NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/boats/8770

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-23 | 3.3 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!warwick!uknet!edcastle!wex
From: [e-mail] (John Wexler)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Coast Guard user fee repealed!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 23 Dec 92 10:45:48 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Edinburgh University Computing Service
Lines: 57

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (R.J.Hare) writes:
|> 1) The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a body composed of
|>    volunteers (they may employ fulltime administrators at their HQ, but I
|>    believe *all* crew are volunteers).
The RNLI has been a wholly independent organisation with all-volunteer
crews since its foundation, except for a brief period in the 19th century
when it received Government funding.  It then decided to refuse
Government aid, for three major reasons:
  the likelihood of political interference
  the expectation that the Treasury would end up restricting, rather
    than augmenting, the Institution's funding
  the fear of legal control and liability

Crews are not employees, and they are never under external orders - the
coxswain is absolute master of a boat.  Hence they can and do exercise
their own judgment (and their extreme skill) in very hazardous
situations without worrying about regulations, risk-avoidance and legal
repercussions in case something goes wrong.  They have always felt that
freedom to be essential if they are to rescue people from desperate
situations in extreme conditions when a legally responsible controller
would have to say "abandon the operation".

Whole lifeboat crews are sometimes lost, and the RNLI is not regarded as
responsible, so it doesn't have to pay compensation to the families.
(It does in fact pay something, but the crews accept as part of the task
that the Institution's funds should be spent on life-saving rather than
on compensation for lives lost.  Public subscriptions after each
disaster generally raise plenty of money for the families.)

|> 2) HM Coastguard is a statutory body. They also provide rescue services,
|>    sometimes co-ordinating rescues.
I don't think they normally carry out rescues.  That's to say that they
don't generally put to sea in their own craft for rescue purposes.
Their main function is to keep watch on coastal waters (nowadays,
primarily a radio watch) for all sorts of purposes - traffic control,
rescue coordination, detection of smuggling, and so on.

|> 3) HM Customs and Excise is a statutory body. These are the folks who track
|>    down the smugglers. They operate at airports and ports of course, but they
|>    also have fast patrol boats, blac k rubber dinghies and can and do stop
|>    boats and 'rummage' them.

There are also fishery protection vessels - I don't know whether the US
coastguard does any of that sort of thing.  Actually, I don't know who
operates ours.  Some of them are certainly part of the Royal Navy, but
I'm not sure that they all are.

Then, from some of the things that have been posted about the US
coastguard, I deduce that they have some tasks which would be taken by
the Royal Navy in British waters.

Finally, there's the question of marine rescue by helicopter.  This is
normally done by the RAF, which has specialist squadrons for that sort
of work.

    John Wexler
    Edinburgh