RNLI 200 Voices

122. Young Lifesaver: Theo Pulman

When 12-year-old Theo Pulman spotted a friend struggling in the water, he remembered the RNLI’s float-to-live advice 
It was the school summer holidays. Theo and his friends were enjoying a day at Burry Port Beach, when one of Theo’s friends got into difficulty in the sea. Dashing into the water to help the boy, Theo asked another friend to call 999.  
Theo talks about the advice he gave the boy: stay calm and float like a starfish – lifesaving advice his grandfather, Deputy Launch Authority at Burry Port, had passed on. His grandfather is just one of three in Theo’s family at Burry Port RNLI – and if Theo’s brilliant quick-thinking actions are anything to go by, the young lifesaver will one day likely join them.
In another episode from our 200 Voices series, Tina Powsey remembered to float like a starfish when she and her friend got into trouble in the water. Listen to Tina’s podcast episode to find out how the RNLI's Float to Live advice saved their lives.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by Adventurous Audio
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   

121. One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Allen Stevens

Meet the man who helped develop the first lifejacket to fit both male and female crew 
Male. Female. Tall. Short. Light. Heavy. RNLI crew come in every size and shape – and it was RNLI Senior Engineer Allen Steven’s job to work on a lifejacket design to fit every crew member. The first person to acknowledge that one size doesn’t fit all, Allen explains how crew input influenced the lifejacket’s evolution – and the ultimate lifejacket design.   
Allen also shares his pride in founding the RNLI Disability Network. After suffering life-threatening injuries in 1987 and living with a brain injury ever since, he’s passionate about championing the voices of those who may not otherwise be heard.   
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by the RNLI's Amy Bratley
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   

120. Linda Izquierdo-Ross on the Other Loch Ness Monster

Loch Ness may hold a sense of mystery, but tour guide Linda Izquierdo-Ross is in no doubt about its dangers
Loch Ness most definitely is home to at least one monster, says RNLI Deputy Launch Authority Linda Izquierdo-Ross. But the one Linda has in mind is not the kind of monster we imagine.
The loch is very cold all year round. It provides less buoyancy than salt water, and, due to the peat particles, visibility is next to zero. All of which means, in Linda’s words, that ‘it keeps what it’s given’. So the former crew member – who also works as a tour guide on the loch – knows from experience that there’s no time to lose when someone’s in peril.
As a child, Linda herself had to be rescued from drowning, and this prompted the urge to give back. Recently, she was awarded a Red Cross Silver Medal by Prince Albert of Monaco.
Let Linda take you on a tour of Loch Ness. At 23 miles long – and, at its deepest point, over 200m deep – it is, she says, ‘a great place to hide’.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by Adventurous Audio
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   
 

119. Walls of Water: Michael Scales

In December, 1981, the St Peter Port lifeboat crew braved 15m waves to go to the aid of stricken cargo ship, the Bonita. The late coxswain – Michael Scales – relives a momentous rescue
In the second of two episodes dedicated to one of the RNLI’s finest rescues, the late coxswain of the Sir William Arnold lifeboat – Michael Scales – recalls battling 3-storey swells to help save 29 lives. Arriving at the scene between Guernsey and Devon, the lifeboat was dwarfed by the 8,000-tonne cargo ship, Bonita, listing on its side with its rudder and propeller exposed.
The RNLI’s youngest coxswain at the time recalls the night he and his determined crew made no less than 50 attempts to save those on board. The rescue would earn Michael an RNLI Gold Medal for Gallantry, and his entire crew were awarded Bronze Medals.
Since this episode was recorded, the Sir William Arnold lifeboat – restored by former fundraiser Colin Trowles – was moved and is now a floating museum in Heybridge Basin, Maldon, Essex.
In the first podcast episode dedicated to the Bonita, Nils Fosstveit – one of the crew members that went to the aid of Bonita that night – shares his account of the rescue he’ll never forget. Listen to Nils's episode and watch a short film about the rescue.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   

118. Remembering the Bonita: Nils Fosstveit

Nils Fosstveit takes us back to the night he’ll never forget – and to what was, at the time, the biggest Channel rescue since the Second World War
13 December, 1981: in hurricane-force winds, cargo ship – the Bonita – was sinking off the Channel Islands. 27-year-old Nils Fosstveit was one of 36 crew on board. Not all would survive. Nils did, but in his own words, it was by ‘very small margins’.
At one point, losing hope, he and other crew members had thought about voluntarily sliding down the badly listing ship and giving themselves up to the freezing waters. But the crew rallied. Before his escape, Nils, along with others, had to haul an injured man down ladders by rope. Nils then had to jump 15m into the sea. He was one of the last off.
In the first of two episodes dedicated to the Bonita, hear Nils’s account of one of the RNLI’s finest rescues.
Next, listen to the second episode, where Michael Scales – the late coxswain onboard the lifeboat that went to the aid of Bonita – recalls the momentous rescue. Find out more about the Bonita in this short film.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by Adventurous Audio
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   

