Dave Graham
Dave belongs to: Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade
Dave works for a marine engineering company. Before this he worked in the merchant navy as an engineer. He joined the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade in 1991.
Dave was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 15 December 2005. The interview took place at the Interviewee's kitchen and lasted 37 minutes and 44 seconds.
Training with the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade
"At TVLB I’ve done obviously what we call the dumb gear which is the gear we are trained on inside the watch house"
At TVLB I’ve done obviously what we call the dumb gear which is the gear we are trained on inside the watch house. This is a miniature version of the real equipment for safety reasons because we could be working in surf, we could be working near a cliff ledge or we could be working on a rocky beach or an outcrop, you need to train the volunteers before you actually let them loose on the equipment. The analogy is you wouldn’t let somebody jump in a car and drive away- you would give them some sort of practice first. We practice on the dumb gear.
I was trained on the dumb gear for approximately three months by the captains of the brigade at that time. And after three months, and after the guy who trained me thought I was competent I was examined by another captain of the brigade.
The examination is basically put the dumb gear together from start to finish. Do all of it yourself- with assistance but no actual help from another member of the brigade and to be asked questions on why we do it, how we do it, what happens when the wind is in this direction, questions on local knowledge, questions on what to do when we get called by the coastguard. And if you can satisfy the examining captain that you are then competent, you are then proposed to the committee, and if the committee like you and feel that you can assist them and they can assist you, you become a member of the brigade. And if you fail, I don’t know what happens because I’ve yet to see anybody fail.
Dave has 11 memories in the memorynet:
Dave's memories with a Skills theme:
Training with the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade
Dave's other memories:
Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade uniformThis memory has these themes:
Equipment | Skills | Training | Volunteering
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