With thanks to those who save lives at sea
THE lifeboat. It’s such a part of island life, we barely think about it when we simply refer to it as ‘the lifeboat’. We expect it to be there, available to serve us and any mariner in any kind of problem around the islands.
Even in a year of lockdown, the lifeboat has had some 20 call-outs during 2021, but none to match the drama and bravery of that shown 40 years ago today.
The Guernsey Press the following day had front page stories of showroom windows at Bougourd Brothers along Les Banques being blown in by hurricane-force winds. The sea wall in the area had been breached.
Some 60 roads were blocked by falling trees and branches, while a tree fell on a car roof too.
Yet in those conditions the lifeboat volunteers answered a Mayday call, and set forth into some of the worst seas they could have ever experienced. The crew members talk of 15 metre waves in the Channel, but also, not untypically, speak about the bravery of those who had to throw themselves from the stricken Bonita either on to the Sir William Arnold lifeboat or into the sea, to be hauled on board by ropes.
When we think about the lifeboat, how often do we think of the volunteers on the crew, and their willingness to drop everything when the call comes and head out with the intent of saving lives?
But, sadly, not every call ends successfully. While two members of the Bonita crew died, within a week, as the storms persisted, the crew of the Penlee lifeboat all perished attempting to save the crew of the coaster Union Star. It was the worst lifeboat tragedy in living memory. The Guernsey crew met the Penlee widows when they received gallantry medals the following year.
Michael Scales, coxswain at the time of the rescue, looked back with the RNLI this week to think of what had has changed, and what hasn’t. when it comes to aving lives at sea.
‘I look at what the RNLI is doing now in their construction, their training, the college. It’s a new generation, but it’s still get out there and save lives.’
A message worth remembering and a cause worth supporting.