Rough seas and always ready... RNLI marks 200 years of saving souls

WHEN I think of a lifeboat crew at sea in rough weather, this is the description that most sticks out in my mind: “It was like hitting a concrete wall, when we struck those big waves, the physical shock was huge. I had no doubt that being on a lifeboat was going to be tough and demanding.”

They were spoken by Frances Glody when I interviewed her in Dunmore East, Co. Waterford, in 1981, after she wrought a major change in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), as the first woman to join the crew of an all-weather lifeboat in Ireland.

At the time it was known that upper, conservative echelons of the RNLI did not particularly want women serving as crew members, but there was support for Frances in Dunmore and her determination paid off. Her father was a lifeboat man and she wanted to be on the crew.

In more than 50 years of journalism, reporting many lifeboat stories, determination is one of the words I associate strongly with lifeboat crews. Courage and bravery also, but lifeboat volunteers don’t see themselves in that light.

What motivates these volunteers when emergencies can call them at any time, in the middle of storms and gales, to go to the assistance of those in peril, is a question I have asked many crew. Is there not an element of fear for their own safety in answering a call for help?

“Drown you may, go you must,” was the answer of a crewman, which I adopted for RTÉ documentary radio and television features about the RNLI.

I have been to many lifeboat stations around the Irish coast and marvelled at the commitment of crews. Remuneration is not an issue. There are paid staff who administer the RNLI and permanent staff such as coxswains and mechanics in stations, there are call-out fees available, but the primary motivation to become lifeboat crew, I have found, is the greatest of all - to save the lives of others.

Dick Robinson, of Valentia Island, a lifeboatman and later a well-known writer on the role, told me: “It’s when you see someone walk up the pier after a rescue, who might not be doing so if you weren’t there to rescue, that’s the reward that matters.”

When the RNLI was founded in 1824, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. The first two lifeboat stations recommended for Ireland were set up at Arklow and in Courtmacsherry in 1825. After Irish independence, the RNLI remained active in the new Republic. Fishing communities were its main source of crews, but that has changed over time and it has reached out, with success, to a larger cross-section.

Lifeboats have also changed hugely, providing improved conditions for crews, better communications, better boats.

The Shannon Class, following a tradition of naming lifeboats after rivers - and with Irish involvement in its development - is the latest evolution.

The newest lifeboat on the Cork coastline is the Val Adnams at Courtmacsherry. The day it was formally named in September, its crew were ushered out on a 5.22am call when a swimmer got into difficulty.

When you see the historic Mary Stanford, which stands on display outside Ballycotton village overlooking the lighthouse, the determination of lifeboat crews again comes to mind. The lifeboat here from 1930 to 1959, it carried out what is regarded as the most famous rescue in Irish lifeboat history in the gales of February, 1936. A Gold Medal was awarded to legendary Coxswain Patrick Sliney and Silver and Bronze Medals to his crew, after they saved the Daunt Rock lightvessel crew. The lifeboat was on service for 63 hours, while her crew had three hours sleep. For 25 hours they had no food.

That would not happen in the modern lifeboats. But it still takes determination and bravery to put to sea in the worst of weather to rescue those in danger.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the introduction of rigid inflatables to the RNLI fleet. The ‘RIBS’ enable crews to operate closer to shore and in shallower water, near cliffs and rocks. They are based on the Cork coastline at Youghal, Crosshaven, Ballycotton, and Union Hall. The Inshore ‘RIBS’ have saved 30,778 lives since 1963.

Memories of a lifetime associated with stories of lifeboat crews come flooding back - recording the story of Courtmacsherry’s then rowing-and-sailing lifeboat on May 7, 1915, going to the rescue of the sinking Lusitania with Jerry Murphy, a member of that crew: “There was nothing but dead bodies floating all around.”

There was the Christmas Eve tragedy at Kilmore Quay in Wexford, when the station’s lifeboat Lady Murphy capsized twice in severe weather, having responded to what turned out to be a false call.

The boat, with its automatic righting system, came upright. Joe Maddock, a fisherman who was a crewman was thrown off it twice, but managed to get back on board. Crewman Finton Sinnott was lost.

Joe told me about going to tell the Sinnott family at their home on December 25: “The Christmas scene was there, the tree, the presents, no-one had expected what would happen just hours before.”

I remember other times - the rescue of Charlie Haughey in 1985, when his yacht sank at the Mizen.

Reporting that story, gathered in Bushe’s pub in Baltimore after he was landed in the village by its lifeboat, the suggestion was we should all have a newly-named drink - ‘Haughey on the Rocks’… I’m not sure that went down well with the politician!

RNLI Ireland has a great record of rescue, these are a few personal thoughts. As 2024 and the bicentenary beckons, ‘fair sailing’ to all in the lifeboat service.

TIDES OF TIME... MILESTONES OF THE RNLI

March 4, 1824: In a London pub, Sir William Hillary founds the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck.

1854: RNLI Inspector, Captain Ward, invents the cork lifejacket.

1884: Leonora Preston designs the RNLI flag after her brother was rescued by lifeboat volunteers in Ramsgate, Kent.

1891: First street collection for the RNLI, in Manchester.

1905: The first motorised lifeboat takes to the seas.

March 17, 1907: In the most successful RNLI rescue of all time, off Cornwall, all 456 passengers and crew of the Suevic are saved by lifeboat crews who rowed back and forth for 16 hours.

1914-18: During World War I, lifeboats launched 1,808 times and saved 5,332 lives.

1939-45: RNLI crews saved 6,376 lives during World War II.

1969: Elizabeth Hostvedt, 18, became the first woman qualified to command an inshore lifeboat.

August 30, 1974: The last lightship to stand guard over the Daunt Rock, the Osprey, was taken out of commission, ending the lightships era. A hi-tech beacon-buoy now does the job. 

The Osprey is now a trendy nightclub, moored on the Seine in Paris. Renamed Le Batofar (le bateau-phare, or lighthouse boat) it hosts cutting-edge electro bands and DJ-driven, after-hours dance parties. If that’s not your scene, it also functions during the day as a restaurant and café.