RNLI

[lew600fazer]

They are a charity and the the purpose of any charity is to raise money for the cause and by your own admission, they are bloody good at it! One minute you say your not knocking the crews, then you say you never see the crew putting money into the coffers. According to you the crews get payed and are on a `bloody good deal` and you live behind the station so why are you not a lifeboat man??? You can say what you like, but most people would agree you dont need rose tinted glasses to see these blokes are real heroes which is what the original post was about.

Think you need to read back on the posts, never mentioned anything about them getting paid, never mentioned anything about the crew not putting their money back in the pot. As far as I am aware the only crew member that does get paid is the mechanic as it is a full time job. I do not know were the figure of £65 a day came from. I would assume that is to cover expenses while they are on training courses and just right to as the individual will be taking time off from his day job. Why did I not join my local boat as a crew member, seeing as I lived behind the station? simples I was a merchant seaman and you have to be available 24/7 seeing as I was at sea and away from home for long periods there is your answer.  You seem to avoiding a question I asked do you have any background with either the RNLI or the maritime industry. As I said I spent 45 years as a seafarer (marine engineer). Yes the RNLI are very good at marketing there charity but I will stick to WHAT I DID SAY THEY ARE AN OVER SUBSCRIBED CHARITY.
I was on a ship called the Union Venus in 1981as the engineer, I should have been on the sister ship the Union Star as I was standing by the building of the Union Star and was to put her into service. The only reason I did not was that the engineer on the Union Venus fell ill and I was transferred to her a month before the Union Star was to enter service, there by the grace of god go I, see below. At no time in any of my posts have I EVER been crtical about the CREWS of the life boats. The article that follows below is testament to the unselfishness and Bravery of the boats crews. The crew of the Hoylake boat by the way are in need of a new boat as the current boat is coming to the end of her service life, but the powers that be felt that the new station was more important. They are still waiting for their new boat, now which do you think would be more important for the safety of the crew new boat or new boat house. While they were building the new station they also decided to spend £35,000 on a bronze statue memorial for the crew that were lost from the Hoylake boat in 1810, why wait so long, simple a marketing ploy, so as said most people look at the RNLI through rose tinted glasses, NOTE I AM NOT KNOCKING THE CREWS.Penlee lifeboat disasterFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia                                        Jump to:              navigation,                search            [table][tr][td]Penlee lifeboat disaster[table][tr][td]

[img width=280 height=210 alt=Penlee boathouse from the foreshore.jpg]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Penlee_boathouse_from_the_foreshore.jpg/280px-Penlee_boathouse_from_the_foreshore.jpg[/img]
Penlee Lifeboat Station

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Date

19 December 1981

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Location

Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England
(50°03′08″N 5°34′39″W / 50.0523°N 5.5774°W / 50.0523; -5.5774 (Tater Du))

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Outcome

16 lives lost; no survivors

[/td][/tr][/table]The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall, in England, UK. The Penlee Lifeboat went to the aid of the coaster Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas. After the lifeboat had managed to rescue four people both vessels were lost with all hands; in all, sixteen people died including eight volunteer lifeboatmen.Contents  [hide]

• 1 MV Union Star
  
• 2 RNAS Sea King helicopter
  
• 3 RNLB Solomon Browne (ON 954)
  
