ON A CLEAR DAY at Walmer the unaccustomed visitor can be forgiven for doubting his own knowledge of geography when he sees the bold outline of France, seemingly only a pebble's throw across the curving surface of the English Channel. Visible also from the shingle beach is evidence of the notorious Goodwin Sands; the mast of a sunken ship juts out from the horizon like the makeshift cross on a grave, one of the thousands of wrecks that have made the need for a lifeboat at Walmer so essential over the years.

For centuries fishermen on this stretch of coastline have kept their boats hauled up at the top of the shingle and have manhandled or launched them down the steeply sloping beach into the waves when setting out to earn their living. To protect today's fishermen, to be on call for the hectic commercial traffic passing up and down the Channel and the ever-growing numbers of pleasure sailors in the vicinity, the traditional beach launching method is still the only practical way of keeping a lifeboat strategically placed on this part of Kent's coastline. The Hampshire Rose, a 37ft 6in Rother class lifeboat, sits proudly on her turntable at the top of the beach, plain for any passer-by to see, tilting eagerly towards the sea in readiness for a launch.

Les Coe is the head launcher; he has been involved with the lifeboat station for 25 years and has been in charge of launching and recovery since 1968. His job as a van driver for a local furniture store is allowed by his employers to take second place if ever there is a 'shout' and of the 148 calls the lifeboat has received since his time as head launcher, he has only missed three.

Preparation for a beach launch needs considerable organisation; no other launching method requires so many shore helpers and what is remarkable at Walmer is the readiness of local people to turn out at whatever time to performtheir vital task. Many of Les Coe's helpers are young people, often aspiring crew members on the inflatable lifeboat which in turn is a step towards being enlisted for crewing The Hampshire Rose. In the days when the Dungeness lifeboat was launched directly down the shingle, many of the launchers were lifeboat crew's wives and female relations; a careful study of the photographs in this article will show that to be a launcher at Walmer is by no means an all male preserve.

Roughly 20 people are needed to position and man the skids or 'woods' before a launch. These woods which have a line at each end are placed in a track down to the water over which the lifeboat must run with sufficient impetus to get to sea. The role of the launchers is to take a line each so that every wood is manned. Once the crew are aboard the lifeboat her retaining chains are removed, both Coxswain Bruce Brown and Les Coe have checked that everyone is ready, then the retaining pin in the slip chain which runs from the boat to the concrete platform below is hammered out and, the lifeboat begins to move.

This is a very tense moment for everyone on the beach; launchers must ensure that the lifeboat runs straight, sometimes having to make small but last minute adjustments to the position of their skid. It is a frightening sight tosee a 12'/2 ton lifeboat gathering speed down the beach and disturbing to say the least if an easterly gale is blowing with icy waves crashing on to the beach and soaking you to the skin.

With her engines running before she hits the water the lifeboat will surge quickly away from the beach, through the surf towards the casualty. The main cause for apprehension on any launch, and this is only a very rare occurrence, is that a wave will turn the lifeboat as she hits the water and bring her broadside on to the beach and aground in the surf. Should this happen, launchers, bystanders, everyone must get into the water to manhandle the boat so that she can be hauled backwards up the beach for a rapid re-launch.

One of the problems that faces the head launcher is the shape of the beach which is forever changing as the shingle is pushed around by tides and waves.

Therefore, once the lifeboat is safely under way at sea, and if the tide is low, Les Coe climbs into the small bulldozer which is kept at Walmer and shovels an evenly sloping pathway between the sea and the short slipway by the turnstile.

This preparation will make the recovery of the lifeboat that much smoother for the shore crew.

For a daytime recovery, Coxswain Bruce Brown will point the bow of his lifeboat directly towards the beach where Les Coe will be standing, arms stretched wide apart above his head to provide a precise target for which the coxswain to aim. At night a powerful light mounted high above the old boathouse, which now houses the inflatable lifeboat, acts as the homing beacon.

The instant the lifeboat's bow has crunched into the shingle her crew will detach the heavy bow strop which, while the boat is at sea, is looped through the forward part of the keel and led up over the bow and secured on the foredeck, and pass its end down to the shore helpers; they in turn make the bow strop fast to the winch cable which has been extended down the beach.This winch is powered by a large capstan up by the old boathouse, behind the turnstile, and its operator stands on a high platform so that he can see down to the water's edge to receive every message from his head launcher. The actual wire runs round the capstan, through a pulley, down over the turntable, down the beach to another roving pulley then back up the slope over the turntable again to a point close to its starting point by the capstan where it is firmly secured. The roving pulley on the beach is in turn attached to a single short cable which will be fastened by the launchers to the lifeboat's bow strop.

In rough weather it is essential that the lifeboat is hauled clear of the wateras soon as possible so that large waves breaking over her do not throw the stern round parallel to the beach.

Slowly the lifeboat is dragged up the beach over skids. This is where to be young and fit as a launcher is important because once the boat has passed over a wood, it must be heaved away and up the beach to be placed once more in the lifeboat's path. You have to move fast and the woods are heavy. Launchers also have to ensure that the lifeboat runs straight as she moves up over the pebbles and often more than gentle physical persuasion is needed to keep her on course.

Eventually The Hampshire Rose reaches the short ramp and sloping turntable where, once the boat is in position, the turntable tilts to the horizontal and the preventer chains are made fast. Finally the lifeboat is pushed round on her turntable through 180 degrees so that her bow is once more towards the sea. Wooden blocks are then pushed under the stern end of the turntable to tilt the lifeboat to the angle of the ramp. The slip chain is secured and once more the lifeboat is in perfect readiness for a launch.

To witness a launch and recovery at Walmer is to understand why the whole community feels such allegiance to the local lifeboat because at Walmer so many of the community are physically involved in every rescue mission.

Sometimes their services are not only confined to the lifeboat's recovery; in December last year the lifeboat launched in a southerly gale after a local motorboat that was out net fishing had broken down with a fouled propeller and three men on board. The motorboat was taken in tow and at the request of Second Coxswain Cyril Williams, who was in command, a party of the lifeboat's launchers went along the beach to Deal to help with the beaching of the casualty in the heavy seas. As soon as this task was accomplished they returned to the lifeboat station to perform their normal recovery duties.

The team work that exists between launchers and lifeboatmen is a theme that emerges throughout this series of articles and will be equally apparent when the tractor and carriage launch is studied in the next issue.

(to be continued).