Yesterday, 12 March 2002, there were 11 RNLI lifeboats launched off the British and Irish coasts.
Also yesterday people all across Britain and Ireland would have seen men and women on the high streets of their towns and cities collecting money from passers-by for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and rewarding them with small stickers. The RNLI is an emergency service that has been in operation in Britain for 175 years and it is run by volunteers and is entirely funded by voluntary donations.
As an all-weather sailor myself, I have always had not just a fondness for the RNLI but a significant vested interest in its existence.
Lifeboat stations can be found in coastal communities across the British Isles.
Anyone who has seen an off-shore lifeboat launch during a pounding North Sea gale can be left in no doubt that these people are some of the world’s great unsung heros. In the course of saving over 130,000 people from the sea since its founding, more than 400 RNLI volunteers have lost their lives.
But another reason that I am so fond of them is not just their fierce bravery but that regardless of the fact the RNLI is an utterly non-political organisation, they are perhaps one of the very best arguments for libertarian voluntarism in the world (link requires Adobe acrobat reader or similar): a world class non-governmental ‘common good’ emergency service not just manned but also funded without coercive taxation.
Please visit the RNLI website and donate to this superb organisation.
It drives on with a courage which is stronger than the storm. It drives on with a mercy which does not quail in the presence of death. It drives on as proof, a symbol, a testimony that man is created in the image of God and that valour and virtue have not perished in the British race.
– Winston Churchill, RNLI Centenary 1924
