DURING THE EVENING of Tuesday July 28, 1981, Blackpool's D class inflatable lifeboat had been out on service, searching for what a man on shore had reported might be an upturned boat out to sea.

Nothing had been found except for a fishing boat which needed no help but which could have been what the man ashore had sighted.

Just after the inflatable lifeboat had been rehoused, at 2310, a man, fully clothed, was reported to be lying in the sea about 50 yards out. He was rescued by the lifeboatmen at the boathouse, Crew Members P. Canham and P. Parton, and Shore Helpers B. Pickard and A. McGeever, and taken to a waiting ambulance. A letter signed by John Atterton, then deputy director, expressing the Institution's appreciation to these four lifeboatmen was sent to Blackpool station honorary secretary, Mr R. W. Darbyshire..