while John Ash-ford found himself floating astern.

In the after cabin, Acting MotorMechanic Hunkin remained in his seatand Acting Assistant MechanicCaunter was thrown back against theport bulkhead with one of the survivorslanding on top of him.

All agreed that the lifeboat seemed tostay in that position for a few secondsbefore coming up again. This impres-sion was also confirmed by anothercrew member, who, having arrived atthe boathouse as the lifeboat slipped,had gone to watch the operation fromthe top of Berry Head. He had in fact

seen from this vantage point theapproach of the exceptional wave andhad just remarked to a companion thatit would do some damage to thelifeboat. He then saw the lifeboat'sorange superstructure completely dis-appear and a column of spray rising 90feet from where she had been. He esti-mates it was almost five seconds beforethe lifeboat's orange top reappeared.The captain of the casualty saw theentire keel of the lifeboat and both herscrews.

As the lifeboat righted herself, Cox-swain Dyer found that his glasses andone seaboot had been washed away.He heard the shout of 'man over-board!' and immediately dashed aft,kicking off his other seaboot as hewent.

The tow rope had slackened andJohn Ashford had managed to grab it.Then it was wrenched from his grasp asthe sea snapped it taught again. Assoon as it again slackened, the cox-swain seized it and flicked it backtowards John Ashford, who this timewas able to hold on. Then GeorgeDyer, Ron Bradford and Arthur Cur-now pulled him alongside and it tooktheir combined strengths to hoist himon board, although he is only an aver-age sized man.

Second Coxswain Bower, mean-while, had been trying to move thelifeboat astern to assist in recoveringJohn Ashford, but, unrealised by any-one, the mercury cut-out switches forthe fuel pumps had been activated andthe engines were reduced to idlingspeed and would not respond to anythrottle movements. He shouted to thecoxswain on the after deck whoimmediately opened the after door andinformed John Hunkin, who, realisingwhat had happened, went forward intothe wheelhouse to operate the re-setswitch for the mercury cut-outs on thefuel pumps.

As soon as full operation of theengines was restored Coxswain Dyerdecided that the captain of the cuttermust be transferred to the lifeboat. Thelifeboat was therefore taken astern andthe skipper taken off his bow on to thelifeboat's port quarter.

The tow was resumed but shortlyafterwards, at 1320, it parted and Cox-swain Dyer wisely decided the derelictshould be abandoned. She later cap-sized and sank under the cliffs of BerryHead.

The lifeboat was now able toincrease speed to 12 knots and landedthe three survivors unharmed at Brix-ham at 1330. John Ashford was takento hospital suffering from shock,exposure and strained arm muscles,but was allowed home five hours later.

A consensus of crew and outsideobserver opinions, combined with aconsideration of the parts of thelifeboat's superstructure immersed inthe sea on the port side, place the bestestimate of the maximum roll at 110degrees.

The pilot cutter had intended to tryto take a Channel pilot off a west-bound container ship. The pilot wasobliged to continue to New York, allother pilot stations being closed.

For this service the bronze medal hasbeen awarded to Coxswain GeorgeDyer and medal service certificateshave been presented to Second Cox-swain Keith Bower, Deputy CoxswainArthur Curnow, Acting MotorMechanic John Hunk in , Acting Assis-tant Mechanic Brian Caunter and CrewMembers Ronald Bradford and JohnAshford.

South Western Division

Jack-up bargeAN 'ADVISE LAUNCH' from HM Coast-guard was received by the honorarysecretary of Falmouth lifeboat stationat 2128 on Monday, November 28,1977, to take off the six-man crew ofthe jack-up barge Mer d'Iroise, in towof the tug Englishman about 11 mileseast of the Lizard. The tow was on pas-sage from Le Havre to the Menai Straitand the tugmaster had become con-cerned for the stability of theoblong-shaped jack-up barge under theexisting weather conditions; it had fourlegs extending 70 feet above deck level,one at each corner.

At 2145 the 50ft Thames class relieflifeboat Rotary Service, on temporaryduty at Falmouth, slipped from hermoorings with Coxswain Arthur Westin command.

The wind was north east near gale togale, force 7 to 8, visibility was goodand the tide was at half ebb.

Lizard Coastguard could now see thelights of the casualty and FalmouthCoastguard gave the lifeboat an inter-ception course of 170°M.

The lifeboat set course at her fullspeed of 17 knots and VHP communica-tion on Channel 16 was establishedbetween the casualty and the lifeboat atabout 2155. Lights and radar contactswere picked up soon afterwards, aboutnine miles ahead, and the tugmastereventually reported that he could seethe lifeboat's blue flashing light. Therebeing more than two vessels ahead ofthe lifeboat, and Coxswain West notbeing certain of which heading the towwas now on, the tug was requested toidentify herself by illumination, whichshe duly did. After being once misledby the lights of another vessel, thelifeboat was eventually able to home inon the tow and make rendezvous withthe barge at 2230 about eight miles eastof the Lizard.

The tow was making about 5 to 6knots on a south west heading, thetugmaster being unwilling to expose thebarge to a beam sea while her crewwere still on board as it was feared shemight then capsize.

The barge was roughly 110ft long by70ft wide, and her four legs extended 40

10

feet below the surface as well as 70 feetabove, although this fact was notknown to the lifeboat at the time. Theheavy following seas were breakingover the stern of the barge so that herdecks were awash.

Coxswain West took the lifeboataround the stern of the tow and came inon her port side amidships. The bargewas pitching quite heavily so that herlegs were moving through an arc ofabout 30 degrees. She was also yawingconsiderably, and keeping the lifeboatheld fast alongside was a difficult taskof co-ordination complicated stillfurther by the lifeboat's frequent ten-dency to surf in the following seas.

The casualty's crew were all wearinglifejackets and ready to abandon. Thelifeboat crew waited for the appropriatemoments and then told them when tojump. Each man was safely pulledaboard in turn by the lifeboat crew inan operation lasting a number ofminutes without either damage to thelifeboat or injury to any of the sixevacuees. In the prevailing wind andsea conditions, with the barge pitching,rolling and yawing quite dangerously,this was a considerable feat of seaman-ship and determination.

Transfer of the men to the tug wasconsidered but it was decided that it

would be too hazardous to attempt.The lifeboat therefore returned withthem to Falmouth and the tug with hertow waited off Falmouth to pick themup again next day.

The barge crew all were landed atFalmouth at midnight and one sick manwas transferred to hospital. Thelifeboat returned to her mooring at0024.

For this service the bronze medal hasbeen awarded to Coxswain Arthur C.West and medal service certificateshave been presented to AssistantMechanic Ronald F. Twydle and CrewMembers J. H. Mitchell, R. Prynn, R.Andrew and A. Barnes.

South Western Division

Sails blown outRED FLARES SIGHTED in the vicinity ofLes Hanois Lighthouse were reportedto the honorary secretary of St PeterPort lifeboat station at 2215 on Friday,November 11, 1977. A quarter of anhour later the 52ft Arun lifeboat SirWilliam Arnold slipped her mooringsin St Peter Port Harbour.

The wind was west south west,strong gale force 9, gusting to violent

storm force 11, with heavy rain squalls.The spring tide was in the fourth hourof ebb.

Sir William Arnold maintained herfull speed of 19 knots until she roundedSt Martins Point. Then, with the tideebbing directly against the wind at 5knots, very rough seas were encoun-tered, so that Coxswain John Petitfound it frequently necessary to easethe throttles to about 9 knots whencresting the larger waves. Visibilitybecame so restricted by driving spraythat navigation was mainly dependentupon radar and the Decca Navigator.

The Port Signal Station told thelifeboat at 2244 that a police car atPleinmont Point had reported red flaresfairly close to that position. CoxswainPetit therefore kept as close to theshore as possible on his approach andthe lifeboat had even heavier breakingseas to negotiate as she crossed thenumerous shoals in the area. The policecar then reported that they could see asmall light about a mile south of Plein-mont Point, and a French naval vessel,Detroyat, said she had seen red flaresand was going in their direction.

At 2317 the lifeboat saw a red flareahead. Soon afterwards a small whitelight could be seen to the south and thelifeboat altered course towards it. It

Rotary Service, the 50ft Thames relief lifeboat on temporary duty atFalmouth, at sea in easterly storm force winds when, on February

19, she stood by the Indian cargo ship State of Kerala/or nearly fourhours awaiting the arrival of a salvage tug.

photograph by courtesy of Cornish Photonews

r

was visible only from time to time be-tween the swells and, a few minuteslater, the lifeboat found that it was thecabin light of the 25ft sloop-riggedyacht Cunopns. Her position wasimmediately south east of PleinmontLedge, about half a mile offshore, andshe was wallowing, bows south, with-out power. Her mainsail was gone andher jib was shortened to about threefeet. Coxswain Petit went to the upperconning position and he noted that thewind had veered to west by south butits force was being maintained.

The lifeboat approached the yacht'sport side and could then see that thoseon board were sheltering in the cabin.There were three men and one woman,who was the only one who could speaksome English. They were asked to puttheir lifejackets on before an attemptwas made to take them on board thelifeboat.

Deputy Coxswain Peter Bougourdand Crew Member Robert Hamonstationed themselves in the starboardwaist to receive the survivors, whileAssistant Mechanic Bob Vowles andCrew Member John Webster preparedto take them inboard and MotorMechanic Eric Pattimore manned theradio and radar.

The sea condition here was evenworse than elsewhere because of theproximity of Pleinmont Ledge overwhich the seas were lifting and break-ing. The yacht was being tossed in alldirections by the heavy breaking seasand by the wind, and it was a mostexacting task to bring the two vesselssafely together.

Nevertheless the casualty's occu-pants were successfully evacuated, oneat a time, in four successive alongsides,each lasting only seconds before theyacht bounced clear 20 to 30 feet oneach occasion. It took all the strengththat Peter Bougourd and RobertHamon could muster to pull the largestof the men aboard and the twolifeboatmen were themselves in dangerof being pulled over the side duringthese operations.

All four survivors were taken belowand given dry blankets in place of theirwet clothes, while the lifeboatmen ondeck threw a grapnel aboard the yachtin an attempt to tow her to St PeterPort. The grapnel soon pulled out,however, and Coxswain Petit wiselyabandoned her and returned as fast aspossible with the survivors, who werein complete agreement with his deci-sion. They had been bound for St PeterPort from St Malo and had almostreached the lee of St Martins Pointwhen the storm blew their sails out andthe strong spring ebb carried themwestwards.

On arrival at St Peter Port at 0037,the survivors were landed in care of theSt John Ambulance and The Ship-wrecked Mariners' Society, thelifeboat returning to her moorings by0115.

12

For this service a second bar to thebronze medal has been awarded toCoxswain John H. Petit and the thanksof the Institution inscribed on vellumhave been accorded to Deputy Cox-swain Peter N. Bougourd and CrewMember Robert Hamon. Medal servicecertificates have been presented toMotor Mechanic Eric Pattimore, Assis-tant Mechanic Robert Vowles andCrew Member John Webster.

Eastern Division

Four callsSHOEBURYNESS COASTGUARD sighted afishing boat off West Shoebury Beaconexhibiting a distress signal at 1550 onMonday, June 6, 1977. The auto-klaxonto Southend-on-Sea ILB boathouse wassounded and the duty crew prepared tolaunch. Meanwhile the Coastguardtelephoned the honorary secretary ofthe station, who agreed to the launchand made his way to the boathouse onthe pier.

The wind was southerly, strong galeforce 9, with a short, heavy sea. Highwater Southend was predicted at 1743.The afternoon was overcast with poorvisibility in rain showers.

Southend's Atlantic 21, PercyGaron, launched at 1552 and headedeastward for Shoebury Beacon where a19ft open boat, Kelly, was found atanchor at 1606. The three-mile passagewas made in appalling conditions, withthrottles having to be eased at nearlyevery sea. The three fishermen told thecrew that their engine had broken downand that water was being taken over thegunwales, but they did not want toleave their boat.

The ILB was now in open waters inthe full weight of the gale, recorded atthe boathouse as gusting to 45 knots,and the crew agreed to attempt a towinto the shore. A line was passed andthe tow began towards Shoebury eastbeach. Although the sea moderated inthe shallower water, there was still aheavy ground swell. The boat wasmoored some half mile offshore and thethree men transferred to the ILB. TheHMCG mobile reported heavy onshoresurf and Helmsman Robert Fossettasked that the beach area be cleared:he then beached the Atlantic 21 at halfspeed, landing the survivors safely at1648. The ILB was turned andrefloated with some difficulty, the crewbeing soaked through by this time, andcourse was set for station.

At 1700 the Coastguard requestedthat the ILB pick up the ex-lifeboatcoxswain, Peter Gilson, and twofishermen, at the pier and take them tothe Leigh Ray where the fishing boatAnja was seen to have parted one ofher mooring warps in the gale. The menwere aboard at 1730, after one ILBcrew member had been changed at thepier.

The ILB intended to stand by thefishing boat but at 1753 the Coastguardreported red flares at Sea Reach No. 1Buoy and the ILB immediately setcourse eastward, arriving on scene at1809. Sheerness lifeboat, the 44ftWaveney Helen Titrnbiill, had alsobeen launched to this casualty, a 28ftsloop which was undamaged but incap-able of weathering the severe condi-tions. All six people on board were wetand exhausted and the Southend crewtransferred four young boys to the ILBfor safety. Sheerness lifeboat arrived at1812 and took all survivors aboard: atow was passed with the help of aSouthend crew member placed aboardthe yacht, and the tow began to Sheer-ness. The ILB retrieved her third crewmember and stood by the tow unt i l , at1840, another yacht fired red flaresnear East Cant Buoy.

Cogneto, a 26ft yacht, had run out offuel and, being single-handed, couldnot be successfully sailed in the galeforce winds. One ILB crew memberwas put aboard to help the owner, whowas very tired, a towline was made fastand the ILB stemmed wind and tideunti l Sheerness lifeboat returned at1945 to take over the casualty.

At 2000 the ILB headed east again totake off the crew of Anja but wasdiverted to a cabin yacht in Leigh Raywhich had split her storm jib and hadno engine. She was anchored by theILB crew and her three people weretaken aboard the ILB at 2100.

The ILB returned to Southendboathouse at 2145 after being continu-ously at sea for six hours. Only then didHelmsman Fossett say that he hadbeen having difficulty with engine con-trols. Although the crew had justreturned from a long service theyworked with the shore party to makesure that the defect was remediedbefore they left the boathouse: the ILBwas reported ready for service at 2300.The radio handset had been continuallywet and reception was poor, but afterdrying out, it was in full working order.

For this service the thanks of theInstitution inscribed on vellum havebeen accorded to Helmsman RobertFossett and vellum service certificateshave been presented to Crew MembersPaul Gilson, Stewart Green andMichael Green.

