Lifeboat at the End of the World

Do you really think all lives are worth saving?

On the empty shingle beach of Dungeness, the volunteer crew of the lifeboat await her next launch. It might come in another week. Or it might even happen in the next few seconds…

For two hundred years, the Dungeness lifeboat has launched in storms and heavy seas to frigates and barques, trawlers and dinghies. Like all lifeboat stations in the British Isles, it is led by a coxswain and staffed by volunteers. Dominic Gregory volunteers as part of her crew.

Dungeness is itself a place apart. An ever-shifting expanse of shingle jutting into the English Channel, it is overshadowed by its nuclear power station and made famous by Derek Jarman’s flotsam garden. Dungeness also has where millions of migrating birds and insects first make landfall in the British Isles. As a small place perhaps, but one that finds itself now at the centre of one of the biggest political stories of modern times.

At the heart of this wonderful book is the lifeboat crew with whom Dominic Gregory serves, many of them from families who have volunteered for generations. These are remarkable yet ordinary men and women – who serve as shore crew, or boat crew, or who keep the records and brew the tea. All, in their different ways, give up their time, livelihoods and safety to brave wind, tide and storms, not to mention the peril of navigating between the vast floating skyscrapers that make up so much of modern shipping. Then there is coxswain Stuart Adams whose quiet, competent leadership ensures he acts as the still point in a spinning world.

Lifeboat at the End of the World is the first book to depict the experience of what it is like to volunteer on a lifeboat: the smells of the water, the little knots when an alarm comes, how the crew is trained, the teamwork and trust, the ethos of the service. But it is when inflatable dinghies – overloaded with people – begin arriving on the shores of Dungeness that the lifeboat crew must face perhaps their greatest test. Dominic Gregory’s non-fiction writing offers extraordinary power and immediacy. While most of us will never serve in a lifeboat, we might find ourselves thankful for their unflinching and fearless assistance at sea.