Coverack Lifeboat Station

TV reporter David Mudd meets two of the lifeboatmen from Coverack, the Secretary Harold Martin and the Coswain Reginald Carey. The Coverack Lifeboat Station was set up in 1901 as a response to two disasters on the perilous Manacles, the rocks off Lowland Point. First the liner Mohegan hit the reef and sunk on 14 October 1898 with the loss of over a hundred lives and on 21 May 1899 the passenger steamer Paris struck Minstrel Rock on its way from London to New York with no losses.

The Constance Melanie went into service and in 1912 Coxswain J. Corrin was awarded the RNLI silver medal for saving 44 crew of the barque Pindos. The coxswain in this film Reggie Carey received a bronze medal in 1956 for saving six crew from the MV Citrine. The lifeboat William Taylor of Oldham went into service in 1953 and was withdrawn in 1971. The lifeboat station was closed on 27 March 1980 and has been converted into a restaurant. Set up in 1824 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity dependent on voluntary donationsand lifeboat crew members are for the most part unpaid volunteers. Since 1824 over 600 have lost their lives saving others. The RNLI helps in international disaster support.