A NEW book featuring stories about extraordinary courage and compassion at sea has gone on sale.
Surviving the Storms provides a rare insight into the life-or-death decisions the RNLI have to make when battling the forces of nature and saving lives.
The book is a collection of first-hand accounts of some of the most dramatic rescues carried out by RNLI lifesavers around the UK and Ireland over the past 20 years.
Included in the book is the story of Portrush man and former RNLI station mechanic, Anthony Chambers, who saved the lives of two teenage boys who became trapped in a cliff cave near Castlerock with a fast-rising tide in August 2009.
Mr Chambers had to swim from the all-weather lifeboat into the cave carrying life-jackets to bring both boys to safety in terrible conditions.
In an extract from the book Anthony describes the moment he brought the second boy to safety, utterly exhausted after the rescue, to be met by another lifeboat crew member Gerard Bradley who was on board the waiting inshore lifeboat outside the cave.
"As we kicked our way towards the boat I felt the strength draining out of me, like sand out of an egg timer, it slipped away," he said.
"I'm going to have to let him go. The lifeboat was just ahead of us and Reece was secured in his life jacket. I knew Gerard would get him within moments. The boy would be safe. But I can’t keep on.’
"Despite the ordeal almost being at an end. The exhaustion was too much. I prepared to let go and let the waves take me. I knew that as soon as I did, I’d be swallowed up and drown. I just didn’t have it in me to fight the waves any more. But just as I went to release my grip and surrendered myself to the sea, Gerard came up alongside us. They’d got to us. I thought.’"
Mr Chambers received the RNLI’s medal for gallantry for the call-out.
All proceeds from the book will go towards the lifesaving charity.
Mark Dowie, RNLI Chief Executive, said the book is a "wonderful account of selflessness and bravery although there is no book big enough to do justice to every RNLI rescue and rescuer".
Details on where to order the book can be found at https://books.harpercollins.co.uk/surviving-the-storms/
