Teddington Lifeboat Station

Teddington Lifeboat Station

Introduction

Teddington is one of the RNLI’s newest lifeboat stations and is also one of the first to cover a river rather than estuarial waters or the sea. Following the tragic collision in 1989 between the Marchioness and dredger Bowbelle that resulted in the loss of 51 lives, the ‘Thames Safety Inquiry’ recommended a centrally coordinated Search and Rescue presence on the Thames. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was chosen to coordinate the services that already existed on the Thames however, because they already had operational duties, they approached the RNLI and asked if they could provide a ‘Rescue’ service.

The RNLI recommended the creation of 4 Lifeboat stations on the Thames to cover the tidal area between Teddington and The English Channel. On 1st January 2002 Teddington lifeboat station became fully operational. It was thought that the lifeboat stations on the Thames would have to deal with approximately 50 call outs or ‘shouts’ per year. However, in the first year of operation there were over 800 call outs. In fact the Thames lifeboat stations accounted for 10% of the total number of ‘shouts’ that the RNLI responded to.

Although Teddington is not the busiest Thames station it was quickly realised that their presence should extend further ‘upstream’ to Molesey Lock, thereby including Kingston within its operational area. In order to deal with this additional area, and to ensure operational effectiveness above and below Teddington Lock, Teddington is equipped with 2 ‘D Class’ Lifeboats and unlike the other Thames stations, is run on a purely voluntary basis.

The Boats

D-576: Spirit of the Thames

This boat entered service at Teddington in June 2002. The boat was purchased from funds raised by Twickenham and Teddington fundraising branch. This boat was the last of the "old" style D class lifeboats to be built, before the introduction of the IB-1. She was officially named in June 2003

D-648: Spirit of Mortimer

Spirit of Mortimer entered service at Teddington in May 2005, having made an appearance on the floor of the Barbican during the RNLI AGM. She was purchased from funds raised the the Mortimer fund raising branch and is Teddington's first IB-1. Since joining the station, she has been the main station boat.

The Crew

There are approximately 15 voluntary crew members. Contrary to public belief they are not all salty sea dogs, actually very few are, and their numbers contain engineers, bankers and designers. In fact, very few members have any professional sea-faring experience. They train every week on a Tuesday night from 7pm in order to achieve the high standards of competence and safety that have always been the hallmarks of the RNLI’s lifesaving service.

In the event of a call-out or ‘shout’, every crew member’s pager is simultaneously activated by the London Coastguard. 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, the crew aim to launch one or both boats depending on the nature of the incident within six minutes of the call to the Coastguard. Their operational target is to be on scene within 15 minutes of the original call. This can be tight if the incident is in Molesey.

If you live within 3 minutes of Teddington Lifeboat Station and would like to find out about getting involved then please call Malcolm Miatt on 07802 910942. New crew members are always welcome. For more information about the RNLI station at Teddington please visit: [http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/east/stations/TeddingtonMiddlesex/ RNLI website page for Teddington] or [http://www.teddingtonlifeboat.org.uk the crew website] .

If you see an incident on the Thames ‘Dial’ 999 (or 112 European Emergency Number) and ask for the London Coastguard.

ee also

* Royal National Lifeboat Institution

References

External links

* [http://www.teddingtonlifeboat.org.uk The crew website of Teddington lifeboat]
* [http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/east/stations/TeddingtonMiddlesex/ The official page of the Teddington lifeboat at the RNLI website]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Tower Lifeboat Station — Infobox London River Services title=Tower Lifeboat Station image caption = The lifeboat station next to Waterloo Bridge transit type = River police and lifeboat services operator = RNLI owner =RNLI website =… …   Wikipedia

  • Teddington — infobox UK place country = England map type = Greater London region= London population= official name= Teddington latitude= 51.4242 longitude= 0.3321 os grid reference= TQ159708 london borough= Richmond post town= TEDDINGTON postcode… …   Wikipedia

  • Cromer Lifeboat H F Bailey III ON 777 — Career …   Wikipedia

  • Cromer Lifeboat Harriot Dixon ON 770 — Harriot Dixon ON 770 Career …   Wikipedia

  • River Thames — Thames redirects here. For other uses, see Thames (disambiguation). Coordinates: 51°29′56″N 0°36′31″E / 51.4989°N 0.6087°E / 5 …   Wikipedia

  • London — This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. For other uses, see London (disambiguation). London From upper left: City of London, Tower Bridge and London Eye, Palace of Westminster …   Wikipedia

  • Christchurch — This article is about the city in New Zealand. For other uses, see Christchurch (disambiguation). Christchurch Ōtautahi (Māori)   Metropolitan Area   Christchurch …   Wikipedia

  • Metropolitan Police Marine Support Unit — The Marine Support Unit (MSU, sometimes still known by its prior name of Thames Division) is a Central Operations unit of the Metropolitan Police, that polices the River Thames in London. Based at Wapping police station and having 22 vessels at… …   Wikipedia

  • Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit — The Gabriel Franks, a Fast Response Targa 31 boat of the Marine Support Unit of the Metropolitan Police on the River Thames in London, named after the first marine police officer killed in the line of duty. The Marine Policing Unit (MPU)… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”