This book can easily be recommended to anyone with the slightest interest in maritime history, the maritime industries or maritime affairs, as it tells the stories of those who have decided to train hard and always be prepared to act if there are live at risk at sea, whatever the circumstances.

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The Naval Historical Foundation

This is a story of great courage and selflessness by the heroes of the unique RNLI. The tradition of saving lives around the coasts of the British Isles is long established but the creation of what is now the RNLI in the early Nineteenth Century provided a unified and highly professional maritime rescue service that has always been staffed by volunteers. – Most Highly Recommended

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Firetrench

As featured by

Suffolk & Norfolk Life, March 2021

If you like real life rescue stories, and derring-do on the sea, you'll likely enjoy this collection of stories and the history sailing underneath them.

NetGalley, AC Howard

I found this an interesting read. The author uses clear language and the book is well structured. If you have an interest in an enduring institution, then this is for you.

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Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)

I never fail to be in awe of the achievements of the RNLI, a public-funded and wholly voluntary organisation that has saved some 140,000 lives in the UK. Whenever vessels have foundered off the coasts of Britain, there have always been those willing to give their all to save those in peril but in 1823, Sir William Hillary decided that this admirable but impromptu approach was not enough. He believed that many more lives could be saved by the establishment of a national, organised rescue service. His idea was realised the following year. From the days of oar-powered open boats to modern high speed, hi-tech vessels, rescuers have battled storms and unimaginable conditions, risking – and sometimes forfeiting – their own lives in efforts to save others. The most outstanding of these operations led to the awarding of gold medals for gallantry, the RNLI version of the Victoria Cross. Using information gleaned from archives, contemporary newspaper accounts and genealogical records, this book looks not just at the details of the heroic rescues, but the people behind them.

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Julian Stockwin

Some of the stories covered in this book are fantastic feats of bravery, we have the highly decorated man Harry Blogg from Norfolk, Grace Darling and the Irish Father O’Shea. These are just a few examples of the stories in the book in which there are about 40 stories all collected together from the very start of the service to later times. The stories all come from various sources such as newspapers, genealogical records and the archives, so there should be praise and gratitude for the effort the author Beardsley has had to go to. As the book reads well and the stories have been put together very well. Maybe it’s because I am sitting here reading this book in front of a fire and it’s raining outside, but it’s good to hunker down and get lost in a great bunch of heroic stories. A highly recommended book, especially to those that like to read about life on the sea.

5 stars

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UK Historian

Article: 'You never saw him panic' – Norfolk’s Great Lifeboatman as featured by

Great Yarmouth Mercury, 29th January 2021

Article: 'You never saw him panic' – Billy Fleming, Norfolk’s Great Lifeboatman as featured by

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Eastern Daily Press, 23rd January 2021

It seems incredible that after the creation of the RNLI (formerly The Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwrecks), around 200 years ago, it continues to be primarily funded by charity donations. This book highlights some of the more (as well as the less) well known courageous people who, as volunteers, risked their lives to save others. This is a well researched book and I enjoyed learning about all the brave volunteers. Sir William Hillary is the man given credit for setting up this wonderful institution. It was as interesting to read a little more detail about the celebrated Grace Darling as it was to hear about the heroes who have slipped from common knowledge.

NetGalley, Jill G

I found this a well-researched book about various rescues made by members of the RNLI.

The story of Grace Darling I was familiar with but the others, not. It is amazing to me that so many of the rescues in this book took place by men rowing out to ships in gale-force storms. I can't even imagine it. I was once caught in a storm on a sailing boat in the middle of the English Channel and that was terrifying enough; reading these rescues made my heart speed up, absolutely!

I am in awe of the skill and bravery of these incredible people who rescue others in appalling conditions (even with a motorised rescue craft, it is still very risky) and I am glad that a book such as this has been written about these unsung heroes.

4.5 stars from me.

NetGalley, Monica Mac