Bill Thirtle recounts some of his experiences as a lifeboat crew member.
Interviewer
Hi, I’m Mary, and I’m interviewing Bill Thirtle,
who’s an ex-lifeboatman.
So, could you please tell us about where you’re from?
Bill Thirtle
I’m from Sherrigham, I’ve lived there all my life, and I’m now eighty, so I’ve been there all those years.
Interviewer
So how did you train?
Bill Thirtle
I trained by being one of the crew. There was no actual training like there is now. You just had to pick it up as you went along. I joined the crew as a mechanic, actually, on the Manchester Uni (?).
Interviewer
So could you please tell us about what happens when there is a callout?
Bill Thirtle
When there’s a callout, the idea is that somebody gets the message, either from the coastguard or the people on the beach; and they fire two rockets that burst into a green light,
so that the people at sea know that somebody’s called the lifeboat. And the lifeboatman hears the bangs and they run along to the lifeboathouse and
prepare the boat for sea.
Interviewer
Could you tell us a memorable story?
Bill Thirtle
Well, one of the strangest stories, as far as I could see, when I was in the group, we got launched one day for a casualty, wooden trawler or something, had broken down off Sherringham, about a mile-and-a-half out,
we got a radio message to say that we’d have to be very careful because the people on board were armed and dangerous. We only ever saw one person on board, we took them into Yarmouth and dropped them on the Goreleston side, and the police all came and boarded the boat; as far as I know they thought he was carrying immigrants, but I don’t think he was: I don’t know what it was.
One thing we were talking about was the rivalry between the Cromer and Carringham fishermen. Really started years and years ago, when there were so many fishermen just trying to fish off that little bit of coast, there really weren’t enough ground to fish,
that was why many people moved away in the end.
