The Isle of Wight’s lifeboat crews – both those part of the RNLI and those who maintain their independence – provide an extremely valuable service to both Islanders and visitors alike, with the volunteer teams ready to drop anything to come to our assistance at any time of day or night.
A steep and rich history of lifeboat men and women surrounds the Isle of Wight which has, for the vast majority of its modern existence, been a haven for yachting, fishing, and those who love adventuring and exploring the coastline. The Island’s position at the border of the Solent and the English Channel also provides a large amount of commercial shipping traffic, and as such, our volunteer lifeboat crews can have a very busy life.
One of the first lifeboat stations on the Island was that of Bembridge which began operation in 1867 when a boathouse was built at the end of Lane End. The boat, ‘RNLB City of Worcester’ a pulling (rowing) boat was 32 feet in length, could self-right and was launched from the beach by horse-drawn carriage.
By 1922, the RNLI realised that due to the nature of the sea around Bembridge’s location, a motor lifeboat would be needed. To facilitate this, a new boathouse was constructed, with a 250-yard pier being built from the shore to allow the new lifeboat, the ‘RNLB Langham’ to be launched straight into the sea in a multitude of conditions. The station became the most state of the art station in the country at the time, with the brave crewmen able to launch on service in just 14 minutes.
In its later years, the station was presented with a Tyne class lifeboat in 1987 and now operates a state-of-the-art Tamar Class lifeboat which was put into service in 2010 alongside a new multi-million-pound lifeboat station.
2 years later, the town of Yarmouth received its own lifeboat service too.
The first Yarmouth Lifeboat came into service in 1924, although a lifeboat service had existed in nearby Totland Bay since 1879. It was decided that the station required a motor lifeboat due to its location, and the service was subsequently relocated to Yarmouth Harbour where it remains to this day.
The station received its first motor lifeboat, the Watson Class ‘B.A.S.P’ – built by J. Samuel White. The boat was equipped with a motor alongside sails for the event of engine failure. In just 10 years of operation, the vessel saved 30 lives in 42 operations. The vessel was finally retired from service in the RNLI’s relief fleet in 1955 and sold – becoming part of the Historic Lifeboat Collection and the Maritime Museum in Chatham.
Yarmouth soon needed a new vessel, with the Arun Class ‘Joy and John Wade’ introduced in the 70s, and the current Severn Class ‘Eric and Susan Hiscock (Wanderer)’ launching on service for the first time in 2001.
Over the space of hundreds of years, more and more stations have opened, with some such as the Sandown and Shanklin Independent Lifeboat, Ryde Rescue, and the Freshwater Independent Lifeboat all retaining their independence. Some, such as Cowes – which originally began service in 1989 – have become part of the RNLI.
Other lifeboat services have been closed over the years due to redundancy caused by the ever-growing capabilities and range of newer and more efficient lifeboats, such as Brook and Brighstone stations.
Far from underused, the stations and crews of the Isle of Wight have busy lives – with sometimes multiple callouts per week for some stations during the summer season each year. Historically, some major rescues have taken place off the coast of the Island, ranging from yachts and their skippers caught out by the conditions to large tankers on fire off St Catherines.
Just one of the more famous of these rescue efforts is that that surrounded the disaster of the Pacific Glory tanker on October 23rd 1970. The Island’s lifeboats stood by ready to assist in the rescue of crewmen aboard the 43,000 ton tanker which has not only begun to sink, but had also burst in to flames and shed its huge cargo of oil into the sea – and at one point was just 3 miles off of the Ventnor shoreline.
In more recent times our island’s incredible volunteers assisted in the efforts surrounding the narrowly avoided disaster of the Hoegh Osaka – the 180m long vehicle carrier that became beached on the notorious Brambles Bank in 2015. Yarmouth, Cowes, and Bembridge lifeboats were among those to offer assistance to the large-scale operation that followed.
Just last year, lifeboat crews were tasked to standby as specialist members of the Armed Forces boarded a ship – the Nave Andromeda – that was suspected to have been hijacked.
Using archive footage, Island Echo has been able to bring just 1 of the rescues undertaken by Isle of Wight lifeboat crews back to life. In 1987, Yarmouth RNLI launched their Arun Class lifeboat to reports of 2 vessels in difficulty some 20 miles away in the English Channel.
The crew, with Coxswain Dave Kennett believed to have been at the helm, first rescued the family aboard an injured vessel, before rescuing their rescuers – a yacht helmed by 65-year-old Leslie Hurst, which had been disabled by a rope whilst attempting to tow the original casualty vessel.
WATCH: Rolling Back The Clock: Take A Look At A Rescue That Took Place 37 Years Ago
Fantastic service the RNLI provide