Not all RNLI lifeboat stations are publicly accessible due to their location in Ports or other restricted areas. To complete our challenge, we would need to obtain special permission to visit these. Two examples are in our home region of the South East and just over an hours drive from us. We visited these on two separate occasions after seeking permission from the RNLI personnel working at the stations.
Gravesend Lifeboat Station
We obtained an appointment to visit Gravesend at the end of September following communication with Lifeboat Press Officer, Helena. The station is located at the end of the Royal Terrace Pier owned and operated by the Port of London Authority. The Grade II listed pier was built in 1844. On 7 March 1865 Princess Alexandra disembarked here when she arrived to marry the Prince of Wales who later became Edward VII.
Gravesend Lifeboat Station is the most easterly of the River Thames stations and was established in 2002. Later, in 2007, the station moved to more permanent location at the end of the pier. It provided improved crew facilities including dormitories. Gravesend is one of the very few permanently manned RNLI stations and as such the duty crew are not on pagers but are called via emergency phone in the station.
We arrived at the head of the pier and made contact. We were met by crew member Mel and taken to the station where we met Coxwain Aaron and crew member Darryl who were on shift that day. We sat and had a very interesting discussion about how the station operates and the clear differences between pager stations and permanently manned stations. Both Darryl and Mel have other employment but operate on a shift basis very similar to the Fire Service. Aarron is a permanent employed Coxwain for the RNLI but works to a similar shift pattern.
The station covers a wide and very busy area of the Thames, from the Thames Barrier in the west to Canvey Island in the eastern estuary, a distance of 26 miles. After a tour of the station we donned our lifejackets and headed to the Atlantic 85 Lifeboat moored on a pontoon at the end of the pier. Olive Laura Deare II (B-827) is a standard RNLI Atlantic 85 boat that has a couple of customisations to the engines and the equipment to suit the conditions in which it operates.
Aaron very kindly allowed us to board the boat and have some photos taken before we headed back to the station.
Sheerness Lifeboat Station
In a very similar way to Gravesend, we were given authorisation to access Sheerness Lifeboat Station after communication with LPO Clare. On 24th October we took the afternoon off work and headed to the Isle of Sheppey and to the Port of Sheerness. After checking in at Port security we headed to the Lifeboat Station located at Garrison Point on the far eastern tip of the island.
We were met at the station by full time mechanic and coxswain Paul who welcomed us with Tea and Biscuits. We had a long discussion about how the station operates within the confines of the Port. Whilst Paul is fulltime, the crew are volunteers and paged as with most other stations.
The inshore D-Class and All Weather Lifeboat (ALB) operate in a large area covering the Thames Estuary, the Isle of Sheppey round to the Rivers Swale and Medway where the inshore is able to get as far inland as Chatham and Rochester. Sheerness has the only ALB, a Shannon Class, on the north coast of Kent and the coastline of Essex and so covers a huge area.
Paul, took us down to the boathouse to see the D-Class, Buster (D-799) and its unique towing vehicle, a 20 year old quadbike. The D-Class is taken to a Davit using the quadbike and lowered into the harbour adjacent to where the Shannon lifeboat is moored. After donning some PPE and a lifejacket we headed to the pontoon and on to the Shannon, Judith Copping Joyce (13-38). Paul very kindly showed us around the boat and to the engine room with its two impressive Scania 650hp engines. This was the first time we have been below deck on the Shannon and we were surprised how much tighter space was compared to the Tamar and Trent boats we had seen. After some photos, we headed back to the station and thanked Paul for his time.
As it was a lovely sunny afternoon we took the opportunity to travel down the Kent coast to Whitstable to see “The Chieftain”. More on that in our next blog.
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