Chatham's Dockyard celebrates 200 years of the RNLI with new exhibition

Hundreds are expected to flock to Historic Dockyard Chatham this weekend as they launch an exhibition to commemorate 200 years of the RNLI.

Transcript

00:00 200 years of history of the RNLI saving lives not only across Kent but across the UK.

00:09 And with more than 100,000 lives saved and plenty of stories to tell, it's all preserved

00:14 here at an exhibition hosted by the Historic Dockyard in Chatham.

00:19 This weekend they're opening a gallery to commemorate the RNLI's 200th birthday to look

00:24 back at the triumphs and the tragedies.

00:28 To look at the different boats used over the years, the changes in technology over the

00:32 centuries and the people behind the RNLI.

00:36 The RNLI is such an institution in the UK and Ireland so to be able to facilitate the

00:42 celebration of this 200 year anniversary has been really important and as I say they're

00:46 a really long standing partner of ours.

00:48 This has been the home of the Historic Lifeboat Collection since the mid 90s.

00:52 So when they talked to us about doing a 200 year exhibition we jumped at the chance really.

00:59 There are 10 RNLI stations in Kent and today crew members from the Gravesend station looked

01:05 back at their years dedicated to the service.

01:08 The 200 celebrations we're actually celebrating the work of our predecessors and we want to

01:13 commemorate the work that went into the 200 years but we also want to inspire people today

01:20 to help out the RNLI either by volunteering in an operational role or a fundraising role.

01:25 We're aware of when it started and how it started but looking at all the different artefacts

01:29 and the people that have been crewed before us and the lives that have been saved by people

01:32 who were crewed before us really does blow your mind.

01:34 I would like to think that as much as we can get to people as quick as we can now and identify

01:40 where they are that will improve.

01:42 So we get there even faster, we locate them even faster so they spend less time in the

01:47 water and we become even more efficient than we are today.

01:51 And in the past century crews across Kent braved the choppy waters to dodge bombs and

01:56 bullets in attempts to save stranded troops cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk.

02:02 This became known as Operation Dynamo.

02:05 So in 1940, 19 lifeboats including Ramsgate and Margate went out to help evacuate the

02:10 beaches of Dunkirk and on display we have the signal lamp from one of those lifeboats

02:15 which you can clearly see the bullet holes in it.

02:17 So it's a real time capsule of that event but also to recognise the bravery of the crews

02:23 that went out there.

02:25 This gives you an idea of how much this service has changed in the past 200 years.

02:30 These are the life jackets we all know and we're all familiar with but they didn't always

02:34 look this way.

02:35 In fact they started off looking completely different like this.

02:38 They were made of cork back in the day and then they started making them from plant fibre

02:43 and now it's something like this much more sturdy.

02:46 But it makes you think how much more this service could change in years to come.

02:51 The exhibition will be available from Saturday up until the start of September.

02:56 Sophia Akin for KMTV.

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