As you can see the number of incidents we are called to deal with varies enormously from year to year. We record our callouts between Annual General Meetings – 1 November to 31 October.
The nature of the incidents also varies massively and this has changed in recent years with more of our callouts involving flooding, like that seen in Carlisle in December 2015 and in Dumfries at the Whitesands.
We have recently been involved in the search for missing persons, boats in difficulty, people cut off by tides among others.
Covid-19: 2020 has been a particularly difficult year for everyone. We have adopted strict Covid-19 Protocols for callouts and to allow us to continue to deliver elements training.
Tasking is via the HM Coastguard who following a request from either a partner first responders (Police, Fire or Ambulance) or directly from a 999 call activate our Lifeboat Response Team pagers on a touchscreen in the HM Coastguard Belfast control room. Our volunteer crew make their way to the Life Station. We normally launch within 10mins of being paged or are on the road to the rendezvous (RV) location to meet Coastguard teams.
The nature of what we are called to deal or assist with can vary greatly, sometimes in the most horrendous weather, dangerous tidal conditions and swollen, fast-flowing rivers. From rescuing people from water; extracting people stuck in the mud; recovering stranded vessels; helping with flood emergencies and the search for missing persons, to assisting a police Major Investigation Team on a suspected murder enquiry. On average Nith Inshore Rescue attends 30 callouts per year making the Lifeboat Station one of the busiest in Scotland.
Support Nith Inshore Rescue
As an independent lifeboat, we are one of a family that makes up around a quarter of all Lifeboats in the UK and Ireland; we are also one of just three in the South of Scotland, which boasts half of all independent lifeboats in Scotland. Being an independent, wholly volunteer-run Lifeboat comes with its challenges, one of which can be our visibility to raise funds in the shadow of our good friends the RNLI.
That makes every penny donated and raised, which adds up to around £30,000 a year in running costs, vital and appreciated.
As a result, our supporters have kept our Lifeboat on service, on-call 24/7 every day of every year with no callout unresponded in over 40 years: with nearly 470 callouts and the accrual of over 63,500 hrs of active volunteer service.
Our lifeboat crew today are the custodians of a proud legacy of extensive knowledge, experience and history gained over those four decades of service. This proud legacy is matched only by the extraordinary gift of support from the community we belong to and serve.
