RNLI 200 Voices

Martin Stephen has three sons and five grandchildren. He reveals why none of them would be here without the RNLI Martin Stephen and his two younger cousins, Angus and Davy, loved visiting Dunbar Harbour. When the wind blew strong, they’d pull on their welly boots and head down to watch the water crash onto the rocks. But on 23 December 1970, their windy-day ritual was never to be the same again. W...

Ireland’s voice of the sea – Tom MacSweeney – on the crew member who made the ultimate sacrifice on Christmas Eve  It was a false alarm with tragic consequences. Tom MacSweeney – maritime journalist and former presenter of RTE’s radio show, Seascapes – tells the story of what happened when RNLI Kilmore Quay volunteers left their loved ones on Christmas Eve 1977 to respond to a call out in their li...

It’s often said that the RNLI is a family. That’s certainly how former priest Tom McGuire feels – the Lough Ree Lifeboat Press Officer has even christened some of the crew  When his wife spotted an advert for Lifeboat Press Officer at Lough Ree RNLI, Tom didn’t hesitate to volunteer. Having previously worked in the area as a priest, he was welcomed into the role by crew he’d married, christened, o...

From the sea to Spaghetti Junction, Swim Safe’s Ashley Jones teaches children all over the UK to stay safe in and around open water   Most children learn to swim in an indoor pool, but swimming in open water is very different – and it's often when accidents happen. That’s why Swim England and the RNLI partnered to form the Swim Safe programme, which delivers fun and free water safety sessions to c...

Folk singer Seth Lakeman on what inspired him to write the song Solomon Browne in tribute to the Penlee lifeboat crew lost at sea Seth Lakeman grew up surrounded by remarkable stories – whether that be through his father’s career as a journalist, or spending weekends with his family immersed in music at local folk clubs. It was his passion for great stories – and tunes from the folk music communit...

She’s admired for being a history-making Olympian, but Helen Glover’s own admiration goes to RNLI crews. The Cornish rower explains why Having lived by the sea in Cornwall all her life, Olympic rower Helen Glover has loved the water for as long as she can remember. So it's no surprise that she's long admired the RNLI crews that put their lives on the line to save others. In particular, she singles...

When 12-year-old Theo Pulman spotted a friend struggling in the water, he remembered the RNLI’s float-to-live advice  It was the school summer holidays. Theo and his friends were enjoying a day at Burry Port Beach, when one of Theo’s friends got into difficulty in the sea. Dashing into the water to help the boy, Theo asked another friend to call 999.   Theo talks about the advice he gave the boy:...

Meet the man who helped develop the first lifejacket to fit both male and female crew  Male. Female. Tall. Short. Light. Heavy. RNLI crew come in every size and shape – and it was RNLI Senior Engineer Allen Steven’s job to work on a lifejacket design to fit every crew member. The first person to acknowledge that one size doesn’t fit all, Allen explains how crew input influenced the lifejacket’s ev...

Loch Ness may hold a sense of mystery, but tour guide Linda Izquierdo-Ross is in no doubt about its dangers Loch Ness most definitely is home to at least one monster, says RNLI Deputy Launch Authority Linda Izquierdo-Ross. But the one Linda has in mind is not the kind of monster we imagine. The loch is very cold all year round. It provides less buoyancy than salt water, and, due to the peat partic...

In December, 1981, the St Peter Port lifeboat crew braved 15m waves to go to the aid of stricken cargo ship, the Bonita. The late coxswain – Michael Scales – relives a momentous rescue In the second of two episodes dedicated to one of the RNLI’s finest rescues, the late coxswain of the Sir William Arnold lifeboat – Michael Scales – recalls battling 3-storey swells to help save 29 lives. Arriving a...

Nils Fosstveit takes us back to the night he’ll never forget – and to what was, at the time, the biggest Channel rescue since the Second World War 13 December, 1981: in hurricane-force winds, cargo ship – the Bonita – was sinking off the Channel Islands. 27-year-old Nils Fosstveit was one of 36 crew on board. Not all would survive. Nils did, but in his own words, it was by ‘very small margins’. At...

A sailor’s boat was sinking on a pitch-black night. As RNLI volunteers searched the waters off Jersey, their only hope was a flicker of light in the distance St Catherine’s Robin Fitzgerald was brushing his teeth when his pager went off. It was a starless, moonless night and with the sailor in the water, time was of the essence. Duty Helm that night, Robin talks about launching to the rescue in to...

Having lived in a former boathouse, Nora Flanagan was destined to join the RNLI. In Gaelic, we hear from Arranmore’s first female crew member Speaking in Gaelic, Nora Flanagan describes the old boathouse she grew up in, with the Arranmore lifeboat anchored just outside the door. Though she trained as a nurse in Edinburgh and worked in London, Nora was an islander at heart and returned to Arranmore...

