Lifeboat at the End of the World

‘Do you really think all lives worth saving?’ On the empty shingle beach of Dungeness, the volunteer crew of the lifeboat await her next launch. It might come in another week. Or it might even happen in the next few seconds… For two hundred years, the Dungeness lifeboat has launched in storms and heavy seas to frigates and barques, trawlers and dinghies. Like all lifeboat stations in the British Isles, it is led by a Coxwain and staffed entirely by volunteers. Dominic Gregory is one of those volunteers and serves as part of her crew.. Dungeness is itself a place apart. An ever-shifting expanse of shingle jutting south-east into the English Channel, it is overshadowed by its nuclear power station and made famous by Derek Jarman’s flotsam garden. Dungeness is also where millions of migrating birds and insects first make landfall in the British Isles. A small place perhaps, but one that finds itself now at the centre of one of the biggest political stories of modern times. At the heart of this wonderful book is the lifeboat crew with whom Dominic Gregory serves, many of whom come from families who have crewed the lifeboat for generations. These are remarkable yet ordinary men and women – who serve as shore crew, or boat crew, or who keep the records and brew the tea. All, in their different ways, give up their time, livelihoods and safety to brave wind, tide and storms, not to mention the peril of navigating between the vast floating skyscrapers that make up so much of modern shipping. Then there is Coxwain Stuart Adams whose quiet, competent leadership ensures he acts as the still point in a spinning world. With echoes of James Rebanks’ The Shepherd’s Life or Patrick Hennessy’s The Junior Officer’s Reading Club, Lifeboat at the End of the World is the first book to depict the experience of what it is like to volunteer on a lifeboat; the smells of the station, the emotions when the call to ‘a shout’ comes, how the crew is trained, the teamwork and trust, the ethos of the service. And incident aplenty – terrifying rescues both past and present, often to rescue overladen inflatable small craft and their desperate passengers. Gregory’s book is non-fiction writing of extraordinary power and immediacy. Whilst most of us will never serve in a lifeboat, we might well find ourselves one day thankful for their unquestioning and dauntless assistance at sea.