200 YEARS OF THE RNLI

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january/february 2024 :: RMTnews 22 With the support of the public the Royal National Lifeboats Institution (RNLI) has saved the lives of over 144,000 men and women off the coasts of the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands as well as many inland waterways. Following a number of high-profile shipwrecks, the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck was founded on March 4, 1824 at the London Tavern pub in Bishopsgate. By 1854 the name was changed to the RNLI and has 238 lifeboat stations and operates 444 lifeboats. RNLI lifeguards also operate on more than 200 beaches: paid by local authorities, but the RNLI provides equipment and training. The institution also operates flood rescue teams nationally and internationally, the latter prepared to travel to emergencies overseas at short notice. What the RNLI has achieved in the last 200 years has only been possible thanks to ordinary people doing extraordinary things including forming crews, funding kit and lifeboats to save lives at sea. Once, the RNLI launched wooden lifeboats with oars and sails and now they are saving lives on motor-powered all-weather lifeboats with state-of-the-art technology and communications. WARTIME During the First World War, lifeboat crews launched 1,808 times, rescuing 5,332 people. With many younger men on active service, the average age of a lifeboatman was over 50. Many launches were to ships that had been torpedoed or struck mines, including naval or merchant vessels on war duty; a notable example was the hospital ship SS Rohilla which foundered in 1914 and was attended by six lifeboats, saving 144 lives over a 50-hour rescue mission. The Second World War 200 YEARS OF THE RNLI The RNLI has been saving lives at sea since 1824