North Western Division

Saved yachtBEAUMARIS HONORARY SECRETARYwas informed by Penmon Coastguardat 0943 on Saturday, Ju ly 23, 1977, thatthe skipper of Rossekop, on passagefrom Glasson Dock to Amsterdam andnow 20 miles north east of Point Lynas,was injured and that the remaining sixcrew members were suffering fromseasickness. Maroons were fired and at

continued on page 33

During a two-day visit in April to AtlanticCollege. Si Donat's. HRH Prince Charles,now president of the International Councilof United World Colleges, went out in thestation's Atlantic 21 ILB. //<• was shown thecontrols before going afloat and took overthe helm for a 20-minnle run in the BristolChannel.

photograph by courtesy of•Western Mail

(Below) Two Girl Guide brass trefoils, pre-sented to Eastney ILB station by 29thPortsmouth Guide Company, have beenchrome plated and fitted to the console ofAtlantic 21 Guide Friendship II.

Inshore Lifeboats

The Lions Club of St Ives successfully completed its mostambitions project yet when, during 1977. it raised themoney to pay for a new D Class ILB. At a service ofdedication on Easter Saturday led by The ReverendDi.uglas Freeman. \'icar of St Ives. the boat. Lion Cub I,was presented to St Ives ILB station by Geoffrey Kitchen.Lion Club president, and received on behalf of the Institu-tion by Cdr Jeremy Tetley, a member of the Committee ofManagement.

photograph by courtesy of S. Bennetts

(Below) Port Isaac's new D Class ILB was dedicated onEaster Sunday by the Vicar of Port Isaac, The ReverendF. J. W. Maddock. She was the gift of Cornwall andIsles of Scilly Round Tables and was presented by theirarea chairman. John Girdle stone. Surgeon CaptainBaskerville. branch chairman, a vice-president of theInstitution and chairman of the Medical and SurvivalCommittee, received the boat on behalf of the RNLI.

photograph by courtesy of Alice Dutton

Despite gale force winds and driving rain, about 1.000people attended the service of dedication on April JO ofAbersoch's new Atlantic 21, Wolverhampton. The ILB,together with her tractor and boathtntse, provided b\Wolverhampton lifeboat appeal, was presented byCouncillor Mrs Jessie Beddoes, Mayor of Wolverhamp-ton, who unveiled a commemorative plaque. The cere-mony was followed by tea at South CaernarvonshireYacht Club, provided by South Caernarfonshire ladies'guild, during which guests watched Wolverhampton onexercise with a helicopter from RAF Valley.

photograph by courtesy of Peter Westley

13

Matthew Lethbridge, Junior,BEM

Coxswain of St Mary's Lifeboat

THE ONLY LIFEBOATMAN AT PRESENT SERVING TOHAVE BEEN AWARDED THREE SILVER MEDALS FOR

GALLANTRY

by Joan Davies'Grandfather . . . he was coxswainbefore Dad; and my Uncle Jim andDad were both in the lifeboat with him.At one time, Dad was coxswain, myuncle was second coxswain, I was thebowman and my two brothers Harryand Richard, and my cousin, James,were in her as well. When my unclefinished—he was a bit older thanDad—/ went second coxswain with myfather . . . then, a few years after Ibecame coxswain myself, my cousin,he went second coxswain with me for aspell. . . .'

The lifeboat tradition of family ser-vice at its best has flourished on theIsles of Scilly; a look at the family treeon this page makes that plain. For threegenerations, spanning 64 years, therehas been a Lethbridge at the wheel ofSt Mary's lifeboat: first, the eldestJames Thomas Lethbridge, from 1914to 1925; then Matthew Lethbridge, Snr,BEM, 'Father Matt', from 1925 to 1956;now Matthew 'Matt' Lethbridge, Jnr,BEM, coxswain since 1956. Grand-father, father and son. Moreover, at notime since 1919 have there been fewerthan two Lethbridges in the crew; for alittle while there were six. Serving withMatt now are his two brothers: Harry,who has been assistant mechanic since1965, and Richard, who has been bow-man since 1952. And the awards for gal-lantry made during these years reflectthe fine quality of the service given.

When the young Matt Lethbridgetook over from his father in 1956 he hadindeed been set a high standard to fol-low. He was, however, already a sea-man of exceptional experience. For thewhole of his life he had known, fromopen boats, the waters round the 48islands which make up the Scilliestogether with 'the above water andsunken rocks', as the 'West Coast ofEngland Pilot' sums them up, '. . . toonumerous to admit of description'. Hehad been out working in boats roundthe islands, fishing, crabbing, layingdown lobster pots . . . During the warhe had served in the high speed boats ofthe RAF Air Sea Rescue Service in sta-tions as far apart as Stranraer, Inver-gordon, Bridlington (where he came toknow Coxswain Tom Hutchinsonwell), Africa—and even, yes, the Sci-llies! The war over Matt returned hometo St Mary's and, joining the lifeboatcrew, served an 'apprenticeship', just

as his grandfather and father had donebefore him, as crew member, bowmanand second coxswain.

It meant a great deal to Matt, thatwhen he took command in his earlythirties, not only the younger membersof the crew, but the older men as wellreadily gave him their full confidence.He still sets great store by the fact thathis father, who continued for manyyears as head launcher, came out in hiscrew on one service; and he stillremembers a day, soon after he hadtaken over, when, as he was on his waydown to the boathouse to go out onexercise, one of the older men, whohad been in his father's crew, stoppedhim and said: 'If you're short-handedat any time, I'll go with 'ee, boy.'

Matthew Lethbridge prefers to keepmore or less the same crew. As heexplains:

'There's a lot to be said for being thesame crowd in the boat all the time. Youlearn to trust each other more, I think.With length of experience, perhaps a simi-lar incident will turn up again and youhave learned from the first time. If youhave too many people on the crew list,some of them have got to be left behind onthe slip—and that after they have perhapsturned out of bed and run down to the

JAMES THOMAS

boathouse in a gale of wind, when it'sblowing and raining.'

So, at St Mary's now there is onecrew. The shore helpers know that theyare second in line, in reserve, and thereare plenty of other seamen on theislands who would be willing to go outif they were wanted.

Changes in the crew are few:'/ am quite pleased about that,' Matt

has to admit. 'Proud in a way. Apart fromone chap who joined the boat recentlywhen one of the older members retired, Idon't suppose there is anybody in the boatwho hasn't been there for 12 years atleast. Most of them have been there 20 or30 years. I have always had a goodexperienced crew. They have all been atsea and earned their living by fishing orboating at some time. Some are perma-nent workers ashore now, but in a placelike this there is always the sea and thereare always the boats. . . . "

It is interesting to look at the crewlists for the three St Mary's services inrecent years for which the silver medalfor gallantry was awarded: the serviceto Braemar, in 1967; to Nordanhav in1970; and to Enfant de Bretagne in1977. Five names appear each time:Coxswain Matthew Lethbridge, Jnr,three silver medals; Second CoxswainErnest Roy Guy and Motor MechanicWilliam Burrow, bronze medals in 1967and 1970, vellums in 1977; AssistantMechanic William Harry Lethbridgeand Crew Member Rodney Terry,three vellums. Bowman Richard Leth-bridge was in the crew in 1967 and1970, and Crew Member GeorgeSymons in 1967 and 1977. The remain-ing places were taken by FrederickWoodcock (1967), Leslie Green (1970)and Roy Duncan (1977). For each ser-vice, all crew members, except thosereceiving medals, were accorded thethanks of the Institution inscribed onvellum.LETHBRIDGE

coxswain 1914-1925second coxswain 1901-1914bowman 1897-1901

vellum, 1927, service to SS Concordiaof Genoa

JAMES THOMAS LETHBRIDGEsecond coxswain 1927-1949bowman 1925-1927

bronze medal and Italian bronze med-al, 1927, service to Italian SS teatoo

vellum, 1945, service to American libertyship Jonas Lie

MATTHEW LETHBRIDGEcoxswainsecond coxswainbowman

Senior, BEM1925-19561920-19251919-1920

JAMES THOMASsecond coxswainjoined crew

LETHBRIDGE1960-1963

1947

silver medal and Italian silver medal, 1927, service toItalian SS /sabo

vellum, 1945, service to American liberty ship JonasLie

bronze medal, 1955, service to Panamanian SSMando

MATTHEW LETHBRIDGE Junior, BEM1956-1950-19561946-1949

1946

1955, service to

coxswainsecond coxswainbowmanjoined crew

medal service certificate,Panamanian SS Mando

chairman's letter to coxswain and crew, 1967, ser-vice to Torrey Canyon of Monrovia

silver medal, 1967, service to yacht Braemarbar to silver medal, 1970, service to Swedish MV

Nordanhavvellum, 1972, service to yacht Moronelsecond bar to silver medal, 1977, service to

French MFV Enfant de Bretagne

WILLIAM HARRYLETHBRIDGEassistant mechanic 1965-joined crew 1947

medal service certificate,1955, service to PanamanianSS Mando

vellum, 1967, service to yachtBraemar

veltum, 1970, service toSwedish MV Nordanhav

vellum, 1977, service to FrenchMFV Enfant de Bretagne

RICHARDbowmanjoined crew

medal service

LETHBRIDGE1952-1946

certificate,1955, service to PanamanianSS Mando

vellum, 1967, service to yachtBraemar

vellum, 1970, service toSwedish MV Nordanhav

14

Second Coxswain Roy Guy, whowas a crew member at the time of theservice to ss Mando (1955) andreceived a medal service certificate,also comes from a lifeboat family; hisfather had served for a few years asbowman and then second coxswain inthe 1920s: his grandfather was in thecrew wi th Mail's grandfather—but thatwas in the days of pulling and sailinglifeboats.

Matthew Lethbridge Junior's yearsas coxswain coincide almost exactlywith the time that Guy and Clare Hunt-er, a 46ft 9in housed slipway Watsonclass lifeboat, has been stationed at StMary's. Matt , then second coxswain,was one of the delivery crew whobrought her to her station just after shewas bu i l t , in 1955: as she was not called

Guy and Clare Hunter , in gale force winds, standing bythe \acht Braemar before taking her in tow. May 22,1967.

photograph by courtesy of Bowman Richard Lethbridge

(Left) Coxswain Matthew Lethbridge. Jnr, BEM. with hiswife Pal.

The Isles of Scilly: produced from portion of BA ChartNo.1123 with the sanction of the Controller HM Station-ery Office and of the Hydrographer of the Navy.

, JU

mf*h 17 'l-fCpson Sho*l

!~~ f Wolf ffoc* It 54I « Ait Fl W R 30 MC 16 M s,

a3'*"

out un t i l after he had taken over fromhis father the following June, he wasthe first coxswain to take her out onservice. Since then, she has launchedon service 152 times and rescued 103lives: there have, of course, also beenother services in relief boats on tem-porary duty at the station.

As with all coxswains, the lifeboat iscompletely interwoven into Matt's life.G//v and Clare Hunter even finds herway into his house, for she is a favour-ite subject for the fine seascapes hepaints as a hobby. He is striving after aperfect portrayal of his boat at sea forhis wife. Pat, to have with her at home.As well as oils. Matt is now moving onto an even more exacting art—engrav-ing ships on glass.

But. back to sea . . . Ships of allnationalities pass through the waterswatched over from St Mary's, for theScillies reach right out from the west-ern tip of Cornwall into the Atlantic.French, German. Russian, American,British . . . everything you can th ink of.

Over the years, many a fine vesselbound north for the Bristol Channel orSt George's Channel, looking for alandfall in fog, many a small boat mis-judging her rounding of Land's End inwinter storms, have foundered on therocks. Vessels are recommended not toapproach, in thick weather, withindepths of 60 fathoms—a line which liesabout 18 miles westward and 22 milessouthward of Bishop Rock, at thesouth-western extremity of thearchipelago—and there are shippingseparation zones to the south, west andeast. Radar, Decca Navigator andother modern navigational aids havereduced the hazard both for ships pas-sing by, which can now stand furtheroff, and for lit t le boats feeling their wayamong the rocks, but the dangers arestill there, lying in wait.

'If anything is going to happen on a badnight, I would rather it were 20 milesaway than two miles,' is Matt Leth-bridge's comment. 'It's as simple as that.We are always a lot better off when we are

four or five miles off the islands. Radarhelps (I don't lie awake now worryingabout fog!) but even that, on a really badnight, is far from a hundred per cent. Weare not worried about hitting the rocks.It's the ground sea set up by the under-water ledges which is the trouble: inreally bad weather it could swamp anyboat—just turn her over. We can get a 20or 30 fathom swell and it will actuallybreak. Imagine what sort of breakingwave it is with 20 fathom of water underit. When there's a big ground sea it isworse getting from the lifeboat house tothe Bishop Lighthouse than it would begoing from here to Pen~ance—or toFrance, as far as that goes; in badweather it would take us three quarters ofan hour to get to the Bishop even goingflat out. The keepers down at the light-house—their kitchen window is 95 feethigh and there have been times, in hadstorms, when they have had the swells uplevel with that kitchen window; the roomhas been turned green inside with thegreen water.'

At St Mary's they never use a droguebecause, un t i l they get out into opensea, there is no single pattern of water.'It's all bits and pieces aroundhere—patches of shallow ground', isMatt 's description. Of the tidalstreams, the Admiralty 'Pilot' says:'The rotary off-shore streams runtowards the isles from a different direc-tion at each hour of the day and, inpassing round and between them, aremuch affected by the trend of the landand channels, and by shallow water.These effects vary with the direction ofthe approaching stream so that thestreams near and between the islandsare subject to great irregularities andinconsistences. Though the streamsround the isles are not of any greatstrength, their rates increase off salientpoints, and over and near rocks andshores, where overfalls and races mayoccur.'

Whatever the weather, St Mary'slifeboat can get off the slip, thoughlaunching is a little restricted on a verybig spring tide. In really rough weather,the most difficult part of any service isgetting away from the islands, and ofcourse, a casualty could be in anydirection, through the full 360 degrees.

15

The first vital decision is which wouldbe the best track to take out to sea? Inbad weather some of the channelswould not be safe, even in a lifeboat. Itis always possible to get in and out of StMary's Sound, between St Mary's andSt Agnes Islands, but if the casualty isto the north or north west, that meansgoing right round the islands.

' Your instinct would be to go out byNorth Channel or Broad Sound,' saysMatt. 'We have always been lucky enoughto get out, but it's a bit of a job sometimesto decide whether you ought to go thatway or whether you ought perhaps to gothe longer way. After all, you aren't doingany good unless you get there.'

Coming back to an unlit passage infog or on a night when visibility hasclosed right in, the crew can tell whenthe boat enters a sound by the charac-teristic shape of the swell. To deter-mine their position more closely, aswell as keeping a lookout for familiarlandmarks, they will note the colour ofthe water, or turn on the searchlight tosee the nature of the bottom. Searchingfor a casualty among the rocks,perhaps the smell of oil, or debris onthe water, will give a clue. Seagulls,disturbed and crying out, may lead thelifeboat in the right direction. Thelifeboat engines will be stopped some-times while the crew shout to see ifanyone answers from the rocks. . . .

