Frank Taylor
Frank belongs to: Cullercoats RNLI & The Coble and Keelboat Society
Frank was born in Cullercoats. He fished from Cullercoats and North Shields from 1979 to 1989. He has been involved with the RNLI since he was a teenager and is now Deputy Launching Authority. Frank is also a member of The Coble and Keelboat Society.
Frank was interviewed by Kylea Little on 4 December 2005. The interview took place at Cullercoats RNLI lifeboat station and lasted 21 minutes and 11 seconds.
Changes at the RNLI
"Well, it’s changed a lot, certainly. Very safety conscious now"
Well, it’s changed a lot, certainly. Very safety conscious now. As you will have seen from the outfits that the crew wear, the equipment is absolutely second to none and it costs a lot of money. So, the RNLI now, it costs something like £350,000 a day to run, so there’s a lot of fund raising required to, to meet that demand.
When I first joined, all, well, if you had time to put an oilskin coat on, it would be a long coat and a pair of Wellingtons, that would be it, with a big, heavy lifejacket, lifejacket. Sometimes, if, if this was a very urgent launch, people would just go out with their lifejackets on and not bother with the protective clothing, they’d just have their best suits on or whatever they happened to be wearing at the time, and obviously they would come ashore soaking wet and their clothes would be ruined. When we first got the inshore boat, we used to go out, we used to take our jeans or whatever off and just put on a pair of shorts, and of course in cold conditions you would come back dithering. And now it’s compulsory to wear all the protective clothing.
Frank has 12 memories in the memorynet:
Frank's memories with a Volunteering theme:
Role at the RNLI- Changes at the RNLI
- The crew
- Sound of the maroon
Photograph of Frank- Hauling up the lifeboat
- The crew
- The lifeboat
Frank's other memories:
This memory has these themes:
Change | Clothing | Equipment | Safety | Volunteering
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