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| Issue : February/March 2001 | |||
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ALL IN THE SAME BOAT
WHEN THE RIVER GETS ROUGH THE TOUGH GET GOING - Hull in print DONS A LIFEJACKET AND TAKES TO THE WATER WITH THE HUMBER RESCUE TEAM... 
Out there is a confusion of shifting sandbanks, swirling currents, treacherous channels - and mud, mud, inglorious mud.
They all offer a potential hazard to the thousands of commercial vessels and pleasure craft which ply this busy inland stretch. Not for nothing does the Humber have a reputation as the world's second most dangerous navigable waterway - after Venezuela's mighty Orinoco.
"The Humber deserves a lot of respect. You never know what challenge it might present The Humber has the reputation as the world's second most dangerous navigable waterway
A TV documentary film-maker by profession, Berriff initiated the Humber Rescue when he moved from Bridlington to Hessle 20 years ago. It started as volunteer coastguard station operated from a room in his home. But as traffic on the Humber grew and there was no dedicated response boat in the area, it rapidly developed into a search and rescue operation. In 1990 it became the Humber Rescue, an independent charity. Unconnected to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which covers coastlines, the Humber Rescue deals with those in peril on the estuary and on the River Hull. "I think we're probably the most diverse lifeboat crew in Britain because we work within the inner-city environment," adds Paul. "There are lots of bridges over the River Hull that people can fall off or threaten to jump off. "We've had horses and dogs in the River Hull, fire calls when we've helped with pumping water out of the river…. "Other lifeboat stations deal with yachtsmen and people trapped on cliffs and fishing boats in difficulties. We get all that and more." Oddly those snatched from danger are often unlikely to be grateful. Paul adds: "Many don't even say 'thank you.' But we don't mind. I think a lot of them are embarrassed about what's happened, and they probably think we're funded by the public purse." The Humber Rescue receives no Government funding, relying solely on donations and gifts of equipment from individuals and local companies. 
Mrs Olive Hunt, 63, raises money by finding items at car boot sales and auctioning them every fortnight at the North Star Marina Club in Old Goole. This month, Mrs Hunt who was awarded an MBE in the latest New Year's Honours, plans to add a further £3,500 to the £15,000 she has given over the years to Humber Rescue. She said: "My husband Brian and our two sons have boats, so Humber Rescue seemed a good cause to support. "I was gobsmacked when they named their boat after me." In January her namesake was launched on the service's 600th call-out - making an average of slightly over one a week, more than are dealt with by the full-time RNLI lifeboat station at Spurn. Eighteen volunteers carrying bleepers can be scrambled at any time of day or night by coastguards at the Bridlington Marine Rescue Coordinating Centre. The first three or four to arrive launch the Olive Hunt, which is equipped with all the latest navigational aids. Others take a well-stocked Land Rover to provide back-up from the shore. About a third of call-outs are to commercial vessels in difficulty. Since 1990, 64 have involved people tumbling off the Humber Bridge, usually in suicide bids. Dave Roberts, another founder trustee, vividly remembers swimming out to a girl who survived such a fall. Others don't live. But, says this former chief officer in the Merchant Navy, you get used to seeing corpses: "One week we had four bodies just before breakfast." 
Other dramas include the tragic balloon accident in which a woman was killed a couple of years ago. Carrying out their regular Sunday morning maintenance work and boat tests, the Humber Rescue team saw the balloon was floundering, raced across fields in their wetsuits and, as the first helpers on the scene, coordinated the emergency operation for the initial 20 minutes. A whale beached off the Humber's south bank brought another sort of crisis, while recently the Olive Hunt, which can carry 30 or more passengers, was employed to ferry residents marooned by the York floods. The area covered extends along the River Ouse as far as Selby in the west, down the River Trent as far as Gainsborough in the south, and out along the Humber to the east as far as Grimsby: some 500 square kilometres. As well as Paul and Dave, local GP David Peebles Brown is also a founder trustee. "Most of us do this because we enjoy it,"he said. "It's something completely different from what we do the rest of the day or night." Other volunteers come from varied walks of life. Adam Carter, for example, is a dairy trader and bar supervisor. There is one woman - Sue Rhoades, crime pattern analyst and wildlife officer with Humberside Police. Sue says: "It's challenging - you never know what you're going to get when the bleeper goes off. It's putting something back into the community. "I'm a keen scuba diver. I love water - and doesn't the water look brilliant today?" |
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one of those perfect winter days when even the River Humber manages to look picturesque, gleaming in the iced sunlight.
Then members of Humber Rescue start up the two powerful engines on the Olive Hunt, their 26ft rigid inflatable named after a tireless fundraiser.
As the water is churned up, the view from the voluntary rescue service's base at Hessle Foreshore is no longer a magical silver but a dark and dangerous brown.