As an island nation, the people of the United Kingdom rely on His Majesty’s Coastguard to provide Search & Rescue operations, Maritime Safety & Prevention, Counter Pollution and Salvage, and emergency coordination through a national network of rescue centres 24/7, to ensure safety at sea. The Coastguard Rescue Service relies on around 3500 volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers who are organised into nearly 300 teams to handle cliff, mud and water rescues, as well as searches for missing people. It is fully funded by the Department of Transport as part of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
It works alongside another emergency service, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which was founded in 1824. The latter, surprisingly for this vital organisation, is a charity, funded by legacies (65%) and donations (30%). It’s based in Poole, Dorset and has some 2850 paid staff and around 9000 lifeboat volunteers. They operate more than 400 lifeboats (see PS) from 238 stations around the UK, the Channel Islands and The Isle of Man. Paid RNLI lifeguards provide services at nearly 250 beaches, including here at Brighton & Hove.
To put the RNLI’s contribution to our nation in perspective, last year its lifeboats were launched over 9000 times. The volunteer crews saved the lives of 272 individuals who would otherwise not be alive; they went to the aid of over 8000 people. The beach lifeguards pulled another 117 men, women and children from the sea, preventing them drowning, in over 17,000 incidents, involving 36,200 people. These figures sort-of speak for themselves. Living by the sea, the local news often highlights an incident when someone was pulled from the sea, some innocently believing the sea always safe, others thinking it fun to have a swim after a few too many drinks in the pub. Calm seas can hide a dangerous undertow, rough seas will dump you on the beach with a disorienting force.
Having sailed in small and big yachts in many of the sea areas covered by the RNLI I have never, fortunately, had cause to ask for help, although it did cross my mind, with all the other ‘what ifs’, when St Barbara III, a Nicholson 43ft sloop belonging to the Royal Artillery Yacht Club, was taking in water off the coast of Arromanches in Northern France in 1979 (See PCs 209 and 211 Off Arromanches). I recognise their commitment and courage to provide the service they do.
Suddenly, in early September, the organisation was thrust into the limelight when two RNLI crews intercepted a dinghy carrying 120 asylum seekers off the Isle of Wight and brought them to safety. A month later the Bembridge and Yarmouth lifeboats picked up 149 asylum seekers and landed them at Haslar Marina in Gosport. Whilst Border Force patrol craft have dealt with the now constant flow of rubber dinghies full of asylum seekers making the shortest crossing from France to England, changes to the smugglers’ strategy saw them using the much longer route from the north coast of France to Portsmouth. Whilst the local population around Dover have got used to the stream of humanity, wet, tired, anxious, coming ashore to an uncertain future, for those who live in Portsmouth this was something new. Many anti-immigration protesters gathered in Portsmouth, wanting to flex their uninformed, polarised muscles to demonstrate that this was, in their view, unacceptable.
What seemed to exacerbate the situation was that it was RNLI lifeboat crews, all volunteers, who had been called out to escort the dinghies ashore. It was like waving a red flag at a bull; anyone associated with the rescue was immediately tarred with the same brush (wow! Two idioms in one sentence! Sorry!) Whilst some of these mindless idiots tried to intimidate the boat crews at sea, many more threatened them and their families on land. In reading more about the situation, I learned a new word: ‘doxxing’; not an example of a good-looking word, is it? I found out that when an individual’s personal information is publicly shared, usually with the purpose of harassment, humiliation or threat, it’s doxxing. The ignorance of those involved knows no bounds. For example, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) was erroneously targeted on social media. A spokesperson reminded the public that they were not ‘lifeboat people’ but said: ‘there is something we can all agree on, the RNLI are brave and brilliant.’
Maybe at some point next summer, Peter of Portsmouth, one of the leaders of the anti-asylum activists, will take to his paddleboard off an Isle of Wight beach. Underestimating the strength of a Spring tide, he might be swept out to sea. Luckily, someone sees his distress, sees him waving his arms, and calls the alarm. The lifeboat from Bembridge is dispatched but, sadly for Peter, when the boat nears the paddleboard, the crew recognise him from his activities this month …… and motored on past; they might have even given him a wave, sort-of: ‘Hello Peter!’
Actually, this wouldn’t happen for, no matter how much of a dickhead Peter from Portsmouth had been, Lifeboat volunteers don’t differentiate, don’t discriminate when it comes to saving lives at sea, yachtsmen, asylum seekers, paddleboarders or dickheads – everyone is treated as a human being, a life worth saving. The RNLI has lost over 600 volunteers since 1824 in their attempts to save the crew of a trawler, yacht, or inflatable rubber dingy. For example, all 8 crew members of the Longhope lifeboat died when their boat capsized in severe weather in March 1969 off the coast of Orkney, going to the aid of a drifting Liberian cargo ship SS Irene. The disaster accelerated the development of self-righting lifeboats.
Still individuals volunteer, still people risk their own life to save someone else’s. Long may this generosity of spirit reign supreme over the views of a blinkered minority.
Richard 16th October 2026
Hove
http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk
PS The RNLI announced this week that five lifeboat stations in Devon are to get new vessels by 2030, as the RNLI updates its fleet. It said data showed that between 2017 and 2025, 98% of responses were within 10 nautical miles of shore.