To listen to Matt describing some ofhis experiences at sea is almost likebeing given the privilege of being takenaboard his boat. There was the servicein 1967 to Torrey Canyon, aground onthe Seven Stones, when, in two spells,St Mary's lifeboat was at sea for 54hours:

'During the night we were just steamingaround her, standing by, and even abovethe engines you could hear all her platesgroaning and creaking. Her after partwas afloat and she was pivoting andgrinding on the rocks. Then, at aboutthree o'clock in the morning there was acrash and a/I her lights went out. We juststeamed straight in towards her . . . wethought she had broken in half. Somecables broke, I suppose . . . but then theemergency lights came on again. . . .

'Next morning the wind had freshenedup from the north east. There were galewarnings, so the skipper agreed that weshould take off the rest of the crew—wehad already taken 14 off and put themaboard the Trinity House tender Stella.So we went in. There was a bit of lumpalongside her and the lifeboat was rang-ing about a lot. Anyway, we got eight ofthem aboard. When the lifeboat came up,they had to jump from the rails and a cou-ple of our blokes caught them and landedthem on the rope box. This ninth one—it'sterrible the things that happen—we toldhim to jump but he hesitated; he started tojump, changed his mind, and thendecided to go. By this time it was too lateand he went down between the boat andTorrey Canyon. We had just one ropeforward and I shouted out, 'Let go.' Theman on the bows hadn't made it fastbecause of the range. He was just tendingit. So he let go quickly and I came fullastern. That boat came in, bang, against

the side of Torrey Canyon. / thought 'MyGod, he's gone . . .' It's terrible. Anyway,as soon as we dropped back the crewsaid, 'He's all right! He's clear!' So wegot him round the bows and aboard. '

Then there was the Swedish ship,Nordanhav, in 1970, listing heavilynorth of the Scillies in a force 8 gale:

'We took ten off her that morning. Itwas still dark; just before daylight. It justdidn't seem possible. Nordanhav was tenor twelve feet above us one moment andthen rolling her deck under the next. Shehad a list on and the iron rails were goingunder water and then coming up againstour side while we were lying alongsideher. The noise! You never heard anythinglike it. Her crew were having to run backfrom the rails as the deck went under,wait the right chance and then jump, andwe grabbed them. And yet they all cameoff and there wasn't one hurt. . . .'

Braemar, in 1967, had gone out tomeet Sir Francis Chichester returninghome after his circumnavigation. Shehad sprung a leak in her engine roomand started filling up 28 miles fromBishop Rock in a near gale gusting tostrong gale. Guy and Clare Hunter setout at 0625 on May 22 to join two ships,Trader and British Fulmar, searchingfor this large motor yacht:

'// was a bad day, with rain squalls aswell. Now, you can pick up rain squalls onradar, and eventually one of the ships gotthe idea of asking the yacht to transmitwhen the squalls were passing her. Theytraced her that way. . . .

'They sent for a salvage tug and westood by . . . then we noticed she had a bigcoil of nylon warp on her deck, so we saidif they would give us the end of that wewould try to get them into Newlyn. . . .

'We parted different times. The snagwas she kept sheering one way—as if herrudder was jammed over. Every now andthen we would be right abreast of her. Wewould slack off everything and come backand try to get ahead of her again. We hada right day of it! The worrying part was,she was supposed to be sinking and wehadn't heard any more about the tug . . .We were towing for 13 hours or more. Atone spell when the tide was coming backround the Lizard we were going so slowlythat we only made half-a-mile's progressin two hours. It was about half past twothe following morning before we got intoNewlyn. . . . "

When St Mary's lifeboat takes a ves-sel in tow, it is likely to be one with afair displacement, so they now carrytwo lumps of chain on board. Thechain, put in the middle to the towrope, weighs it down; when the chainstarts coming up through the water, thecoxswain knows it is time to ease downon the engines.

At the annual presentation of awardsat the Royal Festival Hall on May 16,Coxswain Matthew Lethbridge, Jnr,received a second bar to his silvermedal, for the service to the Frenchtrawler Enfant de Bretagne whichfoundered on the South West Rocks onthe night of February 13, 1977. It is,naturally, a great distress to Matt that,despite all their efforts, they were

unable to save her crew.

7 think about it time and time again.You are always thinking if only this or ifonly that . . . hut we had no time. Fromthe moment the 'mayday' was picked upthere was no waste of time at all. TheCoastguard reported it immediately, andalthough we had no exact position, byluck we went straight to her . . . and wewere going flat out. All we knew was thatthere was a trawler ashore near theBishop, so we started going that way, andyour own experience tends to knock outsome things. You know she won't be onthe Bishop, because if she were the keep-ers would know, wouldn't they? But shecould be on rocks to the north or to thesouth of the lighthouse. So we thoughtour best chance was to make straight forthe Bishop so that, if there were any lightsor anything to give us a clue, we could seeeither side. Then the keepers told us theyhad seen steaming lights earlier downtowards the South West Rocks, so weheaded that way. . . .

'Before we got there we smelt oil andsaw stuff floating on the water. Westarted searching, and eventually sawpart of what we thought was a trawleramong the white water . . . it was theworst place you could get, probably, atthat particular state of the tide becausethe sea comes in from three different ang-les into a neck. We thought she was at theback of the rocks, so we tore round theback and put more flares up, but therewas nothing there. We knew we had seensomething but we didn't know quite what.We came back to the same spot . . . it wasonly a matter of two or three minutes . . .and saw it again. The trouble is, with aflare, you've only got a second or two andwhatever is there is being smothered withbreaking water as well . . .

'So then we went in among the rocks.We knew there was a passage—I've beenthrough there hundreds of times in fineweather. We went in close and firedanother flare, and there was just a littlebit of the trawler's bow and the tip of hermast sticking up. While we were looking,in comes another boiling sea, what wecall a rage. It was obvious we couldn'tstay there. The only thing I could do wasjust hope to get through to the other sideof the rocks and come up round again. Sowe went in and hard over the other wayand out round the back . . . we certainlyweren't more than three minutes . . . butby the time we got back there was abso-lutely nothing left—just part of the bow 25feet up on the rock.

'When divers went down two or threedays later a/I they could find was theengine and engine bed on the bottom; theboat herself, she had smashed tosmithereens in no time. Sometime after,we found marks on another rock whereshe must have hit on the way in; therewere marks where the gallows had struckalong the rocks. We must have been rightover her stern when we went in . . . wewere as close as that.'

Summing up lifeboat service, Mattmaintains:

'// is the women, waiting at home, thathave the worst of it. Out on the water wehave worries, of course we do, but we areon the spot and we can tackle them. Weknow what is happening. It's not nearly asbad as just having to wait. It's the womenwho have the worst of it.'

16

Backroom organisation

The author, Alan Neal,deputy secretary (Opera-tions Division) runsthrough details of thefinal programme with histeam (I. to r.) NormanFord, station personnelsupervisor, David Link-later of rescue recordsstaff, and NormanStripp, rescue recordssupervisor.

Across a Crowded RoomTHOUGHTS ON THE ANNUAL PRESENTATION OF

AWARDS FOR GALLANTRY

by Alan NealDeputy Secretary (Operations Division)

Morning . . .

A long, happv day for medallists and theirfamilies starts with a photographic sessionon the embankment outside the RoyalFestival Hall . . . 1977: gold medallist Sec-ond Coxswain Keith Bower of Torbayarrives with his wife, Rosalin . . .

'AH! THERE'S THE R N L I , ' exclaimed thecoxswain of an East Anglian lifeboatwho had travelled to London to receivea medal for gallantry at the Institution'sannual presentation of awards at theRoyal Festival Hall. The scene was thecrowded lounge of the Rubens Hotel atwhich the Institution accommodatesthe medallists and their wives: thetime, the evening before the presenta-tions, when senior members of theRNLI staff come to welcome thelifeboat people arriving from the coastand to discuss with them the prog-ramme for the following day. It wasback in 1975 that I caught thoseheart-warming words above the generalconversation; and there was Tommy

. . . 7975: silver medallists Cox-swain Ben Tart of Dungeness (I.)and Coxswain Albert Bird of Aber-deen meet after nearly 20 years . . .

1974: bronze medallistsHelmsman Donald Jones of Rhyland Helmsman Benjamin Pearsonof North Berwick 'kit up' ready tomeet photographers and press.

Knott, coxswain at Lowestoft, whom Ihad known for many years—indeed weonce crewed together in a reservelifeboat on a special escort job fromDover to Calais. He had recognised mewhile I was on my way round, greetingarrivals. I suppose mine was the firstfamiliar face he had spotted among thethrong.

On average about 15 coxswains,crew members or 'shore boat' seamentravel to London every year to receivemedals for gallantry at the Royal Festi-val Hall. Their wives, and sometimestheir children, come with them as theguests of the Institution and it is thespecial responsibility, and pleasure, ofmy team—at present Norman Stripp,rescue records supervisor, NormanFord, station personnel supervisor,David Linklater of rescue records staff,and myself, to ensure that all membersof the party, which in a 'busy' year cannumber at least 50, enjoy their visit andtake home happy memories with them.When there are a large number ofguests, Keith Peters, who works in theRNLI London office, helps us to escortour guests.

It has been the tradition of the RNLIfor very many years to entertain medal-lists and their families for the two daysthey spend in London and the occasiongives the Institution's staff the oppor-tunity of meeting very brave men andmaking new friends among our lifeboatcolleagues on the coast. During thatfirst evening a number of RNLI peoplewill call in, if only for a few minutes. Ican hardly remember, for instance, ayear in the past quarter of a centurywhen Pat Howarth, public relationsofficer, or John Atterton, now deputydirector, has not been there. Usuallyeach medallist will be supported by thestation honorary secretary and hiswife. And so the party assembles,ready for what always proves to be oneof the most memorable and happy dayson the Institution's calendar.

Coincidences have occurred. In 1975a Suffolk station honorary secretarymet a Scottish station chairman. Theyknew each other well in the businessworld but neither was aware that theother would be in London for the pre-sentations. That same year silver med-als were to be presented to CoxswainAlbert Bird from Aberdeen and to Cox-swain Ben Tart from Dungeness. Now,one of the greatest rescues in the his-tory of Dungeness station was to themotor vessel Teeswood, in 1956, whenAlbert Bird had been one of Tees-wood's crew; it was because of hisexperiences that day that he later vol-unteered for the lifeboat service. Andthen, after nearly 20 years, Albert andBen met at the Festival Hall. What areunion that was!

The sole aim of my team, indeed ofthe staff as a whole, is to ensure thatour guests thoroughly enjoy themselveswhile they are with us. The day of thepresentations can perhaps best bedescribed as informally formal—at

17

least we try to make it so. It begins withone of the most convivial breakfaststhat any hotel can ever witness; and weare at hand to answer questions, dealwith any problems, or just chat.

At 9.15 we give the party a run-downon the timetable of events for the day.It is a tight schedule beginning withpress and television interviews andphotographs on the Thames Embank-ment outside the Royal Festival Hall,followed by a sightseeing tour of cen-tral London and back to the hotel forlunch at noon. The Rubens Hotel is notfar from Buckingham Palace and ourreturn nearly always coincides with theChanging of the Guard, to the greatdelight of the younger members of ourparty and, I imagine, to some of theadults as well.

Lunch over, the medallists and theirguests are driven to the Royal FestivalHall where, at three o'clock, the meet-ing begins, supported by eminent menand women from public life and witnes-sed by an audience of some 2,000.Unless other official engagementsmake it impossible, it is the normalpractice for His Royal Highness TheDuke of Kent, as president of theRNLI, to present the medals for gallan-try following the reading of the cita-tions by the director, Captain NigelDixon.

The speeches of the afternoon areboth interesting and entertaining; thefirst is given by the chairman of theCommittee of Mangement, the secondby a guest speaker. At the AGM in 1974,the Institution's 150th anniversaryyear, Coxswain Derek Scott of TheMumbles gave a speech none of us whowere there will ever forget, and how welaughed with our good friend,Raymond Baxter, in 1975. This yearthe principal guest speaker will havebeen Clare Francis, just back from theround-the-world yacht race. Presenta-tions to voluntary workers and a voteof thanks brings the business of the dayto an end, and soon after four o'clock

everyone adjourns for tea and biscuitsin the foyer. During the refreshmentsHis Royal Highness talks with themedallists and their wives but they arealso in great demand by their Membersof Parliament, Mayors, old friends andthe press.

Tea over, the party is conductedback to the hotel for a short break and alight meal before going on to a theatreas guests of the Institution. After theshow everyone comes back to the hotelfor supper, which this year will havebeen a gift to the medallists and theirfamilies from Mrs. Anne Wall. The ten-sions of the day are forgotten and onlypleasant memories remain. By nowthere has been time for everyone to getto know each other well and there is afine party atmosphere. If there areWelshmen among the medallists we aresure to have some singing . . . .

It is difficult these days to choosewhat can be described as a 'familyshow' in London to suit the tastes of 50or so people, but this year our guestswill have seen the musical 'Oliver' atthe Albery Theatre. If the reviews areanything to go by they will have had amost enjoyable evening. We were for-tunate in the early post-war years to beable to book annual seats for the CrazyGang show which featured BudFlanagan and his henchmen. I recallthat for at least ten years running themedallists and their families saw thisshow which, luckily for those men who

. . . afternoon . . .

Presentation of awards . . . 1964 atthe Central Hall, Westminster:presentations were made by HRHPrincess Marina, Duchess of Kent,then president of the Institution.Alan Neal and Norman Stripp, act-ing as ushers for the medallists, canbe seen in background . . .

photograph by courtesy of Sportand General Press Agency

(Below) . . . 1974: Coxswain DerekScott, BEM, of The Mumbles, guestspeaker, made a truly memorablespeech. On his left, Cdr RalphSwann, CBE RNVR, at that timechairman of the Institution . . .

. . . 1975: (left) end of the after-noon, tea in the Royal Festival Hallfoyer. From Workington, bronzemedallist Coxswain Albert Brownand his wife Margaret with CaptainDavid Thomas (I.), station honor-ary secretary.

made more than one trip to London toreceive medals during those years, wasupdated from time to time.

Flanagan, who had great regard forthe RNLI, used to stop the show andannounce that RNLI medallists were inthe audience; spotlights picked themout and the applause they were givendid your heart good to hear.

Alas, the majority of shows now-adays do not allow for announcementsto be made from the stage during theperformance, but some theatre man-agements have arranged back stageparties and meetings with the cast inrecent years. One memorable occasionwas when we met Anna Neagle and thecast of 'Charlie Girl'; another was aparty given by the management of theVaudeville Theatre and the cast of'Salad Days', which the entire castattended and which lasted well into thesmall hours; and there was the timewhen the cast of 'There's a Girl in mySoup' came round to the front of thehouse to talk.

While the medallists are in their com-fortable seats enjoying the show itseems a far cry from the gales, stormsand cold in which they won theirawards.

The backroom organisation of theannual presentation of awards falls toseveral different departments of theInstitution but it is one of the OperationDivision's jobs to ensure that travellingarrangements, accommodation, cater-

18

ing and entertainment for our guestsare arranged down to the last detail.

