Saving Lives at Sea

Keeping watch over the River Thames, the crew at Tower in central London, the busiest of the RNLI's 238 stations, are called to a man reported in the water eight miles downstream. On arrival, they discover a river bus already on the scene and their crew desperately trying to hang on to the unmoving man before he disappears under the water. At one of the most remote stations, Trearddur Bay on Anglesey, the crew are called to an inaccessible coastal fishing spot, where an angler has plunged face first down a cliff onto rocks. With no helicopter available, the crew and their small inshore lifeboat are the only option to get him to urgent medical treatment. While in Portsmouth, gale force winds and a churning sea make a routine rescue particularly challenging.