• 4 Aftermath
  
• 5 See also
  
• 6 References
  
• 7 Further reading
  
• 8 External links
  

MV Union Star[edit]The MV Union Star was launched in Ringkobing in Denmark just a few days before it was wrecked on the Cornish coast. A mini-bulk carrier registered in Dublin, Ireland, it sailed to IJmuiden in the Netherlands to collect a cargo of fertiliser for its maiden voyage to Arklow in Ireland.[sup][1][/sup]
It carried a crew of five: Captain Henry Morton;[sup][2][/sup] Mate James Whittaker, Engineer George Sedgwick, Crewman Anghostino Verressimo, and Crewman Manuel Lopes.[sup][3][/sup] Also on board was the captain's family who had been picked up at an unauthorised stop on the east coast of England:[sup][2][/sup] his wife Dawn and teenage stepdaughters Sharon and Deanne.[sup][3][/sup]
Near the south coast of Cornwall, 8 miles (13 km) east of the Wolf Rock, the new ship's engines failed.[sup][1][/sup] She was unable to restart them but did not make a mayday call.[sup][2][/sup] Assistance was offered by a tug, the Noord Holland, under the Lloyd's Open Form salvage contract but Morton initially refused the offer, later accepting after consulting his owners.[sup][4][/sup]
Winds were gusting at up to 90 knots (100 mph; 170 km/h) – hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort scale – with waves up to 60 feet (18 m) high.[sup][5][/sup] The powerless ship was blown across Mount's Bay towards the rocks of Boscawen Cove, near Lamorna.RNAS Sea King helicopter[edit]In light of the closeness of the ship to the beach, the Coastguard at Falmouth summoned a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from 771 Naval Air Squadron, RNAS Culdrose. It used call sign "Rescue 80" during the mission.
The aircraft (airframe XZ574) was flown that night by United States Navy exchange-pilot Lt Cdr Russell Smith, assisted by Lt Steve Marlow, S/Lt Kenneth Doherty and Lacmn Martin Kennie of the Royal Navy.[sup][6][/sup] However, due to the extreme wave conditions, they were unable to winch anyone off the ship.[sup][2][/sup][sup][7][/sup]RNLB Solomon Browne (ON 954)[edit]The Coastguard had difficulties contacting the secretary of the nearest lifeboat, Penlee Lifeboat Station at Mousehole on the west side of the bay. They eventually contacted Coxswain Trevelyan Richards and asked him to put the lifeboat on standby in case the helicopter rescue failed. He summoned the lifeboat's volunteer crew and picked seven men to accompany him in the lifeboat.[sup][2][/sup] They were: Second Coxswain/Mechanic Stephen Madron, Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman, Emergency Mechanic John Blewett, crewmembers Charlie Greenhaugh, Kevin Smith, Barrie Torrie and Gary Wallis.[sup][8][/sup] Neil Brockman, the son of Nigel Brockman, got to the lifeboat station on time, but was turned down for the trip by Trevelyan Richards, who was reluctant to take out two members of the same family that night.[sup][8][/sup]
The lifeboat launched at 8:12 pm and headed out through the storm to the drifting coaster.[sup][1][/sup] The lifeboat was the Solomon Browne, a wooden 47-foot (14 m) Watson-class boat built in 1960[sup][9][/sup] and capable of 9 knots (17 km/h).[sup][2][/sup] After it had made several attempts to get alongside, four people managed to jump across;[sup][7][/sup] the captain's family and one of the men were apparently safe. The lifeboat radioed that 'we’ve got four off', but that was the last ever heard from anyone on either vessel.[sup][2][/sup]
Lt Cdr Smith USN, the pilot of the rescue helicopter later reported that:[sup][10][/sup][table][tr][td]

[color=rgb(178, 183, 242)][font=]“[/font][/color]

The greatest act of courage that I have ever seen, and am ever likely to see, was the penultimate courage and dedication shown by the Penlee [crew] when it manoeuvred back alongside the casualty in over 60 ft breakers and rescuing four people shortly after the Penlee had been bashed on top of the casualty's hatch covers. They were truly the bravest eight men I've ever seen who were also totally dedicated to upholding the highest standards of the RNLI.[/t]

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Lifeboats were summoned from Sennen Cove, The Lizard and St Mary's to try to help their colleagues from Penlee. The Sennen Cove Lifeboat found it impossible to make headway round Land's End. The Lizard Lifeboat found a serious hole in its hull when it finally returned to its slipway after a fruitless search. Wreckage from the Solomon Browne was found along the shore, and the Union Star lay capsized onto the rocks west of Tater Du Lighthouse. Some, but not all, of the 16 bodies were eventually recovered.[sup][2][/sup]
The inquiry into the disaster determined that the loss of the Union Star and its crew was because of:[sup][2][/sup]

• the irreparable failure of the ship's engines due to contamination of fuel by sea water while off a dangerous lee shore;
  
• the extreme severity of the weather, wind and sea; and
  
• the capsize of the vessel on or shortly after stranding.
  

