0:00:12 > 0:00:18Over the last century, people have been drawn to the sea for different reasons -
0:00:18 > 0:00:21for fishing, for trade,
0:00:21 > 0:00:23and for pleasure...
0:00:26 > 0:00:29..but they have always been at its mercy.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33The unpredictability of nature
0:00:33 > 0:00:36and its inherent hostility to us,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39has a nasty habit of catching us out.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42And when people have been caught out,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46they have relied on the bravery of lifeboat crews, coastguards,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and men and women from the air/sea rescue services.
0:00:51 > 0:00:58This ship was sunk, the sea was covering it and the waves were running at 15-20 feet.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01That's when things got a bit more serious
0:01:01 > 0:01:04because I knew I was the one that was going to have to go down there.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11We were a young crew. And we'd never seen this before,
0:01:11 > 0:01:15never seen a vessel so large actually sinking.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21Just occasionally, home movie makers managed to film some of these acts of heroism.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23And their films, together with the memories
0:01:23 > 0:01:28of those involved, tell the story of why a few people risk their own lives
0:01:28 > 0:01:30to save the lives of others,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33how they harnessed new technologies to help them,
0:01:33 > 0:01:40and why, in spite of all this, the sea continues to claim so many lives.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48# Hear us when we cry to thee
0:01:48 > 0:01:55# For those in peril on the sea... #
0:01:57 > 0:02:01The conditions must have been horrendous, absolutely terrifying.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04It was hit with that 90-mile-per-hour gale.
0:02:04 > 0:02:05We never found survivors.
0:02:07 > 0:02:13Off Britain's coastline lie the telling reminders of the ever-present dangers of the sea.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18For centuries, people set sail with little hope of being rescued if they got into difficulty.
0:02:18 > 0:02:25But, by the middle of the 19th century, a network of support was beginning to emerge.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29At first, the life-saving equipment they used was rudimentary.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31But, over the decades,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34the rescue services became much more sophisticated.
0:02:34 > 0:02:40What stayed constant was the terrible, unpredictable power of the sea itself.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56I remember particularly the night my father was drowned.
0:02:56 > 0:02:57It was a terrible night.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01There was never a night like it. We have lots of gales here.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03We have lots of them.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05But there was never a gale like that.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18I remember the words being said, when the rocket went off,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21I said to my sister, "Dad isn't going out tonight, is he?"
0:03:21 > 0:03:25So she said, "Yes, he'll be all right, my boy, he'll be all right."
0:03:25 > 0:03:29And then I heard my mum say, "You won't go out tonight, William?"
0:03:29 > 0:03:30She must have raised her voice.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33He said, "I'm going out, Grace.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35"I'm going out to do my duty."
0:03:35 > 0:03:40The duty that William Barber's father was doing that night
0:03:40 > 0:03:42was to serve on the St Ives Lifeboat.
0:03:43 > 0:03:50The lifeboat went out because there was a call for a boat called The Wilson.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52And she was in difficulties.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Actually, not far off Sennen.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59And the word came in that Sennen Lifeboat said
0:03:59 > 0:04:02they can't launch, it was too bad a conditions, they couldn't go out.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Our coxswain said, "I'm going out.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11"Is anyone coming with me?"
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Six others answered the call that night.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20They included William's Uncle Matthew, and the coxswain, Thomas Cocking.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25The lifeboat launch that day was about two o'clock in the morning.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Got around the headland and got hit with a wave and capsized.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Three of the crew got washed out of it.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35They managed to hang on, tried to restart the engine.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40Then she capsized again, a couple more blokes got washed out.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Then they hung on again, just hung on. She rolled over a third time.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48And then she rolled up onto the rocks at Godrevy.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50Seven out of eight men gone.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02The scale of the tragedy struck a chord with the nation.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Newsreel cameras arrived in time to film the aftermath.
0:05:11 > 0:05:18It was devastating inasmuch as nearly every family was affected
0:05:18 > 0:05:22and, of course, there were no chapels big enough for the funerals, really.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24People came from all over Cornwall.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31My great-grandfather was the coxswain, and I had two great-uncles
0:05:31 > 0:05:33who were in the boat as well,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36my grandfather and his son were drowned, and his son-in-law.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43My great-auntie that night, she lost her husband, her father and her brother.
0:05:54 > 0:06:01The tragedy of January 1939 remains the worst disaster in the history of the St Ives Lifeboat.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05And, although three members of the Cocking family were drowned,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08it didn't stop them from continuing their commitment.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Like his father before him, Tommy Cocking is today its coxswain.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24It's been a long family history, it goes back generations and generations.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27My great-great-great-grandfather, I think, was maybe the first one.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31I think there has been a Cocking in the St Ives Lifeboat for over 150 years.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Tommy's family would have been amongst the earliest volunteers
0:06:37 > 0:06:40for a charity that began in 1824.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45Today, he's one of 4,500 crew members of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution
0:06:45 > 0:06:49based in more than 200 stations around our coastline.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53The vast majority remain volunteers.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00There is a certain amount of excitement, I suppose, adrenalin kick.
0:07:00 > 0:07:07Without saying the old cliche, "Oh, it feels nice when you save someone," it really does. That is a fact.
0:07:10 > 0:07:16Every community that has a lifeboat, I think, thinks a lot of it and are very, very proud of it.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21That's the crew of the boat, 1935-36.
0:07:21 > 0:07:27That's my great-grandfather, that's my grandfather and that's my dad.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32That's another one there with the crew pulling the boat out,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34with the launchers pulling the boat out by hand.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41# Who will man the lifeboat Who the storm will brave?
