ALMOST 200 years ago, a horrific tragedy played out off the coast of Cork.
An English merchant ship, Britannia, sank 10 miles from Ballycotton Bay after an explosion on board, when a crewman carrying a candle accidentally set light to gunpowder.
All but two of the dozen crew died as it capsized. The survivors were the captain and another crewman, and the skipper used some rope to tie them both to a rock.
Remarkably, there the two men remained for six hours, lashed by wind and waves. Eventually, the other man died, but the captain was still alive when rescue finally came.
The hero who saved him was one Dennis Cronen, who would go down in the annals of maritime history as the first of a succession of lifesaving heroes for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
The RNLI had been founded just two years earlier, and this Monday, March 4, marks the 200th anniversary of this wonderful and enduring organisation.
The Britannia tragedy occurred just before Christmas, 1825, and a few months later, Cronen was awarded the RNLI Silver Medal for his bravery that day - the first such recipient in Ireland.
Three years later, in January, 1829, disaster struck Ballycotton again, when the Capricho sank in high gales. One crewman died, but the rest of the 10-man Spanish crew were saved by the courage of two local lifeboatmen.
Samuel Lloyd and John Hennessy had put off in a small rescue boat but that had been promptly wrecked, and they managed to find an alternative craft.
They rescued the crew of the Capricho as they sat on a rock, and Hennessy heroically plunged through the breakers to save the captain after he was swept off the rock. In the aftermath, both men were awarded the RNLI Gold Medal.
Such incidents are proof of the amazing bravery of the RNLI, most of whom are unpaid volunteers.
The organisation, originally known as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, was established in 1824, and these three Cork heroes were early examples of the bravery with which it would be associated.
The first RNLI lifeboat station in Ireland was established in Arklow, Co Wicklow, in 1826, and the first one in Cork was at Youghal in 1828. A few decades later, Ballycotton station opened.
The RNLI now operates 46 stations around the coastlines of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as major inland waterways.
When the Republic gained independence a century ago, such was the esteem with which the RNLI was held by the public, that a decision was taken to retain the ‘Royal’ part of the RNLI.
The reason RNLI members are so adored is because of their bravery, their volunteerism and sense of duty, and down to the fact that they ask for nothing in return.
This is borne out by the story that when two RNLI men from Ballycotton plucked nine crew from the SS Tadorna to safety in lashing gales in 1911, they received a Silver Medal, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum, and a pair of binoculars each!
In Cork, the station will forever be remembered for the famous Daunt Rock rescue of 1936, when lifeboat volunteers endured 49 hours at sea, 25 hours without food, and only three hours’ sleep to save the lives of eight men on board a drifting lightship.
Coxswain Patrick Sliney - great grandfather of comic book artist Will Sliney - was instrumental in that and other daring rescues off Ballycotton.
In 1943, when he spent 30 hours at sea saving 33 crew of the stricken SS Irish Ash, Patrick came ashore with bruised hands, his wrists twice their normal size, and his voice almost gone.
The RNLI has been dedicated to saving lives for 200 years.
As early as 1851, the Freeman’s Journal reported that its then 94 lifeboats had saved 7,500 people in the 27 years since its foundation.
“It must be a source of gratification to every philanthropic mind to believe that, by means of donations and subscriptions, he has been in any degree instrumental to the welfare of his fellow-men in having preserved his life when he helplessly cried ‘Let not the deep swallow me up’.” said the Journal.
By 1922, when the RNLI was marking almost a century of service, it was estimated to have saved more than 58,000 lives.
At a meeting of the Cork branch of the organisation that year, national President Sir Godfrey Baring summed up the standing of these brave crews: “In the long history of the Institution, there was never a case in which they failed to do their duty.
“The lifeboatman was always ready to take his life in his hands and go out to render assistance, not to friends or neighbours, but to men and women who were absolute strangers to him.”
The war years from 1916-22 had been difficult for the organisation, particularly as the female volunteers had had to rein in their usual fund-raising activities in unsafe times
When the Irish Free State was established, there were 24 Irish RNLI lifeboat stations. UK government agencies, such as the Coastguard, withdrew services from the free state, but the RNLI’s independent, volunteer-driven services remained.
Lifeboat stations on this island have carried on saving lives under the RNLI banner ever since.
By 1940, the Cork branch was reporting that the RNLI in Britain and Ireland saved 11 people a week on average, a figure that had reached 21 a week during World War I, and 46 per week in the first year of World War II. The brave exploits continue to this day.
Last summer, the Courtmacsherry lifeboat rescued a stricken yacht out at sea and towed it to land, an operation that took 14 hours after the initial communication to the RNLI. Such dedication and commitment from humble volunteers.
The RNLI is principally funded by legacies and donations, with the remainder coming in from merchandising and investment.
To mark its 200th anniversary, I urge you to log onto rnli.org and make a donation. There can be few greater charitable causes that have proved their worth over such a span of time.
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