The loss of the Solomon Browne was:[table][tr][td]

[color=rgb(178, 183, 242)][font=]“[/font][/color]

in consequence of the persistent and heroic endeavours by the coxswain and his crew to save the lives of all from the Union Star. Such heroism enhances the highest traditions of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in whose service they gave their lives.[/t]

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Aftermath[edit] The memorial at PenleeCoxswain Trevelyan Richards was posthumously awarded the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's gold medal, while the remainder of the crew were all posthumously awarded bronze medals. The station itself was awarded a gold medal service plaque.[sup][10][/sup] The disaster prompted a massive public appeal for the benefit of the village of Mousehole which raised over £3 million (£9.74 million as of 2013),[sup][11][/sup] although there was an outcry when the government tried to tax the donations.[sup][2][/sup]
Two nights before the disaster, Charlie Greenhaugh had turned on the Christmas lights in Mousehole. After the storm the lights were left off but three days later his widow, Mary, asked for them to be repaired and lit again.[sup][2][/sup] The village has been lit up each December since then, but on the anniversary of the disaster they are turned off at 8:00 pm for an hour as an act of remembrance.[sup][7][/sup]
Within a day of the disaster enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew.[sup][2][/sup] In 1983 a new lifeboat station (still known as 'Penlee') was opened nearby at Newlyn where a faster, larger boat could be kept moored afloat in the harbour. Neil Brockman later became the coxswain of the station's Severn class lifeboat.[sup][8][/sup] The old boathouse at Penlee Point with its slipway is empty but has been maintained and a memorial garden was created beside it in 1985 to commemorate the crew of the Solomon Browne.[sup][11][/sup]
Airframe XZ574 is today preserved at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton, mainly due to its being flown during the Falklands War conflict by Prince Andrew, Duke of York.[/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table]

So Doddsie do you actually have any connection with the sea ?? I know many lifeboat men and a few are friends, they will tell you themselves the RNLI is not what it used to be, it is just a money making machine and has more than it's fair share of fat cats all pulling BIG salaries. There is no reason why they cannot pass on some of there vast sums and help out other deserving charities.

[taurus66]

Yes, Indeed, very brave, they could not have been more than a couple of hundred yards from the beach,  I can imagine their hull could not have been far from the sea bed at times like that.  My other half live but 1/2 mile from that point and was watching through a telescope. Not fun to watch I can imagine.

[Doddsie]

No sorry, original post was aimed at `Lampwick`, got you a bit mixed up later when you quoted his post. To answer your question I do come from a naval family. Not me personally but grandad, dad, 2 brothers and a sister were all in the royal navy.

[maddog04]

lew...............you beat me to it...........crews at Penlee showed the highest act of bravery and in my book should have all been awarded the George Cross. I'm in the Fire and an ex marine once told me that the Penlee crews were so, so brave..............hear hear
should the bean counters be driving beemers?
not in my view but the reality is that these types aren't in it for the love of the regime (RNLI/POLICE/FIRE/AMBO'S/NHS/ARMED FORCES etc.) they will quickly move on if they don't get the perks. They're mostly the type who could never do it at the sharp end but are more than happy to rub shoulders with the celebs at fundraising bashes, unfortunately we're stuck with them whether we like it or not
the public rightly hold the RNLI in high esteem and that's probably why they're doing so well with fundraising. HMG are closing the Crosby MCA centre and switching it all to Wales..............local knowledge does count when the chips are down and its frightening that bean counters can be so callous. RNLI/POLICE/FIRE/AMBO'S/NHS/ARMED FORCES are all under severe attack from HMG and once they're gone we wont get them back. Support your local stations or face the consequences when you need them

[fireblake]

Thanks for putting that up Lew. The ultimate sacrifice was paid by such awesome men and their families.  I'm proud to be British with them as my brethren.

[lew600fazer]

Just to lighten the mood  a bit.
Round-the-world yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur has announced her retirement from competitive sailing so she can focus on environmental campaigning.

The RNLI has said “Thank fuck for that. As a role model for women, if she’d just give up driving as well, the breakdown services would be equally happy”.

Today's the 150th anniversary of our local RNLI. This calls for a big celebration.
I think we might be pushing the boat out tonight.
Lew

[Tori]

Check out my friends flickr stream. Then aask yourself if you would like to volunteer, or even be paid to do such a job!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_appleton/

[fireblake]

Fantastic photo's Tori.
I forgot to mention in the original post that the chap hanging off the helicopter is a mate of mine and flies out of Lee on Solent. He reckons its easier than trying to hold on to your dinner on the boats.




Mickey

[Tori]

It looks a bit hairy doesn't it?! Both great jobs well done