The most important thing we have todo is to make sure that the medalsthemselves are ready on time and a fewanxious moments have occurred when,because of manufacturing delays, med-als have reached us only days beforethe meeting. Over years of sometimesnerve-racking experiences we havebuilt up our own 'fail safe' measures;for instance, the medals are nowremoved from the office safe a day ortwo before the meeting because oneyear when we went to unlock the safeon the presentation morning the keybroke in the lock! It was several hoursbefore a locksmith could be found toretrieve the medals, which finallyarrived at the hall with literally onlyminutes to spare. A few more greyhairs—but an important lesson hadbeen learnt.

I have had the privilege of being amember of the organising team forupwards of 30 years and can look backon many outstanding occasions. Since1947 five men have been awarded goldmedals for gallantry; CoxswainThomas King of Jersey, who sadly diedearlier this year aged 92; CoxswainRichard Evans, BEM, of Moelfre, whohas been awarded two gold medals;Coxswain Hubert Petit of St Peter Port,Guernsey; a former lifeboat inspector,Harold Harvey; and Second CoxswainKeith Bower of Torbay. When KeithBower and his crew went up on to theplatform last year to receive their med-als they received a spontaneous stand-ing ovation. There is no doubt that,year by year, audiences find the meet-ings uplifting. I can well remember, afew years ago, a lady coming up to meafterwards and telling me that she hadfelt inspired to collect more moneythan ever for the RNL1. I am quite surethat a great many of our fund raisers goaway determined to redouble theirefforts after watching the medallistsgoing up on to the platform, one byone, and listening to the citations whichsum up so much endeavour and endur-ance in so few, quiet words.

There was one occasion, in 1955,when the silver medal for gallantry waspresented by Her Royal Highness Prin-cess Marina, Duchess of Kent and atthat time our president, to th'e pilot of aUnited States Air Force helicopter,Capt Curtis E. Parkins, for the rescueof a man from the South GoodwinLightvessel; his crew were accorded

the thanks of the Institution inscribedon vellum. It was the first time for verymany years that the RNLI had madeawards for gallantry to foreign nation-als and I remember how impressed thepilot and his wife were with the wholeatmosphere of the meeting. I can alsorecall the time when the AGM, as themeeting was known in those days,coincided with St Patrick's Day and acoxswain from the Republic of Irelandgave Princess Marina a box of sham-rock in return for his medal.

I am sure that our American friendstook back with them to the USA happymemories of their visit, but our meetingwas certainly not unheard of over thereyears before. In the old BBC Trans-atlantic Quiz days, in the immediatepost-war years, on one programme thequestion was asked from London: 'Onwhat annual occasion in England is theSailors' Hornpipe danced?' Back camethe quizzical reply: 'Would that be theannual meeting of the Royal NationalLife-boat Institution?' Alas, that is notso. The hornpipe was in fact danced bythe boys of TS Arethusa at the Shaftes-bury Homes annual prizegiving day.The boys' own brass band provided themusic and they were trained by a chiefyeoman of signals who had served inHMS Sheffield for the whole of the war.I must say that endless possibilities areconjured up by the thought that RNLIstaff should dance the hornpipe at theannual presentation of awards butperhaps we had better leave it to theband of the Royal Marines to continueto set the scene before the presenta-tions begin with their melodious nauti-

. . . and evening.

The dav over, a theatreparty of medallists andtheir families . . . 1966: thelate Coxswain GordonElliott of Padstow (silvermedal), Skipper Ian Innesof Helmsdale and CrewMember Donald Laker ofWeymouth (bronze med-als) and 12-year-old IanGillies of Gourock(inscribed wrist watch),meet the cast of 'CharlieGirl', (1. to r.) Jane Mur-doch, David Torguri,Stuart Damon, AnnaNeagle, Lyn Ashley, JoeBrown, Christine Holmes,Derek Nimmo and HyHazel.

cal airs as they have done so well forthe past ten years or more. This year,unfortunately, they will not haveplayed for us because their own com-mitments made it impossible, but weshall look forward to having them withus again in 1979.

Up to 1972 medals for gallantry werepresented at the annual general meetingof the governors of the Institution, butin 1973 it was decided to hold a sepa-rate business meeting for the governorsin the morning (the AGM) and to followit up by another meeting for the presen-tations in the afternoon. This proce-dure does, among other things, allowmore time to be devoted to the actualmedal presentations, citations andspeeches. RNLI medals for gallantryhave not always been presented at theInstitution's annual meetings. It isrecorded that in 1902 ex-Second Coxs-wain James Haylett of Caister was pre-sented with the gold medal for gallantryby King Edward VII at Sandringham,when Haylett earnestly expressed hishope that His Majesty would live to bea hundred years old and then die and goto heaven.

There is no doubt that our visitors toLondon enjoy themselves as did aScottish second coxswain, James Simof Fraserburgh, who, on his returnhome nearly 50 years ago told thepress: 7 cannot get words to expressthe fine way I was treated. Supposing Ihad been a lord I could not have beenbetter looked after'. It will be our aimto maintain our high standards of hospi-tality in the years to come—that's theRNLI!

SERVICES AND LIVES SAVED BY OFFSHORE AND INSHORE LIFEBOATSJanuary 1, 1978 to April 30, 1978: Services 363; lives saved 146

THE STATION FLEET(as at 30/4/78)

134 offshore lifeboats 126 inshore lifeboats operating in the summer50 inshore lifeboats operating in the winter

LIVES RESCUED 103,405

from the Institution's foundation in 1824 to April 30, 1978

19

A Corner in Cumbria

WORKINGTON, SILLOTH AND ST BEES:THREE LIFEBOAT STATIONS ON THE SOLWAY FIRTH AND ITS SOUTHERN

APPROACHES

THREE CUMBRIAN STATIONS, St BeeS,Workington and Silloth, complement-ing each other, are the guardians of thesouthern approaches to the Firth ofSolway and of the firth itself, just asKirkcudbright and Kippford guard thewaters to the north.

'Shipping bound for Whitehaven,Workington, Silloth or Annan in Firth ofSolway', advises the Admiralty 'WestCoast of England Pilot', 'should make StBees Head since the best, and onlymarked, navigable channel lies in thesouth east portion of the firth.'

Approaching ships will first passcliffs, backed by the rising ground ofthe Lake District, unti l , havingrounded St Bees Head and steamed ontowards Workington, they enter theEnglish Channel, leaving to port thefirst of the sandbanks which make thefirth such a treacherous waterway, andto starboard the beginning of aforeshore of rocky ledges and stones,outcrop and boulders.

'The channels on the north side of thefirth are unmarked and subject to con-stant change: they should not be attemp-ted without local know/edge,' says the'Pilot'. And again, 'The upper part of the

firth is encumbered with continuallyshifting drying sandbanks interspersedwith channels; buoys are moved asnecessary to meet the changes. Conse-quently this area is left blank on thecharts, and . . .' the repeated warning'. . . navigation within it should not beattempted without a pilot . . . the rateand range of the tidal stream is consid-erable and the rise from low water very-rapid, especially near springs when theremay be a bore. It is said that as the tiderises the sea advances across the banksso rapidly that a horseman if caught bythe tide at some distance offshore wouldhare small chance of escape . . . "

Sir Walter Scott knew all about that;he made these treacherous sands thescene for the meeting of Darsie Latimerwith Redgauntlet and his mounted sal-mon fishers. After the riders began tomake for the shore, Redgauntlet gal-loped back to warn Darsie, who waslingering on the sands looking towardsthe shores of England:

' ". . . Are you mad?—or have you amind for the next world?"

' "I am a stranger," 1 answered, "andhad no other purpose than looking on atthe fishing—/ am about to return to theside I came from."

' "Best make haste then," said he."He that dreams on the bed of the Sol-way, may wake in the next world. Thesky threatens a blast that will bring in thewaves three feet a-breast."

'So saying, he turned his horse androde off, while I began to walk backtowards the Scottish shore, a little

alarmed at what I had heard; for the tideadvances with such rapidity upon thesefatal sands, that well-mounted horsemenlay aside hopes of safety, if they see itswhite surge advancing while they are yetat a distance from the bank.

'These recollections grew more agitat-ing, and, instead of walking deliberatelyI began a race as fast as I could, feeling,or thinking [felt, each pool of salt waterthrough which I splashed, grow deeperand deeper.'

Well, it was Redgauntlet, on horse-back, who, on that occasion, rescuedthe stranded lad from the sea: at lowtide the sands still lure the unwary fromsafety, but nowadays an ILB wouldhave done the job . . .

It is of passing interest that 'Red-gauntlet' set in the eighteenth centuryin the twilight days of Bonnie PrinceCharlie, was published in 1824, theyear in which the RNLI was founded.Twenty years earlier, in 1804, aGreathead Original was stationed atWhitehaven—she was the SolwayFirth's first lifeboat.

Since those days there have alsobeen lifeboat stations at one time oranother at Maryport (1865-1949, closedbecause of silting up in the harbour)and Seascale (1875-1895). Whitehavenstation was closed in 1925. Before leav-ing these older stations perhaps wecould pause for a timeless word fromthe late A. E. Jolly, who was the firstmotor mechanic at Maryport in the1930s. Describing the service to ssPlawsworth in a south-westerly gale onJanuary 17, 1934, he wrote:

'Occasionally a wave would come alongthat was father of them all. There is timeto look round on a wave like this. Overour stern is the last wave that we rode,already yards away, with the tops ofothers beyond it. I thank my lucky stars Ican enjoy this majestic scenery . . .'

Although set against the backgroundof the high lands of the Lake District,the littoral of the Solway Firth is busywith everyday life: industry, com-merce, fishing.

There is Whitehaven, exporting coaland detergents and importing grain,chemicals, phosphates, timber andfish. At one time three ships to carryphosphate rock from Casablanca were'tailor made' to fit Whitehaven's tidalharbour: as tonnage increased theyhave been superseded by bulk carrierswhich have to anchor off, but the threesmaller ships still ferry in the cargo.Workington, with a tidal harbour and awet dock, ships in pig iron, liquid sul-phur, oil, vulcanic ash, pumice, bricksand coal, and ships out ingot moulds,rail track, pitch and tar. Maryport can

only accommodate small vessels andfishing boats these days. Silloth, higherup the firth, with a tidal basin and wetdock, is used for the import of grain,building materials and cattle, exportingscrap metal, while Annan, at the limitof navigation, can only be reached byvessels of light draught with localknowledge. With its swift tides, theSolway Firth is no place for pleasureboats, although wild-fowlers go out inthe marshy upper reaches.

Offshore cover for the southernapproaches to the firth is given byWorkington. A station was first estab-lished in this port in 1886 following thewreck of the schooner Margaret ofRamsey with all hands. Closed in 1905,it was reopened again in 1948 to takethe place of Maryport. Workington'sfirst lifeboat had been The Dodo, a 34ftopen self-righting boat rowing ten oarsdouble banked; her present boat,moored in the dock, is the 46ft WatsonSir Godfrey Baring. Throughout theyears, however, the threat of the sand-banks, particularly when the wind issouth west through to west, has notchanged:

January 1887: ss Rheola bound fromCarthagena for Maryport with a cargo ofiron ore, grounded to the north of Work-ington pier in a strong south west breeze.

December 1889: ss Lady Eglingtonbound from Cardiff for Workington witha cargo of coke stranded on the northshore in a strong south-west breeze.

January 1950: ss Turquoise of Glasgowaground one mile north of Maryport in awesterly gale.

October 1952: ss Baron Dunmore ofArdrossan laden with iron ore agroundon the south side of the channel.

There have been times when ships,arriving from distant lands and unableto enter harbour in bad weather havehad to ask the lifeboat to bring out pro-visions or take off sick or injured menas no other boat could get out to them.

The station honorary secretary isCaptain David Thomas, harbour mas-ter and so right on the spot, and severalof the crew are pilots or work in thedocks—that number includes the twinsJoe, second coxswain, and Bert Reay.Coxswain Albert Brown, who was acoxswain pilot, is now up at the steelworks. When the maroons are fired heis on his way down immediately, pick-ing up other members of the crew onhis way. One January night in 1974, thelifeboat was called out to a fishing ves-sel Kia-Ora, dragging her anchor half amile east of Hestan Island in stormforce winds. Because of the very roughseas and the depth of water there would

20

be at that state of the tide (one hourafter low water), the lifeboat had totake the outside course to the island.When she arrived at the casualty it tookgreat seamanship and determination tomanoeuvre her alongside, but a youngboy and seven men were successfullytaken off. For this service the bronzemedal for gallantry was awarded toCoxswain Brown.

Co-operation between the stationbranch and the ladies' guild is strong atWorkington, and both are well backedup by the local sailing fraternity: Har-rington Fishing and Sailing Club, ofwhich Albert Brown is a committeemember, and Vanguard Sailing Club,several members of which sit on thelifeboat committee. There is no doubtthat everyone enjoys their mutuallifeboating activities. Every year theguild holds a dance, well supported byboth lifeboat and sailing people, as wellas organising nearly new sales; in the12 years since it was formed, the guildhas raised more than £10,000. WhenHarrington Fishing and Sailing Clubruns a wine buffet evening at West-lands, the lifeboat ladies are invited toput on a tombola and raffles; and on itsbonfire night the club invites the ladiesto go round with collecting boxes.Another way the club helps: when itsmembers go out lobster potting andnetting, they cook crabs and bring themdown to the club for people to takewhat they want, putting money in oneof the club's four or five lifeboat boxes.

The two Workington sailing clubsunite under a common banner to pro-duce a joint racing programme and runtwo annual events in aid of the RNLI: arace to Ramsey, Isle of Man, and theWhitehaven RNLI gala race.

could be taken to the lakes as well. Sheis towed along the coast road to thelaunching point nearest to the casualty

Sir Godfrey Baring,Workington's 46ft Wat-son lifeboat, recoveringfrom capsize in trialsafter she had been fittedwith an air bag to giveher a self-rightingcapability.

and from there takes to the water. Thelocal police are always ready to helpkeep the road open and ensure that theILB's land passage is clear.

St Bees may be a young station but italready has a strong corporate spirit.Last year a new crew room was builtand this winter a new boathouse, all atno cost to the Institution. None of the12 crew members has ever claimed thesmall awards made for services or

When the Duke of Atholl, a deputy chairman of the Institution, visitedWorkington last year he met members of the crew and also officers andmembers of both Workington and Maryport ladies' guilds. He presentedthe silver badge to the chairman of Workington guild, Mrs G. J. A. White,standing on his right.

To the south of Workington, roundthe headland, is the youngest of theCumbrian stations, St Bees, where a Dclass inflatable ILB is 'on duty ' duringthe summer months. She was the gift ofEgremont and Whitehaven RoundTable and her concern is, to a greatextent, holidaymakers who get into dif-ficulties in the sea or along the coast.Last summer, for instance, she waslaunched to help sailing dinghies, fish-ing boats, inflatable dinghies and peo-ple stranded on the cliffs. While herbase is at St Bees, this inshore lifeboat,kept on a road trailer, can answer callsover a very wide area: from Working-ton in the north to Millom in the south,and, of course, were it necessary she

21

exercise, all the money being putstraight into the building fund. Theirwives, who have now formed a ladies'guild and sell souvenirs in the boat-house, helped to raise money for theproject and various gifts of materialswere received from local people. Thebuilding itself was done, at no charge,by Community Industries, the aim ofwhich is to provide practical experi-ence for young people having difficultyin finding work. A very fine enterprise,whatever way you look at it, and, at theend, a very fine shore establishment.

