Three Months with the Bridlington Lifeboat

'Why do men go out on lifeboats when they get frightened and they get cold and some of them get seasick? There really is no logical answer.' - John King, Coxswain, Bridlington (Yorkshire) Lifeboat.

For Those in Peril sets out into a January gale; brings a sick man off a tanker; plunges out through the big waves to a sinking yacht... and the nearest it comes to an answer are the words of George Traves, 2nd Coxswain: 'You feel rough, you swear blind you'll never go to sea no more, but if somebody can just come up and say "thank you" for saving their lives, that means a hell of a lot.'
But for the wives left on shore, the answer is not so easy: 'When the weather's bad you look at the sea and think "My God, he's out there somewhere..."'