What status a lifeboat crew ? [RNLI]

[robpage]

I would add that was the situation some years ago, and it may have changed, but looking at the management there seems to be a large number of retired military officers still running things, all high ranking with good pensions. I do get wound up over charities , the "Paid " collector at my door tonight wanting me to sign up to £ 5 a month got short shrift . I get at least one charity bag a day wanting me to donate clothes , they give £40 a tonne to the nominated charity , they all seem to be Eastern Europeans delivering the bags , so I have doubts about them too . I believe in giving, and believe it should be anonymous to charities with low management overheads, Tear fund is one of my favourites. There are too many leeches attached to giving in the UK. My ( Ex ) son in Law , used to be a well paid van driver for a high street charity shop , they used to have picnics and training days at theme parks . That is not what giving is about. The unpaid shop staff used to "cherry pick” the good stuff from the bags and it never reached the shelves, that isn't what giving is about either. Those are why I applaud the Life boatmen, the volunteer coast guard, the St John’s Ambulance, but condemn the spongers in many of the bigger organisations. So don’t stop giving on my account, just know in your heart that it gets to where it is needed.

[Dazzle1988]

I must admit as a semi professional seafarer, in that I am only a deck cadet, after having done this job for 2 years I decided to try to join the RNLI to try and give something back to my local community, The chap I was talking to was one of the seniors in the station but not the commander, he was quite happy with the idea of me joining as I would be the only person there from a proper, professional seafaring background. He then handed the phone over to the station commander when he came in and basically as soon as I said I was in the Merchant Navy he made every excuse possible, he said that I needed to be available 24/7, so how do seafarers manage in other stations?, and who is really available 24/7?, he then said I would not be able to get to the station within the 10-15 mins time bracket, I then timed a drive to the station, not going particularly fast to make a point and made it with a few minutes to spare. After this I realised that I was not wanted by him as he was making every excuse. To this day I cannot understand why I was shunned in such a way just because of my job, then I realised that perhaps it was because the station commander wanted a hold over the people there and perhaps having someone come along that might possibly have an idea of how things work would have been a threat to him. To this day I have been angry about that and have since applied to the Coast Guard, which have asked me to get back in contact as soon as I finish my training as I am at sea during the winter months when they do their training.
Anyway further to that, I was then told by a member of that station around the same age as me that when they attended the training courses in England, they were asked if anyone had any sea going experience, when no-one in the room answered supposedly the instructor said 'good', I really fail to understand this extremely farcical idea that they have against people who actually work at sea and I therefore give me money to other local rescue groups as the RNLI, to me, is a group in dire need of a kick into gear to realise that for a station to have professional seafarers in its ranks is surely an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

(I did not disclose the information on the station because as I am training to be a British Naval Officer and hope to be by next year, I believe it to be wise to withhold this both in my interest and perhaps more importantly in the interests of that particular station commander, I would also like to state that this is only my opinion and does not involve those that actually risk their lives to save those at sea, those men and women deserve our utmost respect!)

[Keith at Tregenna]

I tend to not comment on things I know little of, it would be pointless. I know nothing of the inner workings, but totally agree with: "Those that actually risk their lives to save those at sea, those men and women deserve our utmost respect!

I know that all that seek safe haven, all that meet catastrophe and all nearing disaster would welcome so much the helping hand.

Trouble is that much good goes on in life, but much that is bad.

Hopefully the good side of all may prevail especially for those in peril etc.

My own words seem to me a bit meaningless at present, hope that I do make sense. Just personally a bit low at the mo and there seems to be much support and words but no real helping hand.

The Lifeboat Service a bit like the Forgotten Service, so glad they were / are there.

K.

[Keith at Tregenna]

A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

Grace Murray Hopper , American Mathematician, December 9, 1906 - January 1, 1992

K.

[Stuart Henderson]

Just to add my heartfelt thanks to all lifeboat crews past & present for the great work they do to assist seaferers,
God bless them one and all
Stuart R396040 Thirty years at sea.