“Each life-boat to have a coxswain superintendent with a fixed salary of £8 a year. The life-boat to be regularly taken afloat for exercise once every quarter, fully manned and equipped, so that the crew may be familiar with her properties and proper management.
On every occasion of exercise the men are paid 5 shillings each in stormy weather, and 3 shillings each in fine weather; and on every occasion of going off to a wreck to save lives, each man of the crew receives 10 shillings by day and £1 by night; but extra or double awards for any special act of gallantry or exertion. The crew are provided with life belts.”
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution – General Rules of Management (1854)
(Founded in 1824 as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, the RNLI now has more than 400 lifeboats operating from 238 stations around the coasts of the UK, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man. The Institution has saved an estimated 140,000 lives since its inception, but at the cost of 600 lifeboatsmen’s lives.)