It remains the biggest loss of lifeboat crew in the RNLI’s history – David Forshaw on the 1886 Mexico disaster, and why it was a pivotal moment for the charity On 10 December 1886, 27 lifeboatmen from Lytham St. Annes and Southport tragically lost their lives while attempting to rescue the crew from the German barque Mexico, which had run aground after getting caught in perilous conditions. Those...

Michele Jagger explains why having her daughter’s name on the Whitby lifeboat is so special Three weeks before Michele’s daughter, Shannon, sadly passed away, they enjoyed some mother-daughter time in Whitby – one of Michele’s favourite places. As well as having a soft spot for the beautiful seaside town, Michele has always been in awe of the RNLI volunteers that risk their lives to save others. S...

When the RNLI lifeboat Mona capsized, all eight crew members were lost. Robin Smith should’ve been on it In 1959, Robin Smith - who at the time was on the crew at Broughty Ferry RNLI - was due to go out on the Mona lifeboat. As he was getting the lifeboat ready for launch, the ex-coxswain arrived. But as it was the new coxswain’s first call out, it was tradition for the ex-coxswain to go with the...

Tina Powsey on how she floated to live It was a chilly July morning in Anglesey when Tina and her friend, Mags, headed down to the water for a swim. As they were having fun jumping through the waves, they suddenly realised that the ground had disappeared beneath their feet. They had drifted worryingly far from where they entered the sea. And the next thing they knew, they started drifting from eac...

The RNLI’s busiest lifeboat station isn’t on the coast – it’s on the Thames. And when Linda Martin collapsed while on a boat trip, Tower lifesavers launched for the sixth time in one day Linda Martin was with her daughter and grandson on a pleasure boat trip on the Thames when Linda felt faint and collapsed on the floor of the boat. She talks about her memories of that day, the calming presence of...

In his book, The Price of Charity, JP Gallagher calls the RNLI a unique organisation. In this 1970s recording a former Kirkcudbright coxswain explains why What makes lifeboat volunteers leave their beds in the middle of the night to go to the aid of someone they don’t even know? Former Kirkcudbright RNLI Coxswain George Davidson gets to the root of the ethos shared by all those responsible for a l...

Holyhead volunteer Graham Drinkwater MBE on helping to save 19 lives at 19-years-old Graham Drinkwater’s first ever lifeboat rescue takes some beating. On 2 December 1966, at just 19-years-old, the Holyhead lifeboat volunteer went to the aid of the crew aboard the stricken Nafsiporos Greek cargo ship in a raging storm and 100mph winds. Graham shares his memories of the rescue, being on the lifeboa...

The sailor who overcomes cerebral palsy to raise thousands for the RNLI Determined. Courageous. Dedicated. All words that describe Natasha – a sailor from the Isle of Wight, born with athetoid cerebral palsy – whose sailing adventures have helped raise an incredible £28K for the RNLI. Natasha’s condition means she needs help 24 hours a day, but sailing gives her a great sense of freedom. It’s some...

RNLI Gold Medals don’t come along very often. Nor do men like Dic Evans, who earned two of them. Travel back to 1966 and angry Anglesey seas In this archive recording, RNLI lifeboat volunteers recall the dramatic rescue of the crew who were on board the Greek cargo ship Nafsiporos during a violent storm on 2 December 1966. One of the lifesavers was the late Moelfre Coxswain Richard ‘Dic’ Evans, wh...

For Ireland’s legendary Olympian, an athletics career and RNLI service had one important thing in common In December 1956, Ronnie Delany won a gold medal in the 1500m race at the Olympics in Melbourne. In this episode, the RNLI's former Vice President takes pride in how he competed for an all-Ireland country as an athlete, and in how, through his work with the RNLI, he supported an all-Ireland cha...

Speaking in Scots Gaelic, a Mallaig RNLI crew member reminds us that not all who need saving are in the water. Welcome to Na Garbh Chriochan (The Rough Bounds) The train line in these parts – on Scotland’s west coast – is known as the Harry Potter line, and is considered one of the most scenic in the world. It’s where film-makers shot the Hogwarts Express scenes. The area – opposite the Isle of Sk...

There are more men that have walked on the moon than there are women who have completed the world’s toughest solo sailing race. Pip Hare is one of those women The Vendée Globe sailing race is as much about mental strength as physical strength. It requires participants to race around the world, non-stop and alone. And Pip Hare is just the eighth woman on Earth to have completed it. In this episode,...