BACK IN THE TIME of the Romans the dip in the cliffs where the River Rheidol and the River Ystwyth come down to Cardigan Bay was already recognised as an important landing place, to be guarded with an encampment. At such a favourable strand, and with a wealth of herring in the bay during the autumn spawning season, no wonder that in Mediaeval times Aberystwyth grew into a thriving fishing village, supplying the hinterland with cod, whiting and perhaps mackerel and exporting barrels of salted herrings to Ireland and other markets. In those days it was probably the principal herring port of Wales. By the eighteenth century there were getting on for 60 small sloops working out of Aberystwyth, netting the herring in the autumn and at other times of year employed in more general fishing, trade along the coast or perhaps carrying oak bark to Ireland for the tanneries.

Sea trade under sail was by then expanding fast, cargo carrying vessels were increasing in size and, to take its place with other ports, Aberystwyth embarked on considerable improvements to its harbour. First the River Ystwyth was diverted into the River Rheidol, thus, with the added flow, helping to keep the bar at the harbour mouth clear of silt. Then, in the 1840s, the channel was deepened and a new pier built out to seaward. Now smacks and two-masted schooners could more easily take part in the coastal trade of the port (exporting lead ore, mining equipment from the foundries, woollen goods and timber; importing grain, limestone, coal, roofing slates, bricks and manufactured goods), while larger brigs, snows and barques could bring in timber from Canada and America for shipbuilding and for the houses of the growing town, embarking passengers as emigrants for the return voyage.

These were expansive years. Aberystwyth was growing as a seaport, with its own shipbuilders, sail and ropemakers; it was the market for the surrounding countryside; and it had also become a focus for local social life and a well-established watering place. With asyet no railways and only poor roads, the sea was undoubtedly the main artery of commerce but there was growing local concern over the increasing toll exacted in lives lost at sea. It was in these years that the first steps were taken towards providing means of saving the lives of seamen in danger from shipwreck in the approaches to the port. Richard Page, the superintendent of the new harbour works and later harbour master, was already experimenting with Captain Manby's line-firing mortar and, in January 1841, put his efforts to good use when the schooner Leighton was driven on to the banks to the north of the harbour in heavy seas; a rope was successfully fired across and the vessel hauled clear.

Two years later, after great loss of life in Cardigan Bay during a wild January, the Mayor of Aberystwyth inaugurated a collection in the town for the provision of a pulling lifeboat, himself contributing the first five pounds. A 27ft pulling lifeboat was purchased, brought to Aberystwyth aboard the sailing vessel Three Sisters and put under the control of the harbour master. Nothing, however, is known of the use to which she was put.

RNLI station RNLI lifeboats were already being established in other parts of Cardigan Bay and in 1861 a lifeboat at Aberystwyth was added to their number; the 32ft Evelyn Wood arrived late that October, having been transported free of charge, with her carriage, first from London to Bristol by the Great Western Railway and thence by the Cambrian steam packet now making regular trips to the port.

Evelyn Wood was the first of five pulling and sailing lifeboats which, in turn, were to serve the port of Aberystwyth from that time until 1932.

Theirs was no easy task. Working from a coast open to westerly gales, they often had to be launched across the beach and rowed out through the surf and incoming waves for some distance before there was a chance of setting sail.

To help with launching, a slipway was built down to the beach in 1863 and a mooring chain laid out to sea through which hauling off lines were led; thus a band of helpers on shore could add their strength in the battle to get the lifeboat out through the surf against the force of wind and sea.

Evelyn Wood was one of a number of lifeboats all round the coast which between them, in the heavy gales of early December 1863, rescued 246 people.

She went on to the brig Mary Anne of Scilly, her masts cast away, riding at anchor off Aberaeron 15 miles to the south. Reporting the launch of the lifeboat, the Reverend John Williams, first honorary secretary of the station, who was to serve for 34 years, wrote: 'The lifeboat was despatched . . . She is out now and will probably remain out all night, the wind being dead against her . . .

'10.00 pm. The night is pitch dark, and it is feared the lifeboat will not be able to fetch the vessel in time to be of any service, but up to this time nothing has been seen of her.' On December 7, happily, he was able to report that lifeboatmen had boarded Mary Anne and that she and her crew had been safely brought into Aberystwyth . . .

'The lifeboat has returned from her mission of mercy, having fairly won her laurels for the first time . . . when both [vessels] returned to port, they were welcomed by hundreds of cheerful hearts.' Already, however, the pattern was changing again. The railways, spreading their network throughout the land, were, by the 1860s, extending into Wales; Aberystwyth became a terminus for the old Cambrian line, later the GWR. While the transport of freight by rail inevitably led to the decline of coastal trade to the port, summer visitors could now come much more easily, so that as a resort the town flourished.In addition, linking north and south, in 1872 Aberystwyth was chosen for the home of the first university in Wales.

At first the coming of the railway meant that fish could be transported inland that much more easily, but by the beginning of this century the herring shoals in Cardigan Bay were decreasing and, particularly since 1945, herring fishing has fallen right away. Now the main fishing is for crabs and lobsters, for which there are ready markets as far away as Southend-on-Sea, Paris and Brussels. There are, however, only a few commercial fishing boats working out of Aberystwyth today, together with some charter fishing boats.

But to return to the mid-nineteenth century, in 1867 the silver medal of the Institution was awarded to Watkin Lewis of Aberystwyth for two acts of personal gallantry. On March 25 that year he had swum out to make communication with a wrecked schooner, Rebecca of Bridgwater, afterwards helping to save her crew of six; and the previous September he had waded out through the surf at the risk of his life to save his own father who had been carried out to sea trying to save someone else.

The great endeavours of one man.

But so often, at Aberystwyth, enormous corporate effort was needed if the lifeboat was to get off the beach and out to sea. February 20, 1877, when the crew of three of Sarah Ellen were rescued: 'Just before dark . . . while it was blowing a hard gale from the NW, the schooner Sarah Ellen, of Liverpool, bound from Plymouth to Belfast, was seen driving before the storm, with sails blown away, towards the rocky coast southward of the station. The lifeboat Lady Haberfield was speedily launched, but after an hour's energetic struggle the force of the gale proved too much for the oarsmen, and the boat had to be steered for the shore again. The oars were then doublebanked with fresh men, and the Lady Haberfield made her second attempt, and after a brilliant display of dogged perseverance and pluck, the crew forced the boat sufficiently far to the windward to clear the rocks south of the town, when sail was made . . . " It took six hours of gallant struggle before the lifeboat could return to shore with the survivors, her crew exhausted, and just before she was beached, John James, one of the eight men who had rushed courageously through the surf to double bank the oars, had tragically died from his exertions and the bitter cold.

In the severe storms of October 7, 1889, the barque Arklow was seen rapidly drifting towards the Patches, a dangerous reef of rocks a few miles to the west of Aberystwyth . . .

'There was no delay in getting the boat to the edge of, perhaps, as wild a sea as a small boat was ever launched in. It was low-water, and for a long time it was impossible to move the carriage through the sand. There were plenty of willing hands, including many students of theUniversity College of Wales, but, not withstanding the fact that scores of men went into the water until the waves broke over their heads, a considerable time elapsed before the boat was slipped from the carriage and was fairly afloat. . .' Even then, after an hour's pulling, the lifeboat had scarcely moved from the spot she had been enabled to reach by the haul off rope. Time and again she was carried back towards the shore on the crests of the great white seas. After two hours struggle, during which six oars had been broken, the boat was carried close to the pier and a line passed. More oars were taken on board and five extra men went into the boat, one of them, Alfred Worthington, even jumping into the seething water and swimming to the lifeboat. Eventually a point was reached when the coxswain, Thomas Williams, thought it safe to hoist some sail, when the lifeboat "went beautifully and rapidly before the storm' towards Arklow. The service was successfully accomplished, but not before, while lying alongside the casualty, three of the lifeboatmen had been washed overboard by an immense wave; they were all picked up safely, although their recovery took some time.

All the crew were thrown into the sea on October 7, 1880. Lady Haberfield had gone out to the help of the Danish brig Julia which had lost her bearings.

After a lifeboatman had been put aboard to pilot the brig into Aberdovey, the lifeboat was returning to shore, under sail, when she was caught by a sudden fierce squall and capsized; she righted herself, as she was designed to do, and fortunately everyone was able to regain the boat.

Motor lifeboats Aberystwyth received her first motor lifeboat in 1932, the 35ft 6in selfrighting Frederick Angus. This was the lifeboat on station during the war, when most of her calls were to search for missing airmen.

A few months after the end of hostilities, four Welsh lifeboats, from St David's, Fishguard, New Quay and Aberystwyth, were all to take part in a most unusual service. On the night of February 3, 1946, the submarine Universal was on her way to the breaker's yard when, in a westerly gale with a rough sea running, she broke down in Cardigan Bay. St David's motor lifeboat, Civil Service No 6, was the first to launch, at midday on February 4, and she helped the destroyer HMS Southdown to take the submarine in tow.

Later that afternoon, however, the tow parted and, as the submarine drifted up Cardigan Bay, first Fishguard's motor lifeboat White Star, then New Quay's pulling and sailing William CantrellAshley, and finally Aberystwyth's Frederick Angus were all launched to stand by. New Quay lifeboat was released to return to station on the morning of February 5 and, after another attempt by Southdown to take Universal in tow had failed, the decision was made to abandon ship. Fishguard lifeboat took off 16 