Dunmore East RNLI is delighted to announce the launch of an incredible book ‘Dauntless Courage’ by David Carroll, celebrating the story of lifeboats, maritime history and heritage of Dunmore East RNLI.
Written with the full co-operation of Dunmore East RNLI, David Carroll’s book is now available to pre-order.
Support our book project
(All proceeds go to supporting Dunmore East RNLI)
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Donations€10,00 – €250,00
Written by David Carroll, who grew up on the harbour in Dunmore East and who has maintained his links with the area and all maritime matters since that time.
The book begins with a terrible storm of January 1862, when ten vessels were lost close to Waterford Harbour, an event that influenced the choice of Dunmore East as a lifeboat station, twenty-two years later. The book tells the story of the heritage of Waterford Harbour, why Dunmore was chosen as the site of a harbour and how the coast was safeguarded before the arrival of the first RNLI lifeboat in 1884 and a brief history on the foundation of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
The book continues to cover the history of the station from its opening in 1884, right up to the present day and is a story of ordinary people carrying out extraordinary things as the volunteer lifeboat crews risked their own lives to save the lives of friends, neighbours, and strangers. Some of the services have been dramatic, heroic, sad, and poignant on occasions. But what they have in common is that they were carried out by Dunmore people, ancestors of people living in our community as well as present day members of many local families.
There is a section on some of the many characters who have been strongly associated with the station from 1884. Learn about the Dunmore man, honoured by the King of Norway in 1914, and award-winning coxswains. Discover that Dunmore East had the first female crew member on an all-weather lifeboat, anywhere in the British Isles.
The book contains a unique collection of many old black and white photographs as well as modern ones. Supporters have been very generous in allowing their photographs to be displayed in the book. There is a photograph of the lifeboat Henry Dodd, taken in 1890. The volunteer fundraisers who play such a vital role in ensuring that lives are saved at sea, are featured in the book in addition to the compilation of records and statistics for the station.
The book demonstrates the wonderful record which the Dunmore East lifeboat station has created and continues to enhance through the courage and skills of its crews and the support it receives from the wider community.
The Dunmore East lifeboats have long deserved to have its history recorded. Dauntless Courage is that record.