Leon Goldwater, honorary secretaryof St Bees station branch, was himselfonce a member of Hartlepool ILBcrew, and holds the distinction of beingthe first helmsman to take an Atlantic21 out on a night service.

The crews of both St Bees and Sil-loth are certainly representative of theactivities of the communities theyserve: inshore fishing, teaching,engineering and electrical work, farm-ing, accounting, driving (crane, forklift, bus), shopkeeping and a number ofother occupations.

Silloth, which has the longest historyof any of the present Solway lifeboatstations, is situated well up the firth.Pulling and sailing lifeboats wereplaced here from 1860 until the stationwas closed in 18%, to be re-opened asan all-the-year-round ILB station in1967. Despite this 70-year gap traditionhas been handed down and the linksbetween yesterday and today are stillstrong; for instance, the grandfather ofRobert Bell, who is now a crewmember, was in the crew of the 1890s.

Silloth's present boat is a 19ft ZodiacMark V inflatable inshore lifeboat ofthe type illustrated on the front coverof the summer 1977 journal. The gift ofthe John Gilpin Trust, she is namedJohn Gilpin and is unusual in that shehas a standing steering position to givethe helmsman better height of eye toread the sea and sandbanks; she is also

I860: The launching of Silloth's firstlifeboat, Angela and Hannah, and . . .

1977: Some of the present ILB crew andbranch members with their trainingboard: (I. to r.) Jim Graham, DLA,Senior Helmsman Colin Akitt, CrewMembers Derek Wilson, Robert Bell,Dick Jordan and George Ritchie, andGeorge Egdell, honorary secretary.

fitted with water ballast tanks.Good vision is of particular import-

ance in an area of shallows and shiftingsands where, indeed, the hazards andthe passages that can be navigated,even by a shallow-draft boat, vary hourby hour with the ebb and flow of a veryswift tide. A search may have to bemade at night (navigation lights are car-ried on John Gilpin's steering console)and that search may be prolonged. On afrosty night in early May 1977 the ILBlaunched at 0055 to search for aMorecambe Bay prawner reported

St Bees: (1. to r.) Leon Goldwater, honorary secretary, Stanley Kelly, DLA, Jim Baty, stationadministrative officer, Crew Members Ian McDowell, Russell Cranston, Jack Soittham,Michael Goldwater and Bill Forbes, and Malcolm Reid, DLA. In background (I.) the newcrew room nearing completion; a new boathouse has been built since this photograph wastaken.

missing. The fishing boat, her propellerfouled by nets, was eventually found at0854 and the ILB then towed hertowards Maryport until another fishingboat was able to take over. By the timeshe returned to station and wasrehoused it was 1046, and she had beenat sea just on ten hours. Although crewmembers had been changed during thattime, Senior Helmsman Colin Akitt hadremained in command throughout.

In such waters, for which there is nodetailed chart, local knowledge is of thegreatest importance, and so Sillothbranch worked out an extensiveinstruction programme for its younger,less experienced crew members. It wasBill Irving, a professional fishermanand a deputy launching authority, whosuggested the training board which isnow a feature of the boathouse. Hehimself made the plywood board, on awooden frame, 6 feet by 6 feet; then,together with George Egdell (stationhonorary secretary) he marked it off intwo inch squares and drew in the highwater coastline from an Ordnance Sur-vey map. With the help of Bill Wilson(also a fisherman and a DLA) the lowwater line and sandbank outlines weremarked in, the main channel beingshown by pins of different colours indi-cating whether or not the buoys werelit. Landmarks and compass roses wereadded and the lights of towns and vil-lages shown by yellow circles. JimGraham (another DLA who is also thestation's mechanic) surveyed thehazardous Dubmill Point area andAllonby Bay and reproduced them on

22

one corner of the training board.With the aid of this board, Bill Irving

planned a course of lectures on localnavigation, with particular reference totidal variations, the accessibility ofareas according to tidal time andheight, and deviations from coursesnecessary in different weather condi-tons; another point made was the rela-tionship of moonlight to the tides. Tomake full use of the training board BillIrving devised a game. Each crewmember drew one card from two sepa-rate packs. On one card was given thedate and time of the call and the dura-tion of the service; on the other wasgiven the area of search and visibility.The crew member then had to describethe courses he would take to the area ofsearch and on his return passage to sta-tion, giving the navigational points hewould use and drawing attention to anydifficulties and advantages he mightexpect to find. To complete the trainingprogramme, Jim Graham spoke on thestructure and mechanics of the ILB andon his study of the coastline from Sil-loth to Dubmill Point, and Dr RobertYule (honorary medical adviser) gave acourse of instruction on first aid.

Thus was knowledge and experienceshared; a combined, thorough exercise,typical of Silloth's cheerful dedication.Once again, here is a station which initself is a happy family with everyone,whether they belong to the crew, thebranch or the ladies' committee, readyto give whatever help is needed, andwhich is well supported by the localcommunity. Alterations to the boat-house? Crew and committee membersall contributed their various skills andtheir hard work (' When I think of ColinAkitt it is through a spectrum begin-ning with seamanship and ending witha paint brush', is George Egdell'ssumming up). Fund raising? Thesouvenir stall in the boathouse is keptopen at all times in the summer season,right up to 10 o'clock at night. BillShanks (branch honorary treasurer) isin charge and gives up endless time (notto mention space in his own sittingroom which doubles up as a souvenirstore); he is helped by George Egdell,Jim and Agnes Graham and many othercrew and branch members who come into give a hand. Last year the shop tak-ings were over £3,500. The station hasneed of a particular item? There alwaysseems to be someone ready tohelp—the crew themselves, theFriends of Silloth Lifeboat, SillothRotary Club, or sometimes supportcomes from further afield; when laun-chers waders were needed, they weregiven by Wigton Ladies' Circle.

A corner in Cumbria; three lifeboatstations, each with its different type ofboat, contributing differing but com-plementary capabilities to a common,devoted service at sea; and each by thesheer joyous, wholehearted approachof its people contributing great strengthto the Institution as a whole in the bestlifeboat tradition. J.D.

Second lottery winnersCOMEDIAN TOM O'CONNOR drew thewinning tickets for the second RNLInational lottery at Poole on March 31 inthe presence of Major-General RalphFarrant, chairman of the Committee ofManagement, John Atterton, deputydirector, Cdr Ted Pritchard, appealssecretary, and members of the RNLIheadquarters staff. Mr O'Connor, whowas accompanied by his wife, childrenand agent, Billy 'Uke' Scott, one of theelite Water Rats, kept everyone laugh-ing as he drew the tickets and tookgreat interest in all he was shown on alater tour of the RNLI building. Theprizewinners were:£1,000: P. F. Tee, Salisbury.

Brian King, a member of the LifeboatEnthusiasts Society, with three non-workingmodels he has made, two for the RNLI andone for himself, of Margate's new 37ft 6inRather lifeboat Silver Jubilee (Civil ServiceNo. 38). Built mainly of GRP, they tookabout 20 months to complete. WilliamOsbornes, Jack Groves and LBES membershelped with advice and photographs.

While Fred Williams (I.),appeals office super-visor, spins the drum,Tom O'Connor (centre)draws the winning ticketsin the RNLl's second lot-tery at Poole HQ onMarch 31. With them areJoyce Pearce, whoorganises the lottery atHQ, and Cdr Ted Pritch-ard, appeals secretary. Asplendid total of £35,000was raised by this secondlottery.

£50; Miss C. E. Dunmore, Redhill; P.Dowd, Newbury; G. Skinner, Lon-don; I. Whittaker, Chester; J. McFad-den, Dunstable; Mr Pumpkin, London;B. Parkinson, Harrow; D. W. Smith,Preston; T. A. Jackson, Manchester.

With a sales limit of £40,000, thissecond lottery raised nearly £35,000.Some entries which arrived too latefor the draw are being transferred totickets in the third lottery. Additionaltickets for the draw to be made onSeptember 29 are available from theAppeals Department, RNLI, WestQuay Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1HZ.

Winners of the third lottery will beannounced in the winter 1978/79 issueOf THE LIFEBOAT.

Lloyd's choir recordA STEREO RECORD has been made byLloyd's of London Male Voice Choir,conducted by David de Warrenne, inconjunction with the RNLI, all pro-ceeds being given to the lifeboat ser-vice. On side A are four carols; on sideB four folk songs.

Lloyd's, which began in a Londoncoffee house in about 1688, was alreadyestablished as a marine insurance mar-ket at the beginning of the nineteenthcentury and in 1802 its underwritersgave £2,000 to 'encourage the buildingof lifeboats'.

The record is available from theRNLI City Office, 40 St Mary Axe,London EC3, price £1.50 includingpostage and packing.

A diorama, depicting the launch of Arbroath lifeboat Robert Lindsay in the tremendousstorms of October 26, 1953, made by the Army Apprentices College Model Club, Arborfield,Reading, was entered by Berkshire branch in the national championship of the InternationalPlastic Modellers Society. It was outright winner of its class.

23

Fig. I : Bilge keels, port and starboard, take weight of hull so thatmild steel ballast keel can be slid into place.

Fig. 2: After end jacked up so that holes can be drilled throughdeadwood for keel bolts, the longest bolt being 3ft 6in.

Building a Rother Class Lifeboat

PART VIII: BALLAST KELL

MORE THAN TWO TONS of mild steel areforged into the Rother's ballast keel.Together with such heavy members asthe twin diesel engines, set low in thehull, the purpose of the ballast keel is tolower the centre of gravity of the boatand thus increase her stability. Actinglike a pendulum, it helps counteract theeffect of wind and waves on hull andsuperstructure; the greater the heel andthe higher the keel is lifted up throughthe water, the greater will be the forceof the righting lever bringing the boatback on to an even keel.

Before the ballast keel can be slidinto position under the hull the blockson which her centreline structure hasbeen resting must be moved. So blocksare now built up under her bilge keels,port and starboard, which will carry thehull weight. These bilge keels are cutfrom 6in x 3'/2in x 3Ain mild steel angleand bolted on with '/2Jn galvanisedaluminium bronze bolts; before finally

being bolted into place the bilge keelswill be galvanised.

The ballast keel is fixed with 38 3mmbolts of varying length depending onthe depth of the centreline structurethrough which each has to pass:

Fig 3: Looking up into thestarboard propeller tunnel,lower end of rectangularpropeller freeing scuppercan be seen clearly and also,further forward, the holewhich will take the stern tubefor the propeller shaft. Out-board of the tunnel cant canbe seen the four starboardcockpit relieving scupperopenings.

forefoot, hog or deadwood. Thosegoing through the deadwood are thelongest—the one furthest aft being noless than 3ft 6in long—and, to giveroom for their holes to be drilled andthe bolts driven through, the stern ofthe boat has to be jacked up as shownin Fig. 2. Each bolt has a countersunkhead with a protruding key which,driven up into a prepared groove,prevents the bolt from turning.

(To be continued)

Crew Member James Kevin Osbornof Littlehampton has been awarded theRoyal Humane Society's certificate ofcommendation for the rescue lastOctober of a man thrown into the waterwhen a mast collapsed. The man, who

was injured badly, had been working atthe mast top in a bosun's chair.

R. A. Lister Power Plant Ltd pre-sented a generator worth over £800 to

Presentation of Lister gener-ator: (1. to r.) Mike Pennell,executive assistant to directorRNLI, John Atterton, deputydirector RNLI; Cdr David Wil-ford, superintendent Pooledepot; John Ball, productiondirector R. A. Lister PowerPlant; Cdr Ted Over, RNLIstaff officer (technical); DavidPurkis, chief contractsengineer, Lister; CoxswainFrank Ide, Poole lifeboat;John Ward, an electricalwireman, Lister.

the RNLI at Poole depot on April 11.The gift results from a visit by HRH TheDuke of Kent to the new Lister PowerPlant works at Thrupp, near Stroud,which he opened last September.Asked by the company's directors tonominate a charity to receive a presen-tation generating set, the Duke, as pres-ident of the RNLI, nominated theInstitution. The set will be available forany station needing emergency power.

RIGHT WAY UPAn exhibition telling the story ofthe self-righting lifeboat is beingstaged at the Science Museum,South Kensington, unti l Sep-tember 3. It will be open to thepublic from 1000 to 1800 Mon-days to Saturdays and from 1430to 1800 on Sundays.

Admission free.

24

ShorelineSection

TO MAKE A CHANGE from the usualShoreline page, I have asked LindaGrainger, one of my assistants, to writeabout the work of herself and her col-leagues. First of all, however, I ampleased to announce that RNLBShoreline has been allocated to Blyth, astation on the north east coast of Eng-land established in 1826. We shall havea great deal to tell you about Blyth astime goes by.

And, before I hand over to Linda, 66new members were signed on at BristolBoat Show in April—well done!—PETER HOLNESS, membership secret-ary, RNLI, West Quav Road, Poole,Dorset, BH15 I HZ (Tel. Poole 71133).

No doubt you remember that, in thespring 1978 journal, mention was madeof the fact that Shoreline members arenow enrolled straight on to computerfrom head office. Well, I am one of amerry band of six girls who are respon-sible for seeing that all new applica-tions for membership are dealt withwithout delay and with the greatestease. We also deal with membershiprenewals, insignia orders, our mem-bers' correspondence and a great manyother aspects of the membershipscheme.

You may ask yourself how six girls

and a supervisor are able to keep theirheads above water with the member-ship figure currently standing at 47,000and rising! Well, up to June 1977 all thework was dealt with manually on amonthly basis. Everything was writtendown and sent to a centre in Croydon,where it was processed on comput-ers—and, believe me, the end of themonthly 'run', as it was called, left usall breathless. We would have a fewdays break in between the work goingto Croydon and it being returned to besorted and filed, during which wewould deal with work which was con-sidered less urgent—queries and insig-nia orders, for example—but whichwas nonetheless important. Inevitablydelays occurred which often resulted inadditional correspondence . . . .

When in June the computer visualdisplay units (VDU) were installed inthe Shoreline office, we set about learn-ing how to operate them and tried tofind the best way to handle the workload in order to achieve the smoothestpossible running of the office. Weseemed to be everlastingly reorganisingand reallocating the work and it wassome months before we began to seeany real change for the better.

We are now divided into sections.Two membership clerks, Christine and

Linda Grainger operat-ing one of the two visualdisplay units linkingShoreline office directlyto the CMC computer atCroydon in which mem-bership details arerecorded. The link rep-resents a considerablesaving for the RNLI inlabour, postage andtime. In background,Frank Dean, Shorelinesuperviser, andMarianne Billings.

Marianne, receive the paperwork fromour accounts office. They sort it outinto new members and renewals andpass it over to the VDU operators,another Linda and myself. The mem-bership clerks also deal with all the cor-respondence regarding subscriptionswhich are paid through the bank. Theyare responsible, too, for sending outmembership cards together with anyinsignia which may have been ordered.

