My Life as a Crow
I retired from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2008 after thirty years as an operational firefighter. In the following months I had a strong feeling that I had something wanting in my life, and it was my wife who pointed out the obvious. As I had been involved for such a long time in an organisation that helps people when they need help the most, I was missing that sense of purpose and usefulness. It was also she who suggested that joining the Coastguard Rescue Service might help fill that void and that some of the skills, knowledge and experiences I already had would stand me in good stead for the role. I have always had a love of the sea, so to combine it with my desire to be of value and make a contribution to society was in retrospect a no-brainer, as they say. So I joined the Service in 2009! Although I have had to take a step back for a couple of years due to health reasons, I am still a member of the team today.
The Service is part of His Majesty’s Coastguard, part of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency which in turn is part of the Department for Transport. The overall aim of the Coastguard Service is to co-ordinate maritime search and rescue (SAR) in and around the UK covering an area of 1.25 million square miles of sea and 10,500 miles of coastline. There are several Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres around the UK, the one in our area being in Bridlington which covers an area from north of the River Thames to south of the River Forth in Scotland. They have full time officers who staff an operations room 24/7 and can call on other assets such as Lifeboats, Coastguard Helicopters, Police, Fire Service, Mountain Rescue, and a host of other organisations to assist in SAR and other tasks.
At a local level, the Coastguard Rescue Service has teams of volunteers around the coast of the UK from all walks of life who are called out when necessary to perform whatever task is required of them. Team members are called `Coastguard Rescue Officers` (CRO`s) which is why we are often called ‘crows’! There are about 360 teams around the UK, involving about 3,500 volunteers. I am proud to say I am a member of the Scarborough and Burniston Coastguard Rescue Team, which numbers around 15 personnel. We are on call permanently to respond to any emergency on or near the coast. The types of incidents that we get involved in are searches for missing people, those cut off by incoming tide, fallers or people in dangerous situations on the cliffs, mud rescues, vulnerable people who may harm themselves, inshore water rescue where a lifeboat cannot get access, surveillance and intelligence gathering of vessels that are overdue, response to instances of pollution, dealing with hazards such as unexploded ordinance washed ashore or time expired pyrotechnics (such as ships’ flares) that have not been disposed of correctly and act as `Receiver of Wreck` for vessels which have been towed in by lifeboat or other vessel.
We can also be called to support the other emergency services, such as assisting the Ambulance Service to extract a casualty from a particularly difficult location on a coastal path or cliff, or assist the police in the search for missing or vulnerable people. We are also available to attend national incidents such as major flooding events that can occur anywhere on the mainland of Great Britain. This list is not exhaustive and we can be tasked to any incident, inland as well as on the coast, where it is thought that our presence would be beneficial and useful.
We provide an advice and education service where we speak to members of the public and make presentations to groups, schools and organisations, to help people enjoy their leisure time on or near the coast in safety.
The Scarborough and Burniston team responds to about 250 emergency calls per year, the busy time being the main school holidays when we can respond to several calls in one day. At that time of year we are often called in to assist in searching for missing children who have been separated from their parents on one of the busy local beaches. The team is supported by other Coastguard teams around us based at Filey, Ravenscar, Whitby, and Bridlington.
One particularly memorable incident occurred a few years ago when we were called out around midnight to a major search for several missing people. We had a report of a man and woman, five children (the youngest aged two) and two dogs lost in dense woodland in the Cayton Bay area. They had been on a day out from West Yorkshire and spent the day on the beach. However, after a long and tiring day, instead of following the normal footpaths back to their car, they tried to take a short-cut through the dense wooded area.
It is extremely difficult terrain to negotiate and is very steep in places with large areas of deep mud. To make matters worse, there was hardly any moon that night to provide illumination to see where they were going. For the unwary, it can be exceedingly hazardous. After several hours of taking `the short-cut`, they realised they were totally lost and did not know in which direction to go. Fortunately, they made probably the best decision of the day by dialling 999 and asking for the Coastguard. We made a thorough search of the area they said they thought they were in, but we could not find them.
Fortunately, we were able to speak to them by mobile phone. We decided to ask them to face the sea and we would launch a parachute flare from our location. If they could then tell us where they saw the flare in the sky it would determine if they were north or south of us so as to narrow down our search area. This was very effective and after launching several flares and following where they had seen them, the team were led out of Cayton Bay and into Cornelian Bay which is the next bay further north. In their confusion, instead of travelling inland to their car, they had gone over Knipe point and were travelling parallel to the coast, getting more and more lost and were about two miles away from where they thought they were! Eventually we did locate them at about 2.30am and all were rescued safe and well (including the dogs!) They were very tired, hungry, frightened but maybe a little wiser as a result of their experience.
I am aware that there are other Freemasons in our Province who are CROs, such as Bro. Jamie Staveley who is the Station Officer of the Scarborough and Burniston team and a member of Leopold Lodge.
To be a member of a team, no prior experience is necessary, you just have to be reasonably medically and physically fit, have a willingness to learn new skills and a desire to help to members of the public when they need it the most. It is a very rewarding way of providing the ‘service’ element to the community, that being one of the four pillars of Freemasonry. I certainly have never regretted joining the Service; I like my life as a crow!
For further information on the Coastguard Rescue Service go to www.dft.gov.uk/mca
W.Bro Tony Dyer
Leopold Lodge no. 1760
