Two of our remarkable lifeboats
Since The Lifeboat Fund began in 1866, it has funded 52 lifeboats for the RNLI which have saved over 4,700 lives. After a few years of helping train and equip RNLI crew volunteers, once again we are seeking to buy a lifeboat – for the crew at RNLI Wells-next-the-Sea. We think that’s an excellent way of celebrating our 150th Anniversary Appeal.
This article gives some of the story of two Lifeboat Fund lifeboats which have been responsible for some remarkable rescues – one, on the river Thames; the other, on the high seas.
Public Servant (Civil Service No. 44) - see RNLI picture, above
This hard-working E class lifeboat entered service on 2nd January 2002 at Lifeboat Pier on the Thames – at the busiest UK lifeboat station. The Fund provided the vessel and her start-up costs - all totalling £270,000. Public Servant joined three other lifeboats providing improved search and rescue on the deceptively dangerous tidal waterways of London's river. While serving there, Public Servant saved no less than 36 lives. After this very extensive service, from 2010, she was used as the emergency boat on the Thames, entering the relief fleet in 2012.
Fraser Flyer (Civil Service No. 43)
This amazing Severn class lifeboat is also now one of the RNLI’s relief fleet, but she is far from retired.
On the night of Tuesday, 9 December 2014, the co-called ‘weather bomb’ hit Scotland’s Northern Isles.
Meanwhile, the 16-strong crew of the Spanish trawler O Genita were heading for their home port in Galicia. In a violent storm with an 11m swell, the trawler ploughed south, until one very powerful wave smashed through the bridge windows, wiping out her steering and electronics. It was just before 6am – and that was the time to send out a mayday call. Fraser Flyer responded to that ‘shout’.
While the lifeboat and her crew took on their 30-mile 4-hour trip from Stromness, the O Genita crew repaired as much of the damage as they could, restoring the steering and some electronics. The lifeboat crew found the trawler just before 11.30am in a dangerous situation north of the island of Papa. They led her to the safe Westray harbour of Pierowall, taking shelter from the force 11 south-westerly winds.
But the job wasn’t done for the Stromness volunteers. The exposed return route to Stromness at that state of tide would have been difficult and dangerous. The Coxswain decided to head for the west-coast port of Kirkwall where they took shelter until 5pm when conditions were right to head back to Stromness – where, at 9pm, some much appreciated fish suppers awaited them!
Stromness RNLI Second Mechanic, Norman Brass says: "These were probably the worst conditions I have seen on a shout over the 20 years I have had with the RNLI. I can honestly say I was proud of all the guys who went out, and if we were asked to do it again tonight I would be more than happy to go."
Fraser Flyer was named to acknowledge the work of a Lifeboat Fund Chairman, Sir Angus Fraser, who died in 2001. This Severn boat was provided at a cost to The Fund of £879,750. At the charity’s 2014 AGM, Humber Coxswain (and RNLI guest speaker) Dave ‘Spanish’ Steenvoorden told the gathering of a particularly poignant rescue involving Fraser Flyer. Involved in over 1,000 rescues in his 30 plus years of RNLI service, Dave said he would never forget the events of 12 August 1986. Three people and a yacht were saved – tragically one life was lost, though it could very easily have been worse. Fraser Flyer entered the relief fleet in February 1999 and, as evidenced above, still assists at many coastal lifeboat stations.
We look forward to seeing the Shannon class lifeboat that is the target of The Lifeboat Fund’s 150th Anniversary Appeal continuing the proud story of the charity’s lifeboats. Please help us fundraise for the Shannon!
Credit for the photos (below) of Fraser Flyer goes to long-term Lifeboat Fund supporter and former collector at Somerset House, Mr Clinton Shaw.