| Here is a dark blue Land
Rover Defender that is used by SARA (Severn Area Rescue Association) for lifeboat
haulage. The Association provides a search and rescue service. Inset: the
front view. |
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| This is RNLB Margaret
Foster, a Severn Class lifeboat operated by the Royal National
Lifeboat Institution. It is based at Kirkwall, Orkney, and is the largest
type of vessel that the Institution operate. |
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| KT04
JVC This is Duddon Inshore Rescue's Vauxhall Vectra 2.0
DTI. This car replaces the red Citroen Xantia that can be seen lower down
this page. |
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| The rear view of the same
Vectra. Notice the red flashing light that can be seen inside the rear
screen. |
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| R334
WEC and P801
TCK On the left is a Citroen Xantia which is used by
Duddon Inshore Rescue. To its right is a Land Rover ambulance that is also
with the independent rescue service. It carries a spinal board, first aid
kit and other life saving equipment. |
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| Here is the stern view of Trent-class
RNLB George and Mary Webb, based at Whitby, North Yorkshire. |
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| Looking through a buoy at
RNLB Ray and Audrey Lusty. This is one of two lifeboats that are
based at Chiswick, London. Along with two other stations they cover the
length of the River Thames. |
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| The view of the stern of the
same RNLI lifeboat. It is an E-class with three crew in this photograph. |
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| It's sister vessel is this
E-class called Chelsea Pensioner. It is also stationed at Chiswick,
one of the busiest lifeboat stations in the UK. |
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| A look at the stern of the Chelsea
Pensioner. Notice the 'RNLI' wording on the deck so helicopters can
identify the boat. It is fitted with two blue flashing lights, a
loudspeaker and siren as well as police radios. |
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| This is a blue Land
Rover lifeboat-launching vehicle belonging to the RNLI. It has a blue
rotating beacon on the roof. |
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| R334
WEC is a Citroen Xantia 1.9 turbo diesel estate car used by
Duddon Inshore Rescue, Cumbria. The vehicle is owned by a crew
member and has been liveried up at the owner's expense. It has the call sign
of 'Duddon 16 mobile'. |
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| The rear view of the same
car. It carries an interesting light arrangement. The crew are unable to
use blue flashing lights. Instead, to increase awareness of the vehicle's
presence, two white strobe lights are mounted on
the front grill. These are complimented by flashing lights on the
dashboard and on the parcel shelf (red to the rear and white to the front). The car has been admired by the Chief Constable of Cumbria
Police. |
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| The striking livery of the
car can clearly be seen on this picture. The car is able to carry five
crew members and a substantial amount of equipment to an incident. The
rescue organisation is a registered charity and is entirely voluntary
funded. It welcomes any donations. |
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| The rear three quarters view
of the turbo-diesel estate car. The livery is complete with the
organisation's
motto of 'We Exist to Save Lives'. |
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| This is RNLB Betty Huntbatch,
a Trent class lifeboat pictured on its moorings at Hartlepool lifeboat
station, Cleveland. It is a 24-hour all weather offshore lifeboat, which
is accompanied at Hartlepool station by an inshore Atlantic. |
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| An example of a Tyne Class
lifeboat. |
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| A close up of the mast of RNLB Ruby And Arthur Reed II
(Cromer, Norfolk). Notice that it is reclined to allowed it to exit the
station via the slipway. It is then erected once the vessel is at sea. You
can see the blue flashing light. |
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| This is the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution's Hovercraft H-001, named Molly Rayner. It is a six-seater Griffon 470 SAR
and is powered by twin Volkswagen / Audi 84 hp diesel engines (driving twin propellers).
It can reach speeds of over 30 knots and is fitted with a blue flashing
light above the propellers. |
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| A close up look at the front. The craft is named
Molly Rayner in honour of the late co-founder of the Bourne End RNLI Branch. |
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| The side and rear view. The hovercraft
is suitable for estuaries where there is a large amount of shallow water,
making it unsuitable for traditional large RNLI boats.
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| HV52 VPC
This blue RNLI Iveco flat-bed truck is being used to deliver the
hovercraft to the beach. It is fitted with blue flashing lights, which the
law allows for lifeboat launching vehicles. |
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| This is Humber Rescue's rescue
boat, Olive Hunt. It looks similar to an
RNLI vessel, but this is a separate small organisation, based directly beneath
the Humber Bridge in Kingston upon Hull. |
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| A look inside, showing the seating and marine communication
and navigation systems. |
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| The rescue boat is fitted with two Honda motors, as well as
a blue flashing beacon. |
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| To get the rescue boat the very short journey from the
station to the river, a yellow Ford tractor is used. It is fitted with a
yellow flashing light bar. |
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| This photo shows a Relief Arun Class lifeboat on duty at
Dover. It is seen exercising with an RAF Helicopter, Callsign RESCUE 125,
from RAF Wattisham, Suffolk.
The Arun Class lifeboat has a crew of 5 or 6 and can take a doctor out to
an incident if the need arises. The top speed of the lifeboat is 18 knots
and is 52 ft in length. If it is capsized it can right itself within 5
seconds. This is an All Weather Lifeboat or ALB. |
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| This photo shows a
"D-Class" lifeboat, from Bembridge, Isle of Wight. The
"D-Class" has has a crew of 2 or 3 and the crew are on their knees
all the time they are on the boat, hence the retirement age of 45. The
"D-Class" has a top speed of 20 knots and is 16ft in length. The
"D-Class" is the most numerous class of lifeboat in the RNLI
fleet. These type of lifeboat are sometimes used during floods. Thanks to
Trevor Boston for these two photographs. |
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| Two pictures of a unit used at New Brighton to launch a Rigid Inflatable Boat onto the River Mersey. The unit is fully submersible. It's all wheel drive. The tyres are filled with water and the cabin floods to a certain height to maintain balast and traction when in deep water. |
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You can see water trails on the slip. These are from the twin out-boards on the RIB. The engines are fed from a tank on the trailer with cooling water so that they can be started on the way to the slip so when they hit the water they can go at full throttle as soon as possible.
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The Lifeboat and Coastguard services of the UK are often
forgotten when thinking of emergency service vehicles. Above is the off-shore lifeboat based at Amble marina, Northumberland. Note the blue light near the top of the mast.It is 44-005 Margaret Graham, a Waveney class lifeboats which was introduced in 1964. This boat was the last Waveney class lifeboat in service with the RNLI. This type was withdrawn in 1999, and replaced by Severn and Trent class lifeboats but in Ambles case they received a Mersey class
lifeboat |
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Below is an strange tractor unit spotted at
Seahouses. Fitted with blue lights, it is used to launch and recover the carriage launched 12m Mersey class lifeboat that is operated at 24 stations
nationwide. These tractors are specifically designed for the task of launching and recovering lifeboats. They weight over 19 tons and can pull over 16 tons but in reality it could pull a lot more than this. They are powered by a Caterpillar diesel engine at over 200hp but only have a top speed of about 10mph!
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Next, a picture of a 17m Severn class all weather lifeboat, number 17-20 which is stationed at Tynemouth lifeboat station. This type came into service in 1996 and this particular boat went on station at Tynemouth in October 1999.
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Here is a lifeboat called Bon Accord, also known as "Aberdeen Lifeboat". |
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Here are two pictures of a Sea King helicopter with a RNLI offshore and an inshore lifeboat.
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