117. Moonless Rescue: Robin Fitzgerald

A sailor’s boat was sinking on a pitch-black night. As RNLI volunteers searched the waters off Jersey, their only hope was a flicker of light in the distance
St Catherine’s Robin Fitzgerald was brushing his teeth when his pager went off. It was a starless, moonless night and with the sailor in the water, time was of the essence.
Duty Helm that night, Robin talks about launching to the rescue in total darkness, navigating the looming black shadow of the Ecrehous reef. The rescue was one that Robin will never forget – in part because of the moving message the crew received afterwards.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by Adventurous Audio
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   

116. Home from Home: Nora Flanagan

Having lived in a former boathouse, Nora Flanagan was destined to join the RNLI. In Gaelic, we hear from Arranmore’s first female crew member
Speaking in Gaelic, Nora Flanagan describes the old boathouse she grew up in, with the Arranmore lifeboat anchored just outside the door. Though she trained as a nurse in Edinburgh and worked in London, Nora was an islander at heart and returned to Arranmore in 1982.
There she joined the all-male lifeboat crew and wasn’t sure what she could offer, until a shout came in for which her nursing skills were called upon – helping Nora realise that everyone has a role to play.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI  
Interview by John McCafferty
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   
 

115. Darkest Day: David Forshaw

It remains the biggest loss of lifeboat crew in the RNLI’s history – David Forshaw on the 1886 Mexico disaster, and why it was a pivotal moment for the charity
On 10 December 1886, 27 lifeboatmen from Lytham St. Annes and Southport tragically lost their lives while attempting to rescue the crew from the German barque Mexico, which had run aground after getting caught in perilous conditions.
Those who died left behind 16 widows and 50 children without fathers. A public relief fund was launched to support them, raising £30,000 in a matter of weeks – which included donations from Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Soon after, local businessman Sir Charles Macara and his wife Marion organised the very first Lifeboat Saturday. Thousands of people lined the streets of Manchester and raised over £5,000 for RNLI lifesavers. Due to its success, other towns and cities quickly followed suit.
In this episode, David Forshaw, Launch Authority and Lifeboat Press Officer at Lytham St. Annes RNLI, tells the story of what happened on the darkest day in the RNLI’s history, and how it changed the face of fundraising forever.
For 200 years, RNLI volunteers have shown incredible courage at sea and have saved more than 144,000 lives – none of which would be possible without kindness from the public. Help us mark this historic milestone in our lifesaving story.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by Adventurous Audio
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   
 

114. Michele Jagger: Remembering My Daughter

Michele Jagger explains why having her daughter’s name on the Whitby lifeboat is so special
Three weeks before Michele’s daughter, Shannon, sadly passed away, they enjoyed some mother-daughter time in Whitby – one of Michele’s favourite places. As well as having a soft spot for the beautiful seaside town, Michele has always been in awe of the RNLI volunteers that risk their lives to save others. So, when the opportunity arose to add Shannon’s name to the Launch a Memory lifeboat in Whitby – which also happens to be a Shannon class – she knew it was meant to be.
In this episode, Michele explains why her daughter was special to so many people, and how she would be over the moon to know that her name is on a lifeboat that will save lives at sea.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by Adventurous Audio
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200   
 

113. Twist of Fate: Robin Smith

When the RNLI lifeboat Mona capsized, all eight crew members were lost. Robin Smith should’ve been on it
In 1959, Robin Smith - who at the time was on the crew at Broughty Ferry RNLI - was due to go out on the Mona lifeboat. As he was getting the lifeboat ready for launch, the ex-coxswain arrived. But as it was the new coxswain’s first call out, it was tradition for the ex-coxswain to go with the crew. So Robin stepped back. And it was that tradition that saved his life.
Tragically, the Mona capsized, with all eight crew members losing their lives. Hear Robin talk about what happened on that fateful day, including how the last-minute change of plan was the difference between life and death.
This is Robin’s personal description of the disaster at Broughty Ferry, based on his memories.
200 Voices is produced by Adventurous Audio for the RNLI   
Interview by the RNLI's Isobel Noctor
Soundtrack composed and performed by Jon Nicholls   
The RNLI is a charity celebrating 200 years of saving lives at sea - find out more at RNLI.org/200