The VDU operators process member-ship forms on the computer and makeany necessary amendments for existingmembers; for example, changes ofaddress or increased subscriptions.

The work is then passed to Peggy,our correspondence clerk who, besidesbeing second to none at decipheringsignatures, is happy to answer any ofour members enquiries.

Lastly, but by no means least, wehave Carol, our covenant clerk, whodeals with no less than 16,000covenanted subscriptions. Watchingher at work I feel sure she would quitehappily deal with 50,000 covenants, soit seems a great pity that more sub-scriptions are not convenanted as,besides the extra benefit this wouldbring into Shoreline, we all wonder

continued on page 32

THE INCHCAPE HARD COURT TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS OF GREAT BRITAINBOURNEMOUTH

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 18 to SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 24, 1978

Twenty per cent of the price of all tickets sold will be donated to the RXLI.

Special reduced prices for season tickets will be available through our branches and guilds.

Here is a f i rs t class opportunity to see championship tennis in delightful surroundings.Further details from Anthony Olver, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset.

25

Some

A total of 400 RNLI lottery ticketssold by one person is a record set byStuart Maggs of Hythe branch. Welldone Mr Maggs—but are there anychallengers?

How about individual flag day collec-tors? Roger Cope, a member of Bir-mingham branch committee on leavefrom Canadian Pacific, collected£149.56 in about 7'/2 hours in Birming-ham's main shopping street on April22. A week earlier, in Wolverhampton,Bob Proudlock, the branch honorarysecretary, collected over £92 on thestreet, with Malcolm Timmins, thechairman, running up at over £78.

Lying comfortably in a bend of theRiver Tavy, about a mile from its con-fluence with the Tamar, is the ancient

river port of Bere Ferrers. Its maritimetraditions are old and strong. Recently11 industrious ladies of the villageorganised a sponsored knit-in for theRNLI, raising £52.70 in two hours. Abring and buy stall, tea with home-made cakes and a raffle brought theresult of the afternoon's activities to£77 for Tavistock branch. The multi-coloured knitted strips are being madeinto a blanket for another charity.

A sponsored swim undertaken inJanuary by pupils of Barnard CastleSchool, Co. Durham, raised a stagger-ing £1,463, of which £400 was raised byjuniors in the preparatory school. Theyoung daughter of the swimminginstructor, Katherine White, achieved24'/2 lengths and one boy, NicholasOliver, raised £42.

Mrs Mabel Thomas, one-time honor-ary secretary and still a stalwartmember of St David's ladies' guild,raised £30 this year by selling paperleeks for St David's day in a local shop.

Despite weather that would havekept any sane person indoors by hisown fireside, the 'Any Questions'evening held by Pangbourne branch atPangbourne Nautical College on Feb-ruary 3 was very nearly a sell-out. Thepanel consisted of Sir Havelock Hud-son, chairman of Lloyds, Tony Durant,MP for Reading North, Sheridan Mor-ley, author, broadcaster and theatrecritic, and Baroness Phillips, chairmanof the Association for the Prevention ofTheft in Shops; the chair was taken byAlastair Scott Johnston (doing penancefor 18 years on the BBC's 'The NavyLark'). College six-formers askedquestions that led to an interesting andenjoyable evening, at the end of whichthe profit for the RNLI was £300.

1977 was a bumper year forRustington and East Preston branch. Arecord amount of £1,650 was raisedfrom their flag day, coffee morning anda sponsored walk.

Faced with the problem of transporting a 35ft mast ten miles from Venton to the yacht he isbuilding at Oreston, Peter Compton turned the exercise into a fund-raising event. Thesponsored marchers, who raised £125 for Plymouth lifeboat station, were met at Lyneham Innby Coxswain John Dare and members of his crew.

photography by courtesy of 'The Western Morning News'

Rupert, lifeboat collector par excellence:Captain and Mrs F. Wilson's African greyparrot does his trick of duty at their frontgate. Being a talkative bird, he is very per-suasive and in just three weeks last August,collected more than £12 for Falmouthladies' guild.

Lymington branch and ladies guildraised £714.84 at Beaulieu Boat Jumble,held for the first time on Sunday April 16.Marine jumble collected by branchmembers brought in £475.19; £30.30came from the sale of lOp tickets for theSouthern District's competition for aSaab motor car, and the guild sold £94worth of souvenirs. A final sum of£ 115.35 was raised by an auction held bythe organisers of Beaulieu Boat Jumbleat the end of the day; a loudspeakerrequest to stallholders to donate any-thing they did not want to take away to beauctioned off for the RNLI met with agenerous response and Don Smith, of

Pauline Morris, chairman of Newquayladies' guild, Cornwall, and her husband,Mr M. H. Morris, station honorary secre-tary, run a dance club in aid of the RNLIwhich meets at the WI Hall every Saturdayevening. A small charge is made for mem-bers and visitors and voluntary contribu-tions for tea and biscuits are collected in alifeboat box. The Toshiba amplifier was agift to the branch. Between June 1975 andSeptember 1977 a profit of £975 wasachieved—and they are still dancing.

26

Montagu Ventures who organised theJumble , proved a fast and l ive lyauctioneer.

The owner of the Regency hair-dressing salon in Otley. West York-shire, has thought of a new way ofincreasing the takings in her lifeboatcollecting box: she has gathered a largecollection of paperbacks andmagazines which can be borrowed andread—providing 5p is placed in thebox.

Bridgwater branch raised £270 forthe RNLI with its au tumn ball at Chi t -ton Trinity School. The tombola wasthe most successful the branch has everrun. and during the evening two gallonbottles of whisky were raffled.

Milton Southsea branch, formed inFebruary 1977. had a splendid firstyear, raising £3.223. This amountincluded £677 raised during thei rlifeboat week, which culminated at thetime of the Jubilee Fleet Review at

_

Her Grace Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk.patron of Linlehampton branch, presenteda silver statuette to Mr R. J. C. Richards, aformer treasurer of the branch, during Lit-tlehampton's lifeboat ball last autumn. Withthem is Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Compston,chairman of the Fund Raising Committee.Ar the end of an evening very much enjoyed.£5f<2 hud been raised for lifeboats.

Five hundred peopleattending Gorlestonlifeboat hall gave a big'send off to a mammoth

fund-raising event by-Great Yarmouth and Dis-trict Round Table No. 41.The Tabler.i aim to raise£10,000 for the Institutionwith a sponsored voyagefrom Great Yarmouth toGlasgow by ILB. Montmo-rency the dog was given tothem as a mascot by MrsThelma Dowding, ladies'guild chairman. The ballitself resulted in a recordprofit of i\.212.photograph by courtesy of

'Yarmouth Mercury'

Poole ladies' guild startedits tenth year with anexhibition of crafts atwhich there were demon-strations ranging from themaking of Dorset buttons< 13-year-old David Johns),to enamel craft I MrsRenate Wadham). PeterFallon shows his macrameto (I. to r . ) Mrs MargaretAdam, guild chairman.Mrs Molly Sedgewick,honorarv treasurer, andMrs Mary Verner, honor-ary secretary. During itsninth \ear. 1977. I'ooleguild raised £9.200.photograph by courtesy of'Poole and Dorset Herald'

Brownies of the 4thBishopbriggs Pack, Glas-gow, seen with Guider.Mrs Sheena Smith, givethe income of theirmonthly tuck shop to thelifeboat service. Graduallytheir contribution hasincreased: 1973, £3.40:1974. £6.50: 1975. £5.40:1976. CII.45: and 1977,£14 . . .photograph by courtesy of

Brian Swinburne

. . . While Brownies of the 13th Durham I below left I and 9th < below right)Packs are helping the RNLI hy collecting foreign coins. The Brownies alsotook part in a poster competition and the three best entries were displayedat a coffee morning held for the R\'l.l in the spring at the Town Hall,Durham.

27

For one day during London lifeboat week in hoth 1977 and 1978.Peter Elgar, a Shoreline member, set up a stand at British AirwaysEngineering West Base. Heathrow Airport, using his own boat ascentrepiece. In 1977 he and his colleagues collected £57.28 forStaines and Ashford branch: in 1978 they collected £85.40, whichwas made up to £100 by the Joint Shop Stewards Committee. (I. tor.) John Denn. Peter Elgar and Geoff Andrews.

The 7-ixex Club, supporters ofPewsey branch, used the white horsethey had made for Pewsey Carnival to raise money for the lifeboatservice, towing it on wheels from Pewsey via Salisbury, Downton,Fordingbridge, Ringwood and Christclnirch to Mudeford. £300 wasraised by sponsorship and en route collections. Mudeford stationwelcomed the party, took over the horse and used it for a furtherfund-raising effort on Boxing Day before finally burning it in January.

A gentle tap from RobertMorley on a Salmanazarchampagne bottle releases£150.65 in pound notes,pennies and half-penniescollected for the RNLl byThe White Hart publichouse at Margrave be-tween June last year andMarch. Ian Malim. themanager, looks on. Aguess-the-amount compet-ition brought in £60.70.photograph by courtesy of

'The MaidenheadAdvertiser'

A sponsored 25-hour gameof crib played by Brightonpolicemen. Sgt. Peterdear, PCs Dave Rowland.Harold Green, Kim Wood.Roger Charles and WPCSue Bought en, raised£1,058 for Brighton's newILB station. The chequewas presented by DameVera Lynn to Charles Wil-son, chairman of Brightonstation branch. With themare (I.) Ian Wallington,DOSISEl and (r.i WPCBought en.

The ladies oj Kirkburton guild. West Yorkshire, together with many friends, volunteered to beextras in a training film made recently for the National Biscuit Company at Hillards stores.After a very entertaining afternoon, the guild was presented with a cheque for £100 by BarryLockwood, an executive oj the company.

Spithead: also a generous donation of£335 from McMurdo Investments: anda film show and presentation inPortsmouth's Gui ldhal l on theRNSA/Whithread Round the WorldRace given by Southern Televisionpersonality Barry Westwood andRohin Knox-Johnston. a member of theCommittee of Management, andothers, which raised £1,136.

A branch manager of Wavy LineGrocers organised a sponsored raftrace which raised the staggeringamount of £6,250. The cheque wasreceived on behalf of Southend-on-Seabranch by Sir Alec Rose, several ofwhose books 'My Lively Lady' werealso raffled; the resulting £100, given toSir Alec for his local branch, has beenapportioned between Havant branchand Walmer. where The HampshireRose is stationed.

Sore feet have figured prominent lydur ing the last few months as we hearof various sponsored walks. Walkersfrom Kastleigh and Chandler's Fordraised £315.95. Ar thu r Roberts ofGravesend needed all his determinationwhen a misdirection sent him somemiles further than the planned 38 miles:nevertheless he finished the walk and

Mrs Bill Bennett of the Dolau Inn, known toeveryone as Maudie, comes from a seafar-ing family and has given so much help to thelifeboat service over many years that shehas been made an honorary member of NewQuay ladies' guild, Dyfed. Her annual col-lections have increased so much that herlifeboat box has had to be replaced with aspecially topped collecting bottle. During1977 her efforts realised £250.

2S

Twickenham and DistrictBranch held a 'Thank YonEvening' for all theirfriends and helpers at theBritish Motor Yacht Clublast November. After acheese salad and winesupper came entertain-ment by internationalcabaret artists Joy andJennifer. After manyencores, they even tried toaccompany the singing of(I. to r.) Jack Sims, BobTough, branch chairman,George Powell, then DOS(North London) andRichard Wilson.

(1. to r.) Adrian Moore, Richard Lane (aged14) and Nigel Rankin (aged 16) of Newmar-ket are already confirmed lifeboat suppor-ters. With school assemblies, a sponsoredwalk, a jumble sale and their flag day collec-tions they have raised more than £500. Theirambition: to become crew members.

Litchfield ladies' guild organised their tenth annual fork luncheon in the spring, cooking,preparing and serving all the food themselves. Held, as usual, in the Guildhall it was a sellout, some 250 people attending; the profit was £340.

raised £55. In October Petersfieldbranch organised a 15-mile walk whichincluded an 888 ft climb up Butser Hill,raising £528.

The Queens Head Inn, Cullercoats,is a strong supporter of the local ILBstation. Earlier this year the licensee,Danny Goering, and bar manager, JohnWedderburn, presented two cheques toHelmsman Ned Clark and other crewmembers; £70 for the crew fund and£60 for the RNLI. The money had beenraised in a number of ways includingraffles and domino cards, pool compet-itions and lOp bets on a racing carmachine.

West Wight ladies' guild raised over£3,500 last year from the sale ofsouvenirs and Saab draw tickets, and£511 from a coffee morning and aboutique held in July at King's Manor,Freshwater, the home of Mr and MrsA. J. Sheldon. A further £306 wasraised at a Christmas Fair held in Yar-mouth Town Hall in December.

A haircut raised £19.50 on ChristmasEve when Engineer Cadet Ciaron Cal-lan, on board British Ranger, had hishair cut in public on the condition thatcrew members watching donated 50peach to RNLI funds. The 'SweeneyTodd' who did the cutting was ThirdEngineer Gerry Gwynn.

£65.79 was the total raised during thespring term by the children of AllSaints Church of England (Controlled)Primary School in Wellingborough. A

variety of events were organisedincluding a sponsored swim, a tuckshop, a lunch-time disco and a FrostFair which, due to the temporary clos-ure of the school, had, alas, to be heldin balmy, spring-like weather.

Having been given a monster potato by acustomer, the landlord of The Sir DouglasHaig, Effingham, Rod Davis, and his wife,Jean, held a competition to guess how manybags of crisps could be made from it. At lOpa guess, £23.60 was soon raised for theRNLI. photograph by courtesy of

'The Surrey Daily Advertiser'

Girls from Hastings High School visited their local lifeboat station in March to present acheque for £600 to Hastings and St Leonards branch, the result of their 1977 charity project: itis twice as much as they have ever collected before. The project was launched in fine style bya film show and talk given by Coxswain Joe Martin (seen receiving the cheque from last year'shead girl) and Motor Mechanic R. Shoesmith. The girls then took over with great enthusiasm,organising all kinds of fund-raising events. Jack Cooke, chairman of the Board of Governors,and Mrs Spendlove, headmistress, are second and third on the left.

photograph by courtesy of 'Hastings Observer'

29

Letters...The RNLI in Ireland

Having been for more than 21 yearshonorary secretary of one of thebusiest lifeboat stations in Ireland, Iwas naturally much interested by thefine article in the spring issue of THELIFEBOAT by my friend Brian Clark, aswell as by the late Captain Hall's recol-lections of his stint as Irish districtinspector. May I be permitted to add afew historical notes to these?

The barque wrecked at Seapoint, Co.Dublin, on Christmas Eve 1895 was notNorwegian but Finnish. Her crew andpassengers were later rescued by theIrish Lights 'Commissioners' tenderTearaght. Relics of the rescue record-ing the skill and courage of the lateCaptain McCombie of the Irish Lightswere unearthed by Brian Clark quiterecently. Until last year there hadalways been relatives of one or other ofthe 15 victims of the 1895 disaster in thecrew of the Dun Laoghaire boat. Thelast left us last year: our very popularmotor mechanic, Charlie Blackmore,who in 30 years to his retirement, hadtaken part in 219 services, 26 of them ingale conditions and six in dense fog,resulting in all in the rescue of 178 peo-ple. He is now caretaker at the recentlyautomated East Pier Lighthouse at DunLaoghaire. Opposite the local lifeboatstation is a granite plinth bearing thenames of the 1895 victims.

Brian Clark briefly records that 'theBallast Board', which was the populartitle of the Corporation for the Preser-vation of the Port of Dublin, ancestorof the present Dublin Port and DocksBoard, 'had disposed a number oflifeboats round Dublin Bay at thebeginning of the (nineteenth) century'.

The Dun Laoghaire and Howthlifeboat stations are very proud of theirpre-RNLI origin, which, I feel,deserves rather greater attention thanBrian Clark affords it. A committee ofthe pre-Union Irish Parliament,abolished in 1800, had taken publicevidence from master mariners andothers of the notorious perils of DublinBay in those days, and in consequencethe port authority had been asked andhad agreed to set up stations withlifeboats round Dublin Bay. These firststations, at Howth, Sutton, Old Dun-leary, Sandycove and Dalkey, makeup, so far as fairly extensive researcheslead me to believe, the firstco-ordinated lifeboat service in Euro-pean history, previously-establishedlifeboat stations in England and theNetherlands having been single, iso-lated local stations. (But one historianof the Netherlands lifeboat services

states that a co-ordinated lifeboat ser-vice existed round Canton as early as1737.)

The Dublin Bay service was active inthe lifesaving business from its incep-tion. Not only are there references toits services in numbers of the influen-tial 'Naval Chronicle' of the firstdecade of the last century, but, thanksto the care taken of its archives byHarry Gilligan, secretary of DublinPort and Docks Board, and some of hispredecessors, records have survivedof a number of its rescues—crews'names, ships served, numbers rescuedand so on. Dublin Port continued tocontrol the Dublin Bay lifeboats(whose earliest boats, incidentally, costjust under £100), long after the RNLIentered the Irish scene with the estab-lishment of the Arklow station in 1826.It was not indeed till the appalling galeof February 1861, in which a score ofships and many lives were lost in theDublin area, showed up the defects ofthe boats provided by the port author-ity that the RNLI took over the threeremaining Dublin Bay stations, Howth,Dun Laoghaire and Poolbeg.

In the early years of the Dublin Baylifeboat service the outstanding figurewas a Co. Kildare man, William Hutch-ison, former naval officer, then havenmaster at Bulloch, Dalkey, and laterfirst harbour master at Dun Laoghaire.This remarkable man, an outstandingfigure in Irish nineteenth centurymaritime history, was the first Irishlifeboatman to win the ShipwreckInstitution (later RNLI) gold medal, forthe rescue of the crew of the collierDuke aground in a gale at SandycovePoint in 1829. Last year Mr Gilligan,whose interest in William Hutchisonhad been aroused when our researchesbegan to reveal what an exceptionalman he was, obtained from Mrs JoanBlundell, resident in England, agreat-granddaughter of the recipient,Hutchison's original gold medal fordisplay at the newly-established IrishNational Maritime Museum in theformer Mariners' Church, DunLaoghaire, where William Hutchisonworshipped, and on one of whose wallsthere is a plaque to his memory.

After the RNLI took over DunLaoghaire station, William Hutchisonbecame its first honorary secretary.When, following the drowning of mypredecessor Captain Kearon, I wasappointed honorary secretary here Iwas, quite unknown to myself, livingin the house where Hutchison hadlived as RNLI honorary secretary,Dun Laoghaire.—JOHN DE COURCY

IRELAND, station honorary secretary,Dun Laoghaire, Caprera, GrosvenorTerrace, Sorrento Road, Dalkey, Co.Dublin, Ireland.

Knock for knock?As a close reader of the journal for

many years, I have come to the conclu-sion that few of the ways of raisingfunds which are thought to be originalare, in fact, unique; but I think that theone I am about to relate is probablyunusual.

Last February I parked our familycar by the kerb for a few minutes andreturned just in time to see it receive aheavy blow on the front bumper from amuch larger car. The bumper waspushed out of line and the offendingdriver, a company director, gave methe card of his company who subse-quently agreed to meet the cost ofrepairs. It proved a simple matter torestore to the apparently normalappearance; but a bracket had been lefta few millimetres out of shape. Havingregard to the disturbance necessary toget it off for treatment, it was decidedto let ill alone.

Telling the company that they wouldtherefore have nothing to pay, I sug-gested that as a thank-offering theymight like to make a donation to ourlocal branch, and, lo and behold, theysent them £10.

This is not to be taken as suggestingthat dedicated supporters might leavetheir cars in vulnerable positions in thehope of raising funds in a similar man-ner!—NORMAN CLARKE, honoraryinformation officer, 41 Victoria Road,Colchester, Essex.

Lifeboats at model regattaTwo years ago Crosby Model Club

adopted a lifeboat and each year holdsa model boat regatta at which we col-lect around the lakeside for ourlifeboat. In the past we have givendemonstrations using models to simu-late rescues and staged mock battleswith model warships. We have just hadanother idea.

With model lifeboats becoming sopopular we thought it would be a goodidea to give lifeboat modellers a chanceto get together, to exchange ideas andat the same time help raise funds. Ifenough modellers would like to cometo our regetta we will give them a dis-play stand and models will be judgedfor authenticity and appearance on thewater by representatives of the RNLI.A trophy, to be held for one year,would be given to the modeller whoseboat received the highest marks, with aduplicate for the winner to keep.

I shall be happy to hear from anyoneinterested so that we can assess thepossibility of this idea; for furtherinformation please send to me astamped addressed envelope.—DESNEWTON, press officer, Crosby ModelClub, 29 Westminster Avenue, Bootle10, Merseyside, L30 5QY.

30

Lifeboat PeopleIt is with deep regret that we

announce the following deaths:

JanuaryHorace Eric Pengilly, coxswain of

Sennen Cove lifeboat from 1967 to 1968and then coxswain/mechanic until1978. He had served as second cox-swain from 1963 to 1967 and reservemechanic from 1961 to 1963. The silvermedal for gallantry was awarded toCoxswain Pengilly in 1977.

FebruaryAlastair R. T. Garrett, original sec-

retary of the YLA, forerunner ofShoreline membership of the RNL1.

MarchThomas James King, coxswain of St

Helier lifeboat, Jersey, from 1945 to1949. He had joined the crew in 1922and served as bowman from 1929 to

On his retirement after 30 years ser-vice as honorary treasurer, first atExeter and then Exmouth, LeslieAplin was presented with a clockfrom Exmouth branch by honorarysecretary Len Smith (I.) and aninscribed shield by John Atterton (r.),deputy director RNLI. A silver badgewas presented to Mrs Gladys Aplin,chairman of Exmouth and BudleighSalterton ladies' guild.

photograph by courtesy ofThe Western Times'

1939 and second coxswain from 1939 to1945. Coxswain King was awarded thegold medal for outstanding gallantry in1949.

Honorary Alderman G. H. W. Grif-fith, Lord Mayor of Birmingham dur-ing Coronation Year and chairman ofBirmingham branch from 1956 until1974 when he became president. It wasduring his chairmanship that the City ofBirmingham lifeboat appeal providedthe funds for City of Birmingham nowstationed at Exmouth. He was awardeda silver badge in 1969.

AprilE. G. E. Rayner, a member of the

Committee of Mangement since 1972.Mr Rayner, vice-chairman of CadburySchweppes Ltd and chairman of Can-trell and Cochrane (GB) Ltd, served onthe RNLI Executive and Public Rela-tions Committees.

Percy G. Garon, MC GM, who hadserved Southend-on-Sea lifeboat sta-tion as chairman from 1945 to 1952, ashonorary secretary from 1952 to 1975and subsequently as vice-president,remaining an active committeemember. He was awarded a gold badgein 1975 and was made an honorary lifegovernor of the RNLI in 1977.

(Left) Coxswain James Turpin of Foweylifeboat was presented with the BEM,awarded to him in the 1977 Birthday Hon-ours, by the Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall,Viscount Falmouth, at Fowey Gallants Sail-ing Club on December 4.

Flashback: (above) Mrs E. A. Harris,chairman of Hawarden branch, and MrsReidford, a committee member, taking theirpart in flag day in 1977, just as they havedone ever since (below) 1937.

Tudor B. Roberts, honorary secre-tary of Holyhead lifeboat station from1963 and Trearddur Bay ILB stationfrom 1967 unti l his death.

MayCaptain F. H. Edwards, harbour

master at Falmouth and honorary sec-retary of the lifeboat station from 1969until his death.

Andrew A. Mitchell, cox-swain/mechanic of Portpatrick lifeboatsince 1968. He had served as reservemechanic from 1950 until 1968.

Gilbert Chambers, BEM, second cox-swain/mechanic of Portrush lifeboatfrom 1975. He had served as assistantmechanic from 1937 to 1939, returningafter the war as motor mechanic from1947 to 1975. He was awarded thethanks of the Institution inscribed onvellum in 1961 and 1965.

(Below) David John Nelson, son of Assistant MechanicJohn Buckland of Eastbourne lifeboat and his wife Joan,and horn on Trafalgar Day 1977, was christened byFather Roy Cotton using the ship's bell of the former HMSEastbourne as font. Coxswain Joe Martin of Hastingslifeboat (I.) is David's godfather.

A double baptism aboard Appledore lifeboat: On Sunday March 5 The ReverendDonald L. Peyton Jones, Vicar of Appledore and Priest-in-charge of LundyIsland, christened Faye, daughter of Clifford and Angela Edwards, and MatthewRoy, son of Roy and Elizabeth Harkness. Both fathers are crew members.

31

Shorelinefrom page 25

what it would take to get Carol into aflap! If you would like to start coven-anting your subscriptions you may doso at any time by indicating this onyour next correspondence. We shallthen be happy to forward to you thenecessary form.

A frequent opinion seems to be thatonce computers become involved the'personal touch' is soon lost, but we, inthe membership section, like to feelthat this is not so and that we shall con-tinue to feel personally involved withall our members. Perhaps after thisbrief insight into Shoreline office, youmay feel a little more personallyinvolved with us.

One of our members who hasbecome very personally involved withShoreline is Mrs Nora Neill. She hasput a great deal of effort into collectingunwanted Green Shield stamps andturning them into cash. To date she hasamassed £1,200 worth and is hoping tokeep up the momentum. So, if youhave any Green Shield stamps tospare—a few, half a book . . . a wholebook full!—Mrs Neill would welcomethem. Her address is 95 FitzroyAvenue, Harborne, Birmingham, B178RG. To Mrs Neill, thank you: yourefforts are sincerely appreciated.

The Independent Order of Foresters(IOF) has also become involved with

Shoreline in that it has adopted us forfour years so that we may benefit fromthe many functions they are arrangingthroughout this period, the proceeds ofwhich will bring welcome boosts to ourfunds. One of the events is a concert atthe Colston Hall, Bristol, at 7.30 pm onSaturday, October 28, to be given bythe Morriston Orpheus Male VoiceChoir together with the Band of theRoyal Corps of Signals. Tickets are£1.50, £1 and 75p, from J. Stringer,Home Lea, Crossview, Coppleston,Devon, to whom all enquiries should besent. The absolute deadline is Sep-tember 16, when the remaining ticketswill be returned to Colston Hall fromwhere they will be available fromSeptember 23.

Another IOF event which isexpected to be extremely popular is 'AShow Boat to Le Havre'. Leaving fromPortsmouth at 1430 on SaturdayNovemoer 18, afternoon tea will beserved on the way. Arrival at Le Havrewill be at 2000. Departure from LeHavre at 2230 to enjoy a smorgasborddinner dance and breakfast on the wayback to Southampton, to arrive at 0700on November 19. There will be a dutyfree shop on board for your Christmasshopping! Tickets cost £12.50 and allbookings should be made through Ber-nard E. Bloom, PHCR, 27 WilmingtonClose, Townhill Park, Southampton,SO2 2RD.

Yet another entry for your calendaris June 28 and 29, when the IOF will be

running a tombola stall at this year'sRoyal Norfolk Show, with the pro-ceeds again coming to Shoreline.

The target set by the IOF for thefour-year period is £50,000 with whichthey will purchase a boathouse and twoinshore lifeboats. Already a cheque for£5,000 has been given to the Institu-tion; it was presented at the LondonBoat Show by Nick Carter, assistant tothe chief ranger of the IndependentOrder of Foresters, to John Atterton,deputy director RNLI. So, all power totheir elbow!—LINDA GRAINGER.

'A Century of Valour'THE STORY OF CLACTON lifeboat stationfrom 1878 to 1978 has been told in abooklet written by Jack Froom, honor-ary secretary of the LifeboatEnthusiasts' Society Essex andThames Estuary Research Group.

The reader is taken right into theheart of the work of the station with avivid description of a present-day ser-vice over Jubilee weekend in 1977,starting well before the firing of themaroons: then back into the last cen-tury to trace the pattern from thebeginning with a good selection ofphotographs, old and new.

All profits from the sale of this book-let, which is supported by local adver-tisers, are in aid of Claction branch; itis available from the author at BurfordLodge, 164 Stock Road, Billericay,Essex, price 60p including post.

144 pages Many of the most stirring tales of 'the men who never turn back'—the crews of the R.N.L.I.—arc included from the very beginningof the service to today. So, too, are the stories of rescue and heroics byothers including the helicopter crews who risk their lives over thestormy seas.

The author is Commander Eric Middlcton, V.R.D., R.N.V.R., aformer lifeboat inspector, whose respect for the sea and the menwho rescue those in danger upon it is reflected in these thr i l l ingtales he relates so vividly.

SINGLE COPIES 50p.Send cheque or postal order to

Heritage Publications,Merchants House,

Barley Market Street,Tavistock, Devon.

AIDR.N.L.I.FUNDS

by selling these books in R.N.L.I, kiosks or shops. Order 10or more copies and benefit from a special 50% discount —payment within one month— on the books which retail at50p. This means that 25p from every copy sold at your shopor fund raising function could help to boost R.N.L.I, funds.

Order from: Heritage Publications, Merchants House,Barley Market Street, Tavistock, Devon.

32

Lifeboat Servicesfrom page 12

1004 the Atlantic 21 ILB Blue Peter IIlaunched on service with David Jonesas helmsman and John Askew andSimon Dubberley as crew; the honor-ary medical adviser, Dr Jack Dubber-ley, also embarked.

The sky was overcast with a fresh tostrong breeze, force 5 to 6, blowingfrom the south west. The sea was slightand visibility was good. It was about 40minutes before low water and the lastof the weak ebb stream was settingnorth eastwards. The tides were smallon this day with the moon being in itsfirst quarter.

Blue Peter 11 set off at full speed forPuffin Island. As she reached PuffinSound at 1010 she received a radiomessage from Penmon Coastguarddescribing the casualty as being a 65ftwhite-hulled motor yacht in position 23miles north of Penmon. The ILB wasadvised to steer north magnetic andmaintain radio watch on VHP channel16. Course was set to 000°M, but, leav-ing the shelter of land, the sea becameso much rougher that Helmsman Jonesfound it necessary to reduce speedslightly. As the ILB continued north-wards the wind, stil l from the southwest, freshened while visibili tydeteriorated.

At 1030 an RAF helicopter was heardto make radio contact with Rossekopand at 1055 the helicopter was sightedone mile ahead, the l imit of visibil i ty,hovering over the casualty.

As the ILB approached, Rossekopwas seen to be heading slowly southwest, into the sea, and rolling veryheavily. The wind had increased tostrong to near gale, force 6 to 7, with amoderate to heavy swell and breakingseas. Radio contact was establishedwith both the helicopter and Rossekop.

Helmsman Jones approached thecasualty from ahead, passed down herport side and round her stern, station-ing the ILB on Rossekop's starboardquarter to assess the effect of the sea.At 1100, with difficulty, he man-oeuvred the ILB alongside Rossekopand Dr Dubberley and his son Simonmanaged to scramble on board over herstarboard side. Blue Peter II then stoodoff on the starboard quarter.

It was found that Rossekop wasbeing steered by a member of thehelicopter crew, with her injured skip-per in the wheelhouse. While Dr Dub-berley was examining those on board.Helmsman Jones exchanged CrewMember John Askew for Simon Dub-berley because John Askew had moreexperience with motor yachts andmachinery. At 1110 it was decided thatthe skipper and six crew membersshould be winched off Rossekop andtaken to hospital by helicopter. John

Askew would assume command of thecasualty and, helped by Dr Dubberley,would take her into Beaumarisescorted by the ILB.

Rossekop was headed north eastand, over a period of 40 minutes, hercrew were transferred to the aircraft.Before leaving, her skipper had toldJohn Askew that the sight glass on themain fuel tank was fractured andengine fuel would have to be pumpedevery 15 minutes up to a smallemergency three-gallon header tank.The oil pressure and temperaturegauges were not working.

By 1150 all seven members of Ros-sekop's crew were safely on board thehelicopter and the pilot gave the twoboats the course for Puffin Island. Thewind was now gusting over force 7 andthe sea was very rough. John Askewchecked the engine room bilges andfuel state and set course on 195° M withthe ILB in close attendance and inradio contact. Helmsman Jones in theILB was having extreme difficulty inmaintaining station with Rossekop,which was making about 7 knots. Hisfuel was down to 16 gallons.

At 1250 Rossekop's engine stopped,and on entering the engine room JohnAskew found steam and boiling watererupting from the cooling water tank.The cooling water pump had failed andthe diesel engine had overheated andseized up. It took more than three quar-ters of an hour working in very difficultconditions, with Rossekop lying beamto the sea and rolling violently, for JohnAskew to rig a jury water cooling sys-tem and restart the engine.

Course was then resumed towardsBeaumaris but Rossekop's engine wasto stop twice more in the next half hourdue to air in the fuel system. At 1352John Askew estimated his position tobe six or seven miles off Puffin Island,but by this time Beaumaris honorarysecretary was becoming apprehensiveabout the position of both the casualtyand the ILB. An auxiliary coastguardafloat vessel, Cordelia II four milesnorth of Penmon, which had reportedsighting Rossekop at 1300, could nolonger see her 23 minutes later. It wastherefore decided to launch Beaumaris46ft 9in Watson lifeboat GreaterLondon II (Civil Service No. 30); sheslipped at 1411.

The wind, still blowing hard from thesouth west, was now estimated to begusting to gale force 8 and severe galeforce 9 at times. Rossekop and BluePeter II continued slowly southward ontheir course of 195°M into rough andbreaking seas. At 1420 the ILB wasdown to eight gallons of fuel andHelmsman Jones decided that he mustleave the casualty and make forBeaumaris. He told Rossekop what hewas going to do by radio and set off.This was the last contact the ILB hadwith the casualty because Rossekop'sVHP became detached from its housingin the wheelhouse and was damaged.

Still steering 195°M, Blue Peter IImade a landfall at 1450 and 15 minuteslater sighted West Constable Buoy toport; she had been set about sevenmiles east by the strong wind and threehours of flood tide. Helmsman Jones,very concerned about his fuel state,abandoned the idea of trying to reachBeaumaris and told Penmon Coast-guard he would head for Conwy. Llan-dudno lifeboat, at sea on exercise,intercepted the radio message andadvised the ILB to make for the shelterof Llandudno Bay and land on thebeach where shore helpers would bewaiting for her. Blue Peter II arrivedalongside Llandudno public slipway at1520 with only two gallons of fuel re-maining, having been at sea for overfive hours in gale force winds andrough seas. She remained at Llandudnoovernight and returned to Beaumarisby sea the next day.

Meanwhile, it was now one hoursince the last radio contact withRossekop and Llandudno lifeboat, the37ft Oakley Lilly Wainwright, wasrequested to join Beaumaris lifeboat inthe search. At 1540 MV Sea Valiant, sixmiles north of Great Ormes Head, alsostarted to search.

On board Rossekop John Askew washaving difficulty keeping the enginesgoing because of the air in the fuel sys-tem; they had stopped a further fivetimes. Dr Jack Dubberley, despite per-sistent seasickness, nevertheless car-ried out all work assigned to him.

A little while after 1600 visibilitylifted to about two miles and occasion-ally more. From Rossekop land wassighted ahead but could not be disting-uished, and course was altered a littlefurther westward. After a reportedsighting by Sea Valiant at 1620 fivemiles north of Great Ormes Head, thetwo lifeboats made for the position andboth were in company with Rossekopten minutes later. She was escorted toLlandudno Bay, arriving in shelteredwaters at 1740. By this time the windhad moderated to force 5 to 6 and visi-bility was good.

Rossekop's engine was examined byLlandudno motor mechanic, BobJones, and it was considered she couldgo on to Beaumaris escorted byBeaumaris lifeboat. Crew MembersRoy Jones and Richard Zalot transfer-red to Rossekop to help John Askewand Dr Dubberley and the two boatsleft Llandudno at 1816. The passage toMenai Straits was made without inci-dent at half speed and by 2135 Ros-sekop was safely secured alongside aconcrete barge at Menai Bridge and thelifeboat had returned to her mooring offBeaumaris Pier ready for service.

For this service the thanks of theInstitution inscribed on vellum havebeen accorded to Helmsman David W.Jones and vellum service certificates toCrew Members John C. Askew andSimon Dubberley and to HonoraryMedical Adviser Dr Jack Dubberley.

33

Services by OffshoreLifeboats, December,1977, January andFebruary, 1978

Aberdeen, AberdeenshireDecember 11.Aith, ShetlandDecember 9.Aldeburgh, SuffolkJanuary 1.Amble, NorthumberlandDecember 12.Appledore, North DevonDecember 11 and January 21.Arranmore, Co. DonegalFebruary 18.Barra Island, Inverness-shireDecember 2, January 5 and February 28.Bembridge, Isle of WightDecember 3 and January 23.Blyth, NorthumberlandDecember 17.Bridlington, HumbersideDecember 3, 5, January 3 (three times), 11,23 and February 23Calshot, HampshireDecember 4 ,11 , January 11,25 andFebruary 18.Clacton-on-Sea, EssexJanuary 8 (twice).Clogher Head, Co. LouthDecember 22.Clovelly, North DevonDecember 11, 24 and 27.Cromer, NorfolkDecember 24.Douglas, Isle of ManJanuary 27 and 29.Dover, KentDecember 7.Dunbar, East LothianJanuary 7 and 14.Dungeness, KentFebruary 23.Dunmore East, Co. WaterfordDecember 20, February 1 and 20.Eastbourne, East SussexJanuary 17.Eyemouth, BerwickshireFebruary 14.Falmouth, CornwallDecember 19, January 15, February 19 and27.Flamborough, HumbersideFebruary 19 and 23.Fleetwood, LancashireDecember 7 and January 1.Fowey, CornwallDecember 1 and January 5.Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, NorfolkDecember 24, 31, January 11, 12 (twice),13, 26, 28 and 29Hartlepool, ClevelandDecember 18 and January 18Harwich, EssexJanuary 8, 22, February 1 and 17.Holy head, GwyneddDecember 2, 27, January 7, February 6 and9.Humber, HumbersideJanuary 3, 10 and 28.Invergordon, HighlandJanuary 27.Islay, ArgyllshireJanuary 6, 11 and February 18.Kilmore, Co. WexfordDecember 5 and 24 (twice).Longhope, OrkneyDecember 12 and January 31.

Lowes toft, SuffolkJanuary 8.Margate, KentJanuary 8 and 11.Moelfre, GwyneddFebruary 27.Montrose, AngusJanuary 23, 24, 25 and 26 (twice).North Sunderland, NorthumberlandDecember 8 and 15.Padstow, CornwallDecember 10, 24, 27, January 23 andFebruary 19.Penlee, CornwallDecember 5, 27 (three times), 28 andFebruary 18.Peterhead, AberdeenshireDecember 7.Plymouth, South DevonJanuary 5, 14 and February 15.Poole, DorsetDecember 4, 13, 18, January 8 and 18.Port St Mary, Isle of ManJanuary 4.Pwllheli, GwyneddDecember 24.Ramsgate, KentDecember 11 and January 8.Redcar, ClevelandJanuary 3, and February 23.Rosslare Harbour, Co. WexfordDecember 24, February 6 and 26.Runswick, ClevelandJanuary 3 (twice), 11 and 18.St David's, DyfedDecember 24.St Helier, JerseyFebruary 1 and 3.St Ives, CornwallDecember 5, 22, 23, 24, January 11 andFebruary 28.St Mary's, Isles of ScillyJanuary 12 and February 6.St Peter Port, GuernseyDecember 1, February 1, 10 and 15.Scarborough, North YorkshireDecember 20.Selsey, West SussexDecember 10.Sennen Cove, CornwallDecember 5 and February 18.Sheerness, KentJanuary 1.Shoreham Harbour, West SussexJanuary 14 (twice).Skegness, LincolnshireJanuary 8, 11 and 13 (twice).Stornoway, Ross-shireDecember 31 and February 16.Sunderland, Tyne and WearDecember 30.Thurso, CaithnessJanuary 31.Torbay, South DevonJanuary 8 and February 19.Troon, AyrshireDecember 30, January 3 and February 8.Tynemouth, Tyne and WearFebruary 3.Walmer, KentDecember 10 and 11.Walton and Frinton, EssexJanuary 8.Wells, NorfolkJanuary 8.Weymouth, DorsetJanuary 21.Whitby, North YorkshireDecember 4, 6, January 11,18 and 31.Wick, CaithnessDecember 12.Workington, CumbriaDecember 20 and January 19.

Yarmouth, Isle of WightDecember 8,15 and February 15.ON 1043 On trialsJanuary 26.ON 890 On passageJanuary 23.

Services by InshoreLifeboats, December,1977, January andFebruary, 1978Aberdovey, GwyneddJanuary 10.Arbroath, AngusJanuary 4.Berwick-upon-Tweed, NorthumberlandDecember 10.Blackpool, (1)1171, LancashireFebruary 19.Blackpool, (D528), LancashireJanuary 18.Broughty Ferry, AngusFebruary 5.Eastney, (B530), HampshireDecember 11, 29 and February 25.Eastney, (D184), HampshireDecember 11 ,18 and January 12 (twice).Hartlepool, ClevelandJanuary 18.Harwich, EssexJanuary 22, February 4 and 14.Hayling Island, HampshireDecember 23, 29, January 2 and 3.Helensburgh, DunbartonshireDecember 19 and 25.Largs, AyrshireJanuary 28.Littlehampton, West SussexJanuary 16.Llandudno, GwyneddDecember 3.Lytham-St Anne's, LancashireJanuary 20.Margate, KentDecember 23.Morecambe, LancashireFebruary 25.Mudeford, DorsetJanuary 11 and February 25.Newquay, CornwallDecember 10.Poole, DorsetDecember 3, 4 and January 1.Queensferry, West LothianJanuary 6 and 21.Silloth, CumbriaDecember 29 (twice).Southwold, SuffolkJanuary 7, 8 and 9.Tynemouth, Tyne and WearFebruary 8 and 25.West Kirby, MerseysideJanuary 1.West Mersea, EssexJanuary 7 and February 8.

When you have finished withyour copy of THE LIFEBOAT

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34

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35

Index to AdvertisersBirds Eye Foods Inside Front CoverCogswell & Harrison Limited 35Leslie Creasey 35Evett Sailwear Limited Inside back CoverHeritage Publications 32David Jolly (Tiller Master) 36Maritime Book Society (Readers Union) . .. .Outside Back CoverMermaid Marine Engines Limited Inside Back CoverNeco Marine Limited Inside Back CoverR. E. Prior & Co 35RFD Mills Equipment Limited 35Schlegel (U.K.) Engineering Limited 2Varley Dry Accumulators Limited 2V. Webster 36C. P. Witter Limited 36

TEDDY BEARS PICNICWhen your organisation holds its next fund raising effort at acarnival, fete, donkey derby, boat show or similar activity youcan make an additional £200 in a few hours by running aTeddy Bears Picnic. No financial risk as all stock is supplied atwholesale price on full sale or return, nothing to pay until afterthe event, then you pay for what you use, return the balance.Send for full details giving Club/Guild name and status to:

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ACCOMMODATIONBRIXHAM, DEVON. Really comfortablyfurnished self-catering holiday apartments,beside outer harbour overlooking TorbayLifeboat. Each apartment has television,fridge and modern facilities for 2-6 persons.Resident proprietors associated with TorbayLifeboat and Enthusiasts' Society. Stampplease for brochure: G. A. Smith, "HarbourLights", 69 Berry Head Road. Telephone4816.

TROPHIESRACE SETS—MAINSAILS—DINGHIES—CUPS. W. & E. Astin, 7 Westerly Lane,Shelley, Huddersfield. Kirkburton 2368.

FUND RAISINGAdvertising pencils, superb ballpens,combs, diaries, each gold stamped Lifeboatname, etc., raise funds, quickly easily. BranTub Toys: samples from Northern Novel-ties, Bradford BD1 3HE.

INSURANCEFrom the RNLI's home town of Poole,Incorporated Insurance Brokers, keenlyinterested in Marine Craft Insurance, wouldwelcome the opportunity of advising mem-bers on the insurance of their boats. For avery prompt and personal service and forkeen quotations, please contact: GEOF-FREY BERE, FCII, 19 WEDGWOODDRIVE, POOLE, BH14 8ES. Telephone:0202-730591.FOR ALL INSURANCE, Phone, Call orWrite J. A. Harrison (Brokers) Ltd, 'Sec-urity House', 160-161 Bromsgrove Street,Birmingham B5 6NY. Telephone: 021-692

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and inland waterways; the seashore; marine painting; maritime history and warfare: these are just some of the subjectscovered in a wealth of practical and information books TheMaritime Book Society also tells the stories of great ships, sailorsand explorers - from the Vikings to present-day adventurers likeRobin Knox Johnston.

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Maritime Book Society, Brunei House. Newton Abbot. Reg No 843946