- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; illustrated edition edition (14 Mar 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297607901
- ISBN-13: 978-0297607908
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 19.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 513,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Saving lives from the waters around the coasts of Britain and all Ireland doesn't get any less hazardous. For more than 175 years rescuing sailors from shipwrecks or holidaymakers from small boats has been in the hands of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which remains a wholly voluntary-funded, non-Government organisation. No matter how sophisticated ships have become storms are as bad as ever and ships, it seems, just as likely to get into difficulties. The lives of crews are still at risk: it is only 20 years since the small Cornish fishing village of Penlee lost half the adult menfolk when its lifeboat sank at sea. 1999 saw an average of 18 lifeboat launches daily around Britain and Ireland, with 18 people brought to safety and 3 people saved from death. Cameron's account is not the first, but this account puts the story into a political and social perspective, and still thrills with the stirring and often poignant narrative of the rescues themselves. That crews continue to risk their own lives to save those who haven't always behaved sensibly is part of the lifeboat service ethos. In Cameron's view the quality required by lifeboat crews above all else is courage. Cameron's account is not without criticisms. Yet recently it has shown itself prepared, for instance, to meet social change with women becoming crew members, and to cope with the vast increase in weekend sailing and 'messing about in boats'. He compares 1885 with 187 lifeboat launches - 26% in summer and 74% in winter - with 1995 when launches totalled 3,864, but 77% of these in summer and only 23% in winter.
About the Author
Ian Cameron, pseudonym of Donald Payne.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
About 180 years ago an idiosyncratic Quaker, Sir William Hillary, founded a charity dedicated to 'the Preservation of Lives and Property from Shipwreck'. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
About 180 years ago an idiosyncratic Quaker, Sir William Hillary, founded a charity dedicated to 'the Preservation of Lives and Property from Shipwreck'. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This excellent book is the updated version of the history of the RNLI (1824-2007) which started life as the Shipwreck Institution but was renamed the RNLI in 1854.
A good account is given of the activities of Grace Darling and her father in 1838 when she became Britains first national heroine.
The details of the sinking of the Longhope lifeboat in 1969 is particularly poigiant to me as I was the doctor to that boat in the mid 1950s.
The RNLI is credited with saving 137,920 lives up to 2007.
The historical aspects ,details of boats and research are excellent and the pictures are first class but too many are spoiled by covering 2 pages.
A book to be highly recommended.
A good account is given of the activities of Grace Darling and her father in 1838 when she became Britains first national heroine.
The details of the sinking of the Longhope lifeboat in 1969 is particularly poigiant to me as I was the doctor to that boat in the mid 1950s.
The RNLI is credited with saving 137,920 lives up to 2007.
The historical aspects ,details of boats and research are excellent and the pictures are first class but too many are spoiled by covering 2 pages.
A book to be highly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
An excellent history of the R.N.L.I.
5 Jun 2007
Format:Hardcover
The Riders of the Storm is an engaging and informative look at the history of the lifeboat service in UK. Included are descriptions of various boats and other equipment used by the RNLI over the years; accounts of rescues made by the service; and, a look at some of the people that figure prominently in lifeboat service history. The author includes a wealth of illustrations, many in color.
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