Digger's Day Off - Saving Lives instead of Souls

On our weekend between digging sessions a bunch of us Old Hands go here and there on little adventures.  Usually there is some historic site involved.  Saturday was no exception.  We had a fun trip up to Holy Island, home of Lindisfarne Priory.  Tons of History.  This is where the fabulous Lindisfarne Gospel comes from.  I'm not going to show you any of that stuff.  I keep getting distracted by small interesting things.  

On the island I saw this set into a wall.

R.N.L.I is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.  I had been vaguely aware of them, you see their distinctive coin boxes in many local businesses.

They have been around a while.  I actually prefer their original name, the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck.  It serves a function similar to what the U.S. Coast Guard does in American waters, helping mariners in distress.  But it is entirely funded by the public and manned by volunteers.  Think of it as akin to a nation wide volunteer fire department.

While waiting for fish and chips in Sea Houses I noticed a sign indicating that there was a R.N.L.I. charity shop by the harbor.  I ducked in to find the shop just closing up, but still open was the door leading into the boathouse.

On the walls are tablets describing their rescue operations over the years.  

Those from 1914 to 1918 are particularly busy.  The Great War did not shut down commerce and fishing to the extent that the Second World War did, and quite a few small craft fell victim to mines and torpedoes.  The numbers listed are lives saved.

That is not to say that that 1939 to 1945 were quiet years.  Some of the lifeboats went to Dunkirk.  And the crews, by this time mostly older men, had plenty of sailors and aircrew to rescue.

An interesting diversion.  Instead of highlighting Lindisfarne and the saving of immortal souls I got interested in the Life Boats and the saving of mortal lives.