A painting respectfully dedicated to the lives of lifeboat men in the service of the RNLI.
"It's the women who do the shopping, the housework, bear the children and who do the waiting. Waiting for our men from work or from the wars or from a service . Thats what we call a rescue at sea, a service, and Whitby has seen many a service in storm and calm, they're all the same, the danger lurks at the end of the harbour. My Bob's been a boatman for years and like the others, he doesn't think he's special- but he knows fear when the call comes, just like the rest of us, those wives who wait. I've known him go to a call with a wedding flower in his button hole, and from having a drink with his mates. I once hid all his underwear so he couldnt go, but he went and won the gallentry medal on that one, but all he could think of was "What will happen if I drown with no underwear on?" And once he went out to Saltwick Nab to a stranded coaster at night - the "Fosdyke Trader". There he met an old mate from the war years and had a nostalgic chat of those time together of the first snows of 1947 began to fall. He couldn't talk of anything else when he came back - I could have killed him.
The new boat's a smasher so they say, "City of Sheffield" is her name, all the latest equipment and gear - but the crew will be just the same as those years ago, when they used to "jump in" on the hand pulling boats. All the names keep coming back, the Wellands, Kellys, Thompsons, Richardsons, Harlands and Stores. My Bob's not in the boats now, but when the weather turns foul, I know somewhere there's a young wife begging to fear the call to a service - "duty and fear" thats a lifeboatman's wife's world".