0:07:41 > 0:07:47# Many souls are drifting helpless on the wave
0:07:47 > 0:07:49# See their hands uplifted... #
0:07:49 > 0:07:52In those early days, even launching a lifeboat was a difficult and risky business.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57Well, they used to pull the boat right out in the sea, men up to their necks in water,
0:07:57 > 0:08:02to get that boat afloat, to go to a rescue.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09This footage is taken from promotional films made by the RNLI in the 1930s,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13a time when Martin Roach was growing up in St Ives.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18They used to row them.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Yeah. They were hard men in them days, very, very hard.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28They would have to row... row clear of the beach where they were launched,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32and if they were going a distance, they would sail,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36but when they were going to do an actual job, they would have to take the sails down and row,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40so that they could get alongside the casualty.
0:08:40 > 0:08:41HE LAUGHS
0:08:41 > 0:08:45They were very hard men, they were. Hard.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50The turn of the 20th century,
0:08:50 > 0:08:53the lifeboats were, in the main, pulling and sailing boats.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56By 1911, there were only 13 with engines.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01Their equipment was very basic - they had obviously the sails,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03oars for rowing.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06The crew would have worn just their oilskin jacket
0:09:06 > 0:09:11with a cork life jacket, which was invented in 1854.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15The lifeboat crew had no more protection on their boats
0:09:15 > 0:09:17than many of the people they went to rescue.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24The early lifeboatmen were very much on their own -
0:09:24 > 0:09:27a local response to a local problem.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Traditionally, of course, life-saving provision comes from local communities -
0:09:34 > 0:09:38the fishing communities which banded together to provide
0:09:38 > 0:09:41safety boats that could go and rescue their fellows at sea.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54They were all fishermen, the majority of them.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58So, men, perhaps like my father, he wasn't in the crew,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02but he would go when the rockets went, he would go down there.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05And if perhaps they were one short, or two short,
0:10:05 > 0:10:06he would go in their place,
0:10:06 > 0:10:12until such times as he was a recognised member of the crew.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15That's the way they used to do it, that's the way I did it.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19They all turn out to help, to do what they can.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21There was a community spirit.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30The co-ordination of rescue service wasn't as it is today
0:10:30 > 0:10:33with the telephone network or a radio network.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36It was line of sight, it was mark one eyeball,
0:10:36 > 0:10:41it was rockets, it was people who lived on the coast and understood what they might be seeing,
0:10:41 > 0:10:46who communicated things and passed by word of mouth. It was a bit ad hoc.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48It certainly worked,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51but I'm not sure I'd want to rely on it too much.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Despite the efforts of the lifeboat service,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12many lives were lost at sea, many of them close to the shore.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17From the 1930s onwards, amateur film-makers began to capture the drama
0:11:17 > 0:11:21of wrecks and rescues along Britain's coast.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25One of these film-makers was a Cornish man, John Stevens,
0:11:25 > 0:11:30seen here with his children, in his own film.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32John filmed in St Ives in the 1950s,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36and he captured the early days of the local rescue organisation,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38the Volunteer Coastguard.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46His son, Frank, has kept his films.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Quite often, when Dad went out with his camera,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57especially when it was sea rescues and coastguard practice, things like that,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00if I was around, I would tag along.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03It was always exciting to go and watch.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11There have always been people whose job it is to watch and guard the coast.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15At one time, their main concern was smugglers and pirates,
0:12:15 > 0:12:20but by the 20th century, they were also looking after ships and coastline safety.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25In St Ives, as in other coastal communities,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29volunteers were using basic life-saving equipment
0:12:29 > 0:12:33to rescue people from cliffs or from ships foundering close to the shore.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Coastguards would go up to the coastguard station,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40which was above Porthminster Beach in St Ives
0:12:40 > 0:12:44and there was a garage up there where they stored life-saving apparatus.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51And they piled all the stuff on board, all the people alighting,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55the crew jumped on the lorry, about eight or ten of them.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Health and safety? Forget it.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Jumped on, climbed on top, and off they went, hanging on for dear life,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05and the apparatus then would be taken to where the casualty would be.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16When the St Ives Coastguard was called out on a day in September in 1952,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19the potential casualties were in the heart of the town.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25A violent storm had driven a naval minesweeper aground in the harbour.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Frank's father was there to film the unfolding drama.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39The ship was in danger. I mean, it's on the rocks.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Whether there was a possibility of capsizing, I don't know.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44But the crew had to be taken off.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Also watching the drama was Paul Moran,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50who was a young boy at the time.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55I ran down to Westcott's Quay where this drama was taking place.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57The weather was absolutely ferocious.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59There was a gale-force wind blowing,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01the seas had heaped up in St Ives Bay.
0:14:01 > 0:14:02There was spray everywhere,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05it was very dramatic and I simply had to get down there.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09I looked at this huge mass of this boat,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11which was lying offshore about 200 yards.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16The tide was coming in, there was spray everywhere.
0:14:16 > 0:14:17Very dramatic scenes.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24While the storm raged, John Stevens filmed the rescue operation.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28The volunteers set up a piece of equipment
0:14:28 > 0:14:32that in those days offered the best hope of rescuing those on board.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39The breeches buoy apparatus was invented by Henry Trengrouse,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42actually a Cornishman who lived in Helston.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46He had witnessed the disaster of HMS Anson in 1807,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50where unfortunately 60-odd people had died because they couldn't be rescued.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53So he invented the breeches buoy apparatus.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58You simply fired a line, by a rocket.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03Once this line was attached to any mast or part of the ship,
0:15:03 > 0:15:09you could then use a pulley system, and people would clamber in to the little pouch there, the breeches,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13and people on shore would haul this person ashore, one at a time.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21And in that manner, you could rescue the people on the boat.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23Very simple, very effective.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27But it did need a lot of people on shore to be able to hold the lines,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29so that they could be hauled ashore.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40Battling through atrocious weather, the volunteers managed to save the lives of 62 sailors.
0:15:45 > 0:15:46It was no accident
0:15:46 > 0:15:49that the first organised attempts of life-saving at sea
0:15:49 > 0:15:52had focused on ships close to shore.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57That's where ships and sailors were most vulnerable.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Most ships can cope with bad weather.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04They have trouble in extreme weather,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07but, by and large, they cope with making an ocean voyage.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10The problem occurs when you approach land -
0:16:10 > 0:16:16off-lying rocks, darkened coasts, sand banks and tides.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19If you can't see where you're going, you've got a problem.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24HORN BLASTS
0:16:26 > 0:16:29HORN BLASTS
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Well before the days of lifeboats and coastguards,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37we in Britain had already developed a protective network
0:16:37 > 0:16:39to help sailors in danger off the coastline.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44It's often said that lighthouses are signposts of the sea,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47because if you imagine yourself out in the middle of the sea,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50with nothing there, just a pure, black night,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53you literally won't know where you are.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56But when you notice a light flashing at a regular interval,
0:16:56 > 0:16:58you think, "That's a lighthouse."
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Basically speaking, because each one has an individual characteristic,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08a sailor or mariner out at sea can instantly tell where they are.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15The idea of using raised lights to guide ships dates back to ancient Egypt,
0:17:15 > 0:17:21and records show that Britain had its first lighthouse by the 13th century.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27At the beginning of the 20th century, there were over 250, most of them controlled by Trinity House.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Trinity House is one of the three general lighthouse authorities for the UK and Ireland.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37It was founded in 1514 by Henry VIII,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40originally as a charitable institution
0:17:40 > 0:17:44to provide for "decayed mariners," as they were called in those days.
0:17:44 > 0:17:50But it then developed into a service for providing lighthouses, buoys, beacons and lightships,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52particularly during the Victorian age -
0:17:52 > 0:17:54the great age of lighthouse building.
0:17:56 > 0:18:02They were almost always built in beautiful locations and often had an air of mystery about them.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07Gerry Douglas-Sherwood's imagination was fired and he applied for a job as a keeper.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12I think the appeal was really
0:18:12 > 0:18:16the fact that it's such an unusual occupation.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20It never entered my mind to become a keeper, I didn't know the position existed.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22It was something you read in storybooks.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25To see it on the printed page, it's a regular salary.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28You got moved around England, Wales and the Channel Islands.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31I love travelling anyway, so it had great appeal.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37There is a lot of romanticism about lighthouses,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39and the one question most people ask is,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42"What's it really like to be a lighthouse keeper?"
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Well, I've just done morning watch.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59I tried to get in bed for a few hours' sleep.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01It's now just gone five...
0:19:01 > 0:19:05HORN BLASTS
0:19:07 > 0:19:10HORN BLASTS
0:19:11 > 0:19:12..and that's my alarm call.
0:19:12 > 0:19:18It's been going more or less since I got in bed, so it's pointless staying in.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30This is Peter Halil who, like Gerry, used to be a lighthouse keeper.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38The world of the keeper was a difficult one to film,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41but Peter's home movies, shot in the 1980s and '90s,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45give us an insight into a way of life that had changed little in generations.
0:19:49 > 0:19:56It suddenly dawned on me that nobody seemed interested in preserving the life of a lighthouse keeper.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00So...I decided to see if I could do it.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04So I got myself a video camera and taught myself what to do.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13I approached Trinity House and they sort of backed me with everything except the money.
0:20:13 > 0:20:19And every time somebody went ill, if I was free,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22on my time off, they'd send me to cover for them
0:20:22 > 0:20:26and I just ticked off the lighthouses I hadn't been to
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and they promptly delivered.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32So I used to commute by helicopter all over the place.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35It was lovely.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37But glamorous, it most certainly wasn't.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41HE WHISTLES AS HE VACUUMS
0:20:52 > 0:20:53Lots of people think
0:20:53 > 0:20:56when you become a lighthouse keeper you're a bit monastic.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01You're locked in, so you have to be able to talk to each other.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05You can't even go to the toilet without telling the other two where you're going.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08It's... It's...
0:21:08 > 0:21:10It's a bit like marriage.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Well, here we are on a last outpost.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Yep. Not many of us left.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26Imagine three keepers living in that area for 28 days
0:21:26 > 0:21:31where, if you stick your backside up against the door, take five steps,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34your nose is up against the wall on the other side.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37In there, you'd have a TV, a cooker,
0:21:37 > 0:21:39perhaps a microwave.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47But none of this dented Peter's enthusiasm for capturing this strange world on camera.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52And he even enlisted Gerry Douglas-Sherwood to help present it.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54OK. All right?
0:21:56 > 0:21:59The Needles Lighthouse you see today was built in 1858.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02It replaced a lighthouse on top of Scratchell's Bay,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05which was just round the corner, on the mainland.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11'During my career, from 1970 up to 1998, I really saw the whole gamut'
0:22:11 > 0:22:13of what it was like to be a keeper,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16from the 19th century to the 21st century, really.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21I dealt with the ships, I slept on board ships, I did boat reliefs.
0:22:21 > 0:22:27I worked on paraffin lights, I worked on the old-fashioned compressed-air fog signals.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30And, being an engineer, that was a great joy to me
0:22:30 > 0:22:32and I never lost that liking for the job itself.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37Right, this was the Norwegian-style emergency fog signal,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40which was in use in case the main machinery broke down.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45Place it over the rails like this and, when your time came round,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47give it a turn. Like so.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50HORN BLASTS
0:22:50 > 0:22:52HE LAUGHS
0:22:52 > 0:22:54HORN BLASTS
0:23:00 > 0:23:03During the early years of the 20th century,
0:23:03 > 0:23:08the pattern of the rescue services at sea - lighthouses, lifeboats and the coastguard -
0:23:08 > 0:23:10remained very much unchanged.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16But the impact of war at sea,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20and especially in the air over the seas round Britain,
0:23:20 > 0:23:21was to change everything.
0:23:25 > 0:23:31One of the major advances the Second World War brought about was the Air Sea Rescue Service.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35This change in thinking derived, of course, from the fact that a pilot
0:23:35 > 0:23:40was a highly-trained, very valuable asset to the country.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42And therefore it was important to recover him,
0:23:42 > 0:23:48and his skills, in one piece, and not leave him to the brutal ocean.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Early attempts at saving pilots were fairly rudimentary.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59It was rather like a steel dustbin that was anchored in the Channel,
0:23:59 > 0:24:04with a door on it, and a ladder, and a cooker, and some warm clothing,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06and the idea was
0:24:06 > 0:24:11that downed air crews would make their way to these "succour stations",
0:24:11 > 0:24:15climb aboard, make a cup of tea, and wait for someone to pick them up.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20In practice, these succour stations were of limited benefit.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24There was no guarantee that a downed pilot would be able to reach one.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28But gradually, matters did improve.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32The military began using fast motorboats, aided by spotter planes,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36to rescue air crews soon after they came down into the sea.
0:24:38 > 0:24:44They took rather unusual aeroplanes like the Otter, and they added these to the organisation.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47And the next thing, you've got search and rescue starting to operate.
0:24:47 > 0:24:53And by the end of the war, I don't know the numbers, but they'd saved thousands and thousands of airmen.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02By the time peace came in 1945,
0:25:02 > 0:25:07a national air sea rescue organisation was beginning to emerge.
0:25:08 > 0:25:16And this fledgling service would be revolutionised by the introduction of a totally new type of aircraft.
0:25:16 > 0:25:24Certainly in terms of 100, 200 miles out to sea, the most significant advance and benefit to anybody
0:25:24 > 0:25:28in the water is the development of the search and rescue helicopter.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Because it can react quickly, it can be on the precise point
0:25:31 > 0:25:34of the scene, and it can pluck people out of the sea.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36BELL RINGS
0:25:41 > 0:25:47By the early 1960s, the RAF and the Navy had established search and rescue units around Britain,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50responding to both military and civilian emergencies.
0:25:54 > 0:26:00Their helicopters made rescue possible where older techniques struggled to reach casualties.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08Eric Smith was a helicopter winchman at Chivenor in North Devon.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12A keen amateur film-maker, he recorded life in his unit.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Just think what I had. I had a camera aeroplane, I had a camera -
0:26:18 > 0:26:24so I've got air to air shots of aeroplanes which would cost a film company a bomb.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29And I've got all the props I needed, because they were for real.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34And over the period of three years that I was on that unit, I took hundreds of feet of film.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40The community aspect was, number one, a very small crew -
0:26:40 > 0:26:43pilot, navigator and the winchman down the back.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47And, although two of us would be officers as a rule
0:26:47 > 0:26:51and one of us would be a sergeant, we got on like a house on fire
0:26:51 > 0:26:53and we were very closely knit.
0:26:57 > 0:27:03My role aboard the aircraft was to sit quietly in the back until I was needed, really.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08So I would sit in the back in transit, probably nodding off.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13But when we got to the scene of the incident, then I was Action Man.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20In 1962, just a year after he'd joined,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24the unit was called to the aid of a ship in distress off the Cornish coast.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28Eric's skills as a winchman were about to be tested to the limit.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44A French fishing trawler, the Jeanne Gougy, had run aground off Land's End.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49When the helicopter reached the site, Eric and the crew found a vessel in serious trouble.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57Eric didn't have HIS camera,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01but two local film-makers watching from the cliffs above
0:28:01 > 0:28:02filmed what followed.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11This ship was sunk. This ship had capsized.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15This ship was resting on the bottom of the sea. The sea was covering it,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18and the waves were running at 15 to 20 feet.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21Every time there was a trough in the wave,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23so a bit of the ship would show.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25Looking at that, it was impossible,
0:28:25 > 0:28:27in our professional opinion -
0:28:27 > 0:28:29which was a very weighty opinion -
0:28:29 > 0:28:31that anybody could be alive
0:28:31 > 0:28:32in that wreck.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37The pilot said, "We will search the area."
0:28:37 > 0:28:40And we pulled two dead men out of the sea.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44We thought it was a total loss.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53As well as the helicopter, other rescue services had been called out.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57The lifeboat from nearby Sennen Cove retrieved several bodies from the water,
0:28:57 > 0:29:02but coxswain Maurice Hutchens saw no way of getting close enough to help
0:29:02 > 0:29:04anyone aboard who might still be alive.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15I remember the job because it was a tremendous ground sea running,
0:29:15 > 0:29:20as a result of a storm further off in the ocean.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27Every boat has its limit, and if you got picked up in one of those seas,
0:29:27 > 0:29:31you would have been smashed against the shore. Simple as that.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35It wasn't a case of being able to get in there in ANY boat -
0:29:35 > 0:29:40even today's boat would find it extremely difficult to operate
0:29:40 > 0:29:45a rescue in conditions like that.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49We decided to go from the scene and take the bodies to Newlyn,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52because there was nothing we could do.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58In the past, that would have been the end of any rescue attempt.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02But as events took another dramatic turn, the helicopter rescue team
0:30:02 > 0:30:07were about to demonstrate just what a difference they could make.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14A phone call came through to Culdrose Naval Air Station.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19And it said a woman on the cliff has seen a man alive in the wheelhouse.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23And we used an Air Force expression that has been in use for many years
0:30:23 > 0:30:27and said there was no way that anyone could be alive in that ship.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29And they insisted that there was.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33So we climbed into our yellow helicopter, and off we went again.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37We flew over the top of the ship, and I looked straight down
0:30:37 > 0:30:42into the wheelhouse, and there was a man in there.
0:30:42 > 0:30:43And he was alive.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46And I could not believe my eyes.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56And that's when things got a bit more serious,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59because I knew I was the one that was going to have to go down there.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13Just as I was coming over the side of the aeroplane, the pilot had said to me,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17"Smudger..." he said - they all called me Smudger - "Smudger,"
0:31:17 > 0:31:19he said, "you're not to come off the cable."
0:31:19 > 0:31:22Now he was that frightened for me.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25And I said, "Oh, yeah, OK."
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Because I wouldn't have obeyed such an order normally.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30He suddenly went very formal.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34He said, "Sergeant Smith, you are not to come off the cable.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38"That is a direct order. Do you understand?"
0:31:38 > 0:31:41I said, "Yes, sir." And that was the most formal we ever got.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49I worked my way round to the door that's been ripped off,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53and I look in the ship and it's full of water.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56Oily, black water. It stinks of oil.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59So I lowered myself over the edge, and there was the man.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01He was a big man, he was a six-footer.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04And beyond him was another man.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08I had no radio, no communication.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13So I just got the strop, and I put it over the man, and I tightened it up.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17And as I got hold of him, he just went limp.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21I didn't think he'd died, but I thought, "He's given up. It's up to me now."
0:32:28 > 0:32:33I had to pull him out of the perch that he'd got. I gave the lift signal.
0:32:33 > 0:32:38And we handed the survivor over to some people on the cliff.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42And I scrambled back into the aeroplane again, and we went back,
0:32:42 > 0:32:47and they lowered me again into the ship to get the second survivor.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53So I managed to get him out, and then we landed him.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59Was I pleased to be out of that ship, I tell you!
0:33:02 > 0:33:04And off we went, back to Chivenor.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10I thought, "I earned my pay today."
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Eric Smith saved the lives of two men that day.
0:33:18 > 0:33:19For his bravery,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22he received one of the nation's highest civilian awards,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24the George Medal.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44No-one ever found out why the Jeanne Gougy came to grief in 1962,
0:33:44 > 0:33:49but many of the boats that were wrecked off the Cornish coast had lost their way.
0:33:49 > 0:33:54They were unable to navigate around the hazardous rocks.
0:33:54 > 0:33:59Navigation skills, especially in poor weather, have always been essential to safety at sea.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03At the beginning of the 20th century,
0:34:03 > 0:34:08the tools sailors used to help them navigate were simple but effective.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13All navigation starts from very, very basic precepts.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16You want to know the speed of your ship through the water,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18you throw something over at the bow
0:34:18 > 0:34:21and you count how many seconds till it passes the stern.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25You know the length of your ship, therefore you calculate it up from that.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30And originally, it was a piece of wood usually. And it was called the log chip.
0:34:30 > 0:34:37And then that developed into the notion of putting something over the stern which pulled a line off a reel.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41And you calculated the number of knots that spun off the line -
0:34:41 > 0:34:43they were all tied at pre-set distances -
0:34:43 > 0:34:48and that is how we end up with the "knot" at sea as a measure of speed.
0:34:51 > 0:34:57Former St Ives lifeboatman Martin Roach recalls the navigational skills of his father's generation.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04If they were going off, say, 30 mile, they would allow for the tide,
0:35:04 > 0:35:06and they knew the drift, they knew it.
0:35:06 > 0:35:12Some of them couldn't read or write, but they knew the tides, and they knew which way to go.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15All they had was a compass. Dead reckoning.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21"Dead reckoning" was a way of working out a position with only basic equipment.
0:35:21 > 0:35:27Sailors would use the log and the compass to calculate the speed of the boat and its direction.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31When visibility was poor, especially near the coast,
0:35:31 > 0:35:34they would either creep forward with a foghorn sounding,
0:35:34 > 0:35:37or just drop anchor and wait for the fog to clear.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44Poor visibility became less of a problem during the course of the century,
0:35:44 > 0:35:48with the development of electronic aids to navigation.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51Perhaps the most well-known of these was radar.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57After the Second World War, the production of radar became a commercial possibility.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02It was no longer a state secret, and it became a common thing
0:36:02 > 0:36:06for ships to be equipped in increasing numbers in the '40s and '50s.
0:36:06 > 0:36:13And this produced a big upswing in the ability of sailors to be able to see in bad weather.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26And it was becoming more important TO be able to see in bad weather.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29Britain's shipping lanes were getting increasingly congested.
0:36:29 > 0:36:36One of the busiest was the Dover Strait, the narrowest part of the English Channel.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Here, as well as the risk of ships hitting the coast,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42there was the danger of ships hitting each other.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47In spite of modern technologies such as radar,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50poor weather in these increasingly congested waters
0:36:50 > 0:36:51always spelt trouble.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57The effect of fog in the English Channel, of course, in the '70s
0:36:57 > 0:36:58was quite clear.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Every time we had fog, there was collisions at sea.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08Tony Hawkins, like other members of the Dover Lifeboat,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12spent decades dealing with the tragic consequences of collisions.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18Many of them were filmed by one of Tony's friends, film-maker Ray Warner.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Ray was very much part of the town.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25And he obviously had contacts in the town that used to let him know
0:37:25 > 0:37:28when there was a disaster,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31or, of course, he would have heard the lifeboat maroons being fired.
0:37:36 > 0:37:41One of the most dramatic events Ray filmed took place in January 1971.
0:37:45 > 0:37:51I can remember being woken in the night by what I thought was thunder.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54I thought, "What a crack of thunder!"
0:37:54 > 0:38:01Because actually there was bits of masonry falling down the inside of our chimney, in the bedroom.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04I thought, "Oh, dearie me." And I sort of remember pulling
0:38:04 > 0:38:07the clothes up over my head and trying to go back to sleep.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10And within a few minutes, the lifeboat maroons went.
0:38:11 > 0:38:12MAROON EXPLODES
0:38:15 > 0:38:20The sound also woke Terry Sutton, a local newspaper reporter.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23My wife and I were in bed asleep,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27and then there was a terrific explosion.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29And, of course, being a reporter I was
0:38:29 > 0:38:32out of bed, on to the coastguards, trying to find out what it was.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43A Peruvian freighter, the Paracas, had ignored shipping lanes,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46and, in thick fog, collided with the Texaco Caribbean,
0:38:46 > 0:38:50an empty Panamanian oil tanker passing in the opposite direction.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03Oil fumes in the Texaco Caribbean's empty tanks ignited.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09That caused a massive explosion.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13So much so it shattered windows in Folkestone,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17which was at least seven miles away from where the collision occurred
0:39:17 > 0:39:22which was off the Varne Bank in the English Channel.
0:39:22 > 0:39:28The Paracas survived, and was towed away to a continental port.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30But the Texaco Caribbean sank.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43I can remember the coxswain saying, "Come on, you lads, your training's going to come in tonight."
0:39:46 > 0:39:50But on this occasion, their life-saving training would be of little use.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58We never found survivors.
0:39:58 > 0:40:04All we found were seamen that had obviously been in their bunks or on duty,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08some with life jackets, some without.
0:40:08 > 0:40:09And they were dead.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Those not killed by the explosion had drowned.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19However, the wreck of the Texaco Caribbean was just the first chapter
0:40:19 > 0:40:23in a tragedy that unfolded over several weeks.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25The wreckage was just below the surface.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Immediately a warning was put out to shipping,
0:40:28 > 0:40:31but lots of shipping didn't take a lot of interest.
0:40:33 > 0:40:3624 hours after the Texaco Caribbean,
0:40:36 > 0:40:42the German freighter the Brandenburg came up, and that hit it.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51The Brandenburg sank before lifeboats could even reach it.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Of a crew of 32,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56only 11 were rescued.
0:40:56 > 0:41:01Two weeks later a Greek vessel, the Niki, ignored warning buoys
0:41:01 > 0:41:05and sailed straight through the site of the wreck.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09Repeating the tragedy of the Brandenburg, her hull was ripped open,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13and she sank with all 22 officers and crew lost.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20I can remember the coxswain saying, "We're going to be
0:41:20 > 0:41:24"recovering bodies for weeks and weeks after."
0:41:24 > 0:41:26It was unbelievable.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33Despite the post-war developments in navigation technology,
0:41:33 > 0:41:39these collisions resulted in the loss of three ships, and 51 lives.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44The vast increase in the size of ships navigating their way through
0:41:44 > 0:41:48the increasingly congested shipping lanes of the Dover Strait
0:41:48 > 0:41:51had created a new scale of problem for the rescue services.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00Dover Coastguard, this is Dover Coastguard...
0:42:00 > 0:42:03The Texaco Caribbean tragedy
0:42:03 > 0:42:07led to a radical change in the way the Dover Coastguard police this stretch of water.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12The incident that occurred in 1971 was one of the driving incidents
0:42:12 > 0:42:14that led to the adoption
0:42:14 > 0:42:16of the traffic separation scheme we see today.
0:42:19 > 0:42:25Today, the Coastguard enforce a two-lane superhighway for all ships going through the strait.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30So this is a chart of part of the area of interest,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33the Dover Strait traffic separation scheme.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37This is the southwest lane here for traffic southwest bound,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40this is the northeast-bound lane here
0:42:40 > 0:42:42for the traffic going northeast direction,
0:42:42 > 0:42:45and this is the separation zone down the middle.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47So it's the area that vessels should avoid,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49to separate the two sets of traffic.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58Today we have a very advanced and sophisticated way
0:42:58 > 0:43:02of navigating through our very busy shipping lanes.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07Radar is incorporated with our digital charts,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10we also have vessel identification systems on the different vessels.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14And we can tell from that where the coastline is, where we're going,
0:43:14 > 0:43:16we can see where the other ships are,
0:43:16 > 0:43:21and that automated system will tell us whether we're on a collision course with a ship -
0:43:21 > 0:43:24even what the ship's carrying, how many people on board, its speed.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38This increasingly sophisticated technology,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42along with the skills of rescuers, had been used to protect mainly
0:43:42 > 0:43:45people who earned their living from the sea.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49But following the economic boom of the 1950s and '60s,
0:43:49 > 0:43:53more people put to sea not for work, but for pleasure -
0:43:53 > 0:43:59a few in large ocean racing yachts, but many more in small dinghies.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Small boats had become cheaper and more available,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15people had more disposable income to buy them.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18And there is nothing quite so good as messing about in boats.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20And people took advantage of that.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27The inevitable consequences were felt by the rescue services.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29As the number of leisure vessels increased,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32so the number of calls TO leisure vessels increased.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41By the 1970s, lifeboats and coastguards along the south coast of England
0:44:41 > 0:44:46were being kept busy over the summer months with calls from yachts or dinghies in trouble.
0:44:51 > 0:44:57But the calls to the rescue services on the weekend of the Fastnet Race in 1979
0:44:57 > 0:45:01suggested a problem of an altogether greater magnitude.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06STARTER: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
0:45:10 > 0:45:14The fight to save the lives of this group of yachtsmen would result
0:45:14 > 0:45:19in the largest combined rescue operation since the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31The 600-mile race around the Fastnet Rock off southern Ireland
0:45:31 > 0:45:36began in 1925 with just seven competitors.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40Entries for the race in August 1979
0:45:40 > 0:45:42numbered more than 300.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50One of those entries was a yacht called Grimalkin.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55Our start was at twenty past one, on the 11th.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59And it was about 15 knots, gentle force three.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01It was a beautiful day,
0:46:01 > 0:46:03and we were up for a great start.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09But the gentle force three wind didn't last.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16Force six or seven is something you can cope with.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21A good crew or a trained crew such as Grimalkin's can deal with it.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23But when you get above force seven to force eight,
0:46:23 > 0:46:30you begin to go into thinking about what's going to happen after that.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36That night, progressively the wind picked up.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39RADIO ANNOUNCER: 'Now the shipping forecast
0:46:39 > 0:46:45'issued by the Meteorological Office at 2230 GMT on Monday 13th August.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49'Fastnet - southwesterly severe gale force nine.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51'Increasing storm force ten imminent.'
0:46:53 > 0:46:56We ashore became very aware
0:46:56 > 0:47:01that the wind strengths were building.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05I can remember walking up a hill towards the race office,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09and I was having difficulty in walking against the wind.
0:47:09 > 0:47:14And if I was having difficulty, I could just start to imagine what was happening at sea.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28By midnight on 13th August, the competitors found themselves
0:47:28 > 0:47:33in the middle of one of THE most violent storms in the history of ocean racing.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36Nick Ward's yacht Grimalkin
0:47:36 > 0:47:39was in trouble.
0:47:40 > 0:47:46We knew that the waves and the wind meant that we had no other option than survival,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49and the safety of the boat.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54We'd suffered four or five what they call B1 knockdowns,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58which is where the boat's mast is horizontal to the sea.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03The boat couldn't cope with it. Horrendous conditions.
0:48:03 > 0:48:09And so the skipper made a decision to go down below, and to send a mayday call.
0:48:11 > 0:48:17That mayday call was relayed to the St Ives Lifeboat in the early hours of the 14th.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21As usual, Tommy Cocking was on duty.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26We were called, I think, at half past five in the morning
0:48:26 > 0:48:29to a yacht called the Grimalkin. That was our target.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34But we didn't find the Grimalkin,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38we came across a yacht called the Azonore II.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44Standing on the deck hanging on to the mast for grim death
0:48:44 > 0:48:48was this guy just stood on top of his yacht holding on to the mast.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54We managed to get up close to him to ask him what his intentions were or what his situation was,
0:48:54 > 0:48:56and as we got to within about three feet of him
0:48:56 > 0:49:00he let go of the mast and just jumped on board the lifeboat.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03So it was quite clear what HIS intentions were, he'd had enough.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Tommy Cocking towed the stricken yacht back to port.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12He never did find Grimalkin.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19I remember looking behind me and seeing a wave,
0:49:19 > 0:49:26and after that the boat went through a total capsize but I was knocked unconscious.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31While Nick lay unconscious, three of the crew abandoned ship.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35They thought that Nick and the two others were lost.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37But Nick came round in the water.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41He managed to haul himself and one of his crewmates back on to the yacht.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43But he couldn't save him.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48And so I was left not knowing where my crewmates were.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51Because the life raft had gone, I thought they were dead.
0:49:51 > 0:49:57My other crewmate had just died, and so I thought I was the only one left.
0:50:02 > 0:50:07Grimalkin was just one of scores of stricken yachts scattered across the Irish Sea.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14Rescue helicopters were called in to search vast areas in the hope of finding those in trouble.
0:50:17 > 0:50:23One of the airmen involved was a Royal Navy helicopter winchman, Harrie Harrison.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26In a major search and rescue like this,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29the sea is divided up into areas, boxes,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33that are then allocated to a specific aircraft to go and search.
0:50:33 > 0:50:39We were tasked to go and search a box that was about 30 miles square.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53By that time, I was slumped into the rail round the stern.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Hypothermia had started to set in.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02I was hearing music in my head...
0:51:02 > 0:51:04Hearing what I thought was Pink Floyd!
0:51:06 > 0:51:08When in fact, it was the...
0:51:08 > 0:51:10HE CLICKS HIS FINGERS IN A STEADY RHYTHM
0:51:10 > 0:51:12..of the helicopter blade.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16It looked like rescue was here.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26In the helicopter was the winchman Harrie Harrison,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29and beside him was a cameraman who managed to take these few shots
0:51:29 > 0:51:31of Nick crouched in the yacht.
0:51:36 > 0:51:41From the doorway, it was quite clear that there were two people on the yacht.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44One looked well, and the other looked to be a casualty.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Nick was sitting at the rear of the cockpit.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53He was conscious and able to talk to me,
0:51:53 > 0:51:58and it was quite clear that we needed to get him back to hospital as soon as possible.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04He put a double lift round me, and bang - we were gone.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07So I just wanted to hug him,
0:52:07 > 0:52:08and be lifted by him,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12knowing that the ordeal was over - it was amazing.
0:52:12 > 0:52:13Incredible feeling.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21Two of Nick's crewmates were among the 15 who died
0:52:21 > 0:52:25in what became one of Britain's worst-ever ocean racing tragedies.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29And it was a figure that would have been much higher, if it had not been
0:52:29 > 0:52:34for the skills of people like Tommy Cocking and Harrie Harrison.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40Every yachtsman, 2,000 or so of them,
0:52:40 > 0:52:45owes a great debt of gratitude to those servicemen that did such a wonderful job.
0:52:53 > 0:52:59In the years following the 1979 Fastnet Race, those service personnel and RNLI volunteers
0:52:59 > 0:53:03would combine their skills with increasingly sophisticated technologies,
0:53:03 > 0:53:08and continue to perform acts of heroism and bravery.
0:53:08 > 0:53:14But the oldest system for protecting people at sea would suffer a different fate.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17The remorseless march of technology
0:53:17 > 0:53:20would make the lighthouse keeper redundant.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23It was...a strange thing, really,
0:53:23 > 0:53:25cos we had been told for years
0:53:25 > 0:53:27that we had a job for life,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31and in the same breath they were also saying one day we'll automate you.
0:53:31 > 0:53:36And we just used to think, "Oh, yeah, of course you will. How are you going to automate this place?"
0:53:36 > 0:53:39So it was a bit of a shock when it actually happened.
0:53:43 > 0:53:50But happen it did. Automation began in the early 1980s, and the keepers lost their jobs.
0:53:50 > 0:53:57The process gave urgency to Peter Halil's quest to record the life of the lighthouse keeper on film.
0:53:57 > 0:54:02I had this thing in me that I needed to film Christmas on a lighthouse,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05so I went away to the Needles for Christmas.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09Peter was accompanied by fellow keeper Gerry Douglas-Sherwood,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13and the trip captured one of the oldest traditions of the lighthouse service.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19That was a list of lasts, shall we say?
0:54:19 > 0:54:22It was the last tower rock to have a regular boat relief.
0:54:22 > 0:54:28And the keepers lobbied Trinity House to keep the boat relief,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30because the whole system worked so well.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33We'd come down to the Isle of Wight, across the ferry,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37the boatman would be living on the island, get all your food and everything,...
0:54:37 > 0:54:44It was almost like a family group somehow, going out with Tony Isaacs, who was the boatman.
0:54:46 > 0:54:47Interesting times.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49Best way to go to work!
0:55:06 > 0:55:10'We had a good time. It was very relaxed, we had nice weather.
0:55:10 > 0:55:15'Sounding for fog a bit, but because we were all away from home
0:55:15 > 0:55:19'on the lighthouse, we were always determined to make the most of it.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21'That's why we shared in the cooking.
0:55:21 > 0:55:22'We shared in putting up
0:55:22 > 0:55:23'the decorations.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26'And it was just a really, really nice atmosphere.
0:55:26 > 0:55:31'And we thought... we all thought it was going to be our last Christmas ever on board a tower.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35'So obviously we were just there to celebrate.'
0:55:35 > 0:55:37Cheers. Happy Christmas...
0:55:40 > 0:55:43He's going to clink with the onion gravy(!)
0:55:46 > 0:55:50When I was finally made redundant, at Nash Point in South Wales,
0:55:50 > 0:55:52I was the very last keeper off station.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56I was the one who locked up the doors, put the milk out.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00It was a sad day, because I knew that from then on there'd be no more keepers.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02I'd never be involved in that environment again.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21I suppose the time... The good things it brings back is the time we had here.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25The sort of life. It was quite an idyllic life, really.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28As you can see, you're surrounded by nature.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32People pay a fortune to come on holiday for two weeks of the year,
0:56:32 > 0:56:34and I was here 365 days of the year.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37So...
0:56:37 > 0:56:41yeah, it was a nice life. It's a shame they found us out and got rid of us.
0:56:45 > 0:56:51Peter Halil finally left the Lighthouse Service in 1997.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53But his films, and those of others,
0:56:53 > 0:56:57cast light over the ways in which a few people over the 20th century
0:56:57 > 0:57:00were able to use great skill and courage
0:57:00 > 0:57:04to try to save the lives of people in trouble at sea.
0:57:04 > 0:57:09And though they were assisted by increasingly sophisticated technologies,
0:57:09 > 0:57:11their movies also show,
0:57:11 > 0:57:14in the most dramatic fashion,
0:57:14 > 0:57:16that the sea
0:57:16 > 0:57:18was never conquered.
0:57:19 > 0:57:24Technology can eliminate a great many things,
0:57:24 > 0:57:28but the unpredictability of nature,
0:57:28 > 0:57:31and its inherent hostility to us,
0:57:31 > 0:57:35can never provide us with all the answers.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39Nature has a nasty habit of catching us out.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd