RNLI rescue show from years ago

Ziggy's thread:

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/hook-line-sinker/36370-huge-furry-whittingstall-rescue.html

..reminded me of something from my childhood that I thought I'd share with you. I started a new thread so as not to hijack Zig's.

When I was little, there used to be an annual lifeboat show just off Redcar beach (or sometimes just down the coast a bit). My dad used to take us every year, and it was truly fantastic.

Every lifeboat from Hartlepool down to Whitby used to take part, including the big powerful beast that lived in the Tees estuary. Sometimes the RAF and the coastguard would get involved, bring their power boats and helicopters along, and always a few local fishermen would volunteer to get stricken 50 yards out and despite being close enough to get out and wade to shore, they'd get rescued for the sake of the show.

It would be great. It would start off with a fishing boat 'randomly' conking out, and presumably with the aid of sand bags would start listing badly. A distress flare would go up, and then we'd all have our ear drums blown out by three 'rockets' exploding. These rockets were used by the RNLI to summon the crewmen from where ever they were in the area, to run like mad to the station. There were no pagers or mobile phones then. I remember 2 booms meant a drill was happening, and 3 meant it was for real.

Within seconds, life boats would be in the water (the slipway for Redcar's boat was right opposite where most of the displays happened), and the show would begin.

We'd see fishing boats being towed about, people who'd 'fallen in' (jumped in) would get fished out of the water, about 5 boats would harness up the same fishing boat, other fishermen who'd volunteered would join in the various rescues, and if the helicopters came they'd fish people of the water or spend a couple of minutes circling, searching for the 'stricken' boat that we could all see 50 yards off shore.

While all this was happening, we'd get a running commentary over the PA system explaining what's going on, and when it was all over we'd all dutifully put some money in the RNLI collection boxes.

I remember one year, the show was in full swing and about 5 lifeboats were all coming in to save the one stricken fishing boat. The crew of the fishing boat were dutifully (and with rather appalling acting) preparing to be saved, when three of the lifeboats about turned, and absolutely caned it off into the distance. Even as a child, it was fairly obvious to me what was going on, and my theory was confirmed a few seconds later when the man on the PA system apologised to the audience, and explained that the show would have to go on without the three faster boats, as they'd had to race off to attend a real emergency.

Everybody understood, even us kids who some would say would have been too young to understand and would have been disappointed. Everybody was buzzing with excitement, awe and pride and the bravery and skill of these few men who would go out in all conditions, risking their own lives, to save a stranger at sea. When the three faster boats went off to the real rescue, this pride, excitement and awe had concern added to it. Everybody understood, except not really everybody. A few pockets of people were whinging and complaining that the show would now be rubbish and they should have made extra boats and crew available for the show. Still, you can't please everyone. I thought it was brilliant.

Oh, and about 15 or 20 minutes after the three faster boats had shot off into the distance, word came over the PA system that the boat had been found, and the boat and crew were safe and being towed back in.

Having remembered about the lifeboat shows, I think I'm going to head down to the station this weekend (they have a visitors bit) to see if it still happens. I guess the rockets have been replaced with pagers or mobiles, and I happen to know that our local lifeboat (which back then was a big powerful thing) has been replaced with an inflatable dingy. I believe Hartlepool and Tees estuary stations have been amalgamated into one, losing one of the boats, but I bet its still impressive all the same.

 

So they did some work experience at the same time...