There has been a lifeboat station in Swanage for 138 years. Over the decades it has been chopped and changed to accommodate the ever-developing craft built to save lives at sea.

In its early days the crew would have rowed to the casualties from this building, with sou’wester hats and cork life vests their only protection from storm-tossed seas.

Now they are looking forward to taking delivery of a £1.5 million state-of-the-art Shannon class vessel, capable of travelling 50 per cent faster than its predecessor, the Mersey, and so forward in its design it will be in operation until 2063.

The current building will be razed to the ground to make way for a boathouse big enough, not only to house the new resident’s hulking lines, but to provide much improved facilities for the volunteer crew.

The local community has been tasked to raise £200,000 towards a build predicted to cost upwards of £3million.

But this is a community used to pulling together. You only have to look at these lifeboat stations which punctuate our fickle coastline to see community in its realest sense.

“All the volunteer RNLI crew have daytime jobs,” explained Peter Foster, co-ordinating chairman of Swanage Lifeboat Station and chair of the appeal committee.

“We have a carpenter, estate agent, teacher, gardener, fishermen, carer... builders....

“They never know what they are going out to. Especially on dark and stormy nights. The safety of everyone is paramount, and it’s vital we get to casualties as quickly as possible.”

Dave Turnbull, a station mechanic who joined in 1992 as a volunteer crew member, remembers the service that the crew gave to the yacht ‘Be Happy’ in October 1996.

“I didn’t go to sea as I hadn’t been on the crew that long and they needed the most experienced crew as the weather was horrendous. The atmosphere and the tension in the crew room was something I’ve never experienced since, especially the part when our radio operator (Dave Corben) said: ‘There will be radio silence now as we attempt to get the crew off the yacht’. They needed everyone on deck to assist and the wait for them to come back on the radio seemed like forever!”

It was in the wake of the Wild Wave disaster of January 1875 that sparked the call for a dedicated lifeboat service at Swanage. The first bricks were laid by ancestors of Neil Hardy, the current lifeboat operations manager. Neil has continued his family’s links with RNLI Swanage by committing the last 25 years of his life to the station.

“You could say I’ve inherited it!” said Neil. It’s not just Hardy whose family has been long associated with the lifeboat service.

Martin Steeden, coxwain of the current Mersey class lifeboat at Swanage, followed in the footsteps of his father-in-law when he joined the crew in January 1977. In his words ‘he just drifted in’. His two sons Gavin and Matt also volunteer on the lifeboat crew at Swanage, along with his nephew James.

“I’ve had some good shouts in my 35 years here,” said Martin.

“A few have been tragic. Others have been uplifting. You expect these lads to do anything at the drop of a hat.”

Last year the Swanage crew spent 743 hours at sea on emergency call outs alone. The two lifeboats (including the stations’s D-class inshore lifeboat) launched to emergencies 54 times and rescued 55 people.

The 34-strong team have pagers and aim to hit the water within eight minutes of the call, and to reach everyone within a 10-mile radius in 30 minutes.

With the Shannon class (whose arrival coincides with the 140th anniversary of a lifeboat station on this site), those targets should be easily hit thanks to the vessel’s sheer power and speed.

It’s the first RNLI all-weather lifeboat to operate with water jets, not propellers, meaning speed and manoeuvrability is vastly improved. She’s capable of 25 knots in a force two and 17 knots in a force eight.

The hydraulic seats inside – priced at £10,000 each – are designed to reduce impact in rough weather. All crew members will have access to important data via individual screens, while air conditioning will reduce the chance of seasickness in a crew in which only 10 percent are from a maritime background.

“As well as our equipment, our service is getting better over the years,” said Martin.

“In my time here, training has quadrupled. Ordinary men have to learn about mechanics, boat handling, radar and radio operations. First aid training is to the same standard as that of ambulance technicians.”

One of Martin’s most memorable shouts was from an older couple. “The husband had fallen overboard and while she was a proficient sailor she didn’t have the physical strength to haul him back on board,” he said.

“So she lashed him alongside the boat until we arrived.

“In this job, instantly you can make the situation better just by your presence. All of a sudden you are the best thing that happens to someone.

“But it’s all run-of-the-mill to us.”

  • If you would like to donate toward the new lifeboat station, please call 0845 122 6999. Donate £5 by texting RNLI SWANAGE to 70300. If you have a fundraising idea, please contact chair@slbf.org.uk
  • Swanage Lifeboat Week is August 9- 18. Visit swanagelifeboatweek.org.uk