Royal National Lifeboat Institution

RNLI Motor Lifeboats: A Century of Motor Life Boats One hundred years ago, the first tentative steps to introduce motive power into the fleet of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution were taken when a small petrol engine was fitted to a pulling lifeboat. Since those early days, when motor lifeboats were small open craft with single engines, the RNLI has come a long way. Modern lifeboats are now complex and technologically advanced craft providing the skilled and highly-trained volunteer lifeboat crews with a sophisticated rescue tool. This unique book celebrates a century of RNLI motor lifeboats and includes details of every one, with descriptions of each class.

Riders of the Storm: The Story of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution Saving lives from the waters around the coasts of Britain and all Ireland doesn't get any less hazardous. For more than 175 years rescuing sailors from shipwrecks or holidaymakers from small boats has been in the hands of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which remains a wholly voluntary-funded, non-Government organisation. No matter how sophisticated ships have become storms are as bad as ever and ships, it seems, just as likely to get into difficulties. The lives of crews are still at risk: it is only 20 years since the small Cornish fishing village of Penlee lost half the adult menfolk when its lifeboat sank at sea. 1999 saw an average of 18 lifeboat launches daily around Britain and Ireland, with 18 people brought to safety and 3 people saved from death. Cameron's account is not the first, but this account puts the story into a political and social perspective, and still thrills with the stirring and often poignant narrative of the rescues themselves. That crews continue to risk their own lives to save those who haven't always behaved sensibly is part of the lifeboat service ethos. In Cameron's view the quality required by lifeboat crews above all else is courage.

Bridlington Lifeboat To save the lives of mariners at the mercy of the North Sea storms that swept the coast of East Yorkshire, in 1805, the men of Bridlington Quay established a Lifeboat at the port. This book pilots the reader through two centuries of transformation from a wooden rowing boat, launched by horses and manpower, to the hi-tech vessel.

Lost Photographs of the RNLI Sometime after 1948, a collection of 39 photographs was borrowed from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's London headquarters by the American explorer, writer and film-maker, Amos Burg, in all probability for a National Geographic article that was never published. These photographs illustrated the RNLI's history from the 1920s to the end of the Second World War, an era which proved to be one of the RNLI's busiest times as crews around the country repeatedly answered calls to wartime casualties. RNLI wartime records are scarce, so photographs in this collection are of special value. The collection includes pictures of Henry Blogg, probably the most famous lifeboat man of all time, and of one of his Gold Medal-winning rescues. The photos were discovered by Charles Campbell, among piles of paperwork in a shed in the grounds of Burg's house. Each photo had the words 'please return to the RNLI' stamped on the back, so that is exactly what Campbell did, personally delivering them to the RNLI headquarters in Poole 55 years after Burg took them. Each photograph from the 'lost' collection comprises an individual chapter, supported by a narrative description of the rescue depicted.

Heroes All!: Story of the RNLI During 1991 the lifeboats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution were called out nearly 5000 times and saved more than 1300 lives. The author of this book visited over 130 lifeboat stations during his research for this book, logging the details of hundreds of missions, from the earliest days of the RNLI to the present time. Some of the stories are tragic, others amusing, with many tales of sheer courage earning the lifeboat crews awards for heroism.

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