National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
This film is part of Free
For Those in Peril - offcuts
The men, the inflatable boat and the equipment that help keep those in peril on the sea around Aberystwyth safe.
From the collection of:
Overview
Support for those in peril on the sea may come from the Eternal Father of the seafarer’s hymn and/or lifeboat crews and will also always include people further afield who raise the funds to buy the boats. Aberystwyth’s inshore, inflatable lifeboat, the first of its kind in the UK, was paid for by patrons of The Rising Sun pub, London EC4. These mute off-cuts from a sound film as yet untraced, show the crew, the old lifeboat station, the pre-marina harbour and town landmarks.
Lighter and quicker to launch than a wooden, offshore or all weather lifeboat (ALB), an inshore, inflatable lifeboat (ILB) can be crewed by just 2 people, no coxswain needed. It is suitable for the type of call-outs that Aberystwyth usually receives – incidents close to shore often involving visitors and children. The 3 crew seen are David Jenkins, Mike Price and Ralph Kenyon. Baden P Davies, coxswain of the ‘Aquila Wren’ (ALB) 1954-61 and docker at Aberystwyth harbour in pre-WWI days, is seen in close-up. The RNLI awarded him the Thanks of the Institute inscribed on Vellum for the rescue of three people from a fishing vessel in 1954. John Nicholls, seen in the sailboat, was the station’s last coxswain.
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