The History of the RNLI

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 13.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since its foundation in 1824, the volunteers of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have been braving the most savage of elements at sea to rescue sailors in distress. Their work has saved the lives of an estimated 143,000 people and helped many, many thousands more. Funded entirely by charitable donations and staffed primarily by volunteers it is a much loved national institution in the UK and Ireland.

Today, Dan is joined by Mark Wordsworth who spent over a decade as a volunteer crewmember and now serves on the board of the RNLI council. Mark and Dan explore how the RNLI came to be founded, its history and some of its most notable rescues. They also discuss the organisations' ethos, which was set out by its founder Sir William Hillary, and how that continues to shape its work today.

If you would like to make a donation to the RNLI you can do so here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello,
0:00.6	folks, Dan Snow here.
0:01.6	I am throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of Dan Snow's history hit.
0:06.1	I'd love for you to be there.
0:07.5	Join me for a very special live recording of the podcast in London,
0:10.4	in England on the 12th of September to celebrate the 10 years.
0:14.1	You can find out more about it and get tickets with the link in the show notes.
0:17.6	Look forward to seeing you there.
0:29.9	Hi, buddy. Welcome to Dan Snow's history. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution,
0:35.7	the R&LI is one of the most beloved, the most respected and the most recognized institutions in Britain, Ireland, with their bold
0:38.2	colour scheme, they set out in any weather to rescue people whose lives are imperiled on the
0:44.7	oceans that surround us. To be British is to love the R&LI. But recently the R&LI has been
0:52.2	the news, been dragged into the political conversation in this country. People have been taking very small boats, very small boats, indeed, very dangerous boats from the coast of Europe, France, over here to the English coast. Migrants have been trying to come across, and the R&LI has been rescuing them and bringing them safe to British shores. So what's the history of the R&I? Where does it all begin? What's its ethos? And how does saving these lives at sea fit into that history? Well, I've gone to the right person. Mark Wordsworth. He was a volunteer in Aldenny on the R&I, in the Channel Islands. And he's now on the board of the R&LI Council. He's a great guy. He knows the history and he's a great ambassador for the R&LI. So great to have him on the podcast. If you want to listen by any chance, if you share my passion for maritime history, just by any chance if you do, well, you've got plenty of it available. History Hit TV. It's our history channel. It's a streaming service. You get to watch documentaries wherever you're in the world and whatever hard way you got with you. If you've got a projector, you can project it onto a wall. You've got a phone, you can watch on your phone. You can do wherever you like. You can watch it on TV. You just go to the link in the description of this podcast. You click on that with your little dainty finger and you get taken through to history hit TV. Please head over and do that.
2:01.9	It's the world's best history channel.
2:03.2	You're going to absolutely love it.
2:04.4	So go and do all that, go and subscribe to History Hit TV
2:06.3	after you've listened to this interview
2:08.2	with the wonderful Mark Wordsworth.
2:10.5	Enjoy.
2:16.1	Hi, Mark.
2:16.7	Thank you very much for coming on.
2:17.8	Thank you.
	...

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