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1974: 150 Years of the RNLI | We Never Turn Back | BBC Archive
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September 12, 2025
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September 12, 2025
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41:05Now PlayingIn 1974, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution turns 150 years old.
The RNLI is fiercely independent. It has no grant, no subsidies. Sadly, it is the disasters like the loss of a boat at Fraserburgh and Longhope that most effectively advertise it and bring in donations.
Lifeboats 150 years ago were powered by sails and oars. Today there are inflatable boats that will do 30 knots and deep sea boats that will do 20 knots, but the future of the RNLI will be very different as helicopters play an increasingly important role in search and rescue operations.
Jeremy James looks at the RNLI's past and pays tribute to the lifeboatmen of today: the men of the little Scottish port of Macduff who accepted the boat when Fraserburgh refused a replacement; the men of Penlee who work some of the most dangerous waters in the world between the Lizard and Land's End; the men of Caister in Norfolk who bought their own lifeboat; the men whose quiet boast it is that they never turn back, never refuse to go out.
Clip taken from Tuesday Documentary, originally broadcast on BBC One, 15 October, 1974.
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