When a vessel carrying people across the English Channel reached waters near Portsmouth this week, the response from two Isle of Wight lifeboat stations demonstrated the principle that has defined the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for more than two centuries: when people are in danger at sea, you go to them.
Volunteer crews from Bembridge and Yarmouth RNLI were among the lifeboat teams involved in the rescue operation after a large dinghy made the unusually long journey from Normandy. The vessel had spent around 10 hours at sea and travelled roughly 70 miles before reaching the Portsmouth area.
The operation subsequently became the focus of angry protests, with demonstrators attempting to obstruct the landing of those rescued. Police were called to deal with disorder, while the lifeboat crews continued with their task: bringing people safely ashore.
For the volunteers involved, however, the politics of migration are not the reason they launch their lifeboats.
The RNLI was founded in 1824 with a simple purpose — saving lives at sea. Two hundred years later, that principle remains at the heart of the charity. The RNLI says its founder, Sir William Hillary, called for volunteers to rescue “every stranger” and anybody in peril.
That commitment has produced an extraordinary record. By its 200th anniversary in 2024, RNLI volunteer crews and lifeguards had saved 146,277 lives, equivalent to an average of two lives every day throughout its 200-year history.
Bembridge’s own history illustrates that tradition. Established in 1867 following the wreck of the Egbert on Bembridge Ledge, its crews have launched 2,398 times and saved 948 lives, according to the RNLI’s 200th-anniversary figures.
The Portsmouth operation therefore represents something much bigger than the arguments surrounding immigration. It is an example of ordinary volunteers doing an extraordinary job: leaving their homes, heading into potentially dangerous waters and helping people they have never met.
Criticism of the RNLI’s involvement has been fierce, and individual volunteers have reportedly faced online abuse and attempts to expose personal information.
But supporters have responded by standing behind the crews and donating to the charity, arguing that political disagreements should never be allowed to undermine the basic duty to save a human life.
That distinction matters.
Governments can decide immigration policy. Border agencies can enforce immigration law. Police can investigate people smuggling. But a lifeboat crew has a different responsibility when confronted with people in danger on the water.
You do not stop to ask who someone is before throwing them a lifeline.
That is not a new principle invented for the Channel crossings of today. It is the ethos that has guided the RNLI since 1824.
And when the call came from the Channel, the volunteers of Bembridge and Yarmouth answered it.
Two centuries on, that may be the clearest demonstration of what the RNLI stands for: courage, compassion, professionalism and the unwavering belief that every life at sea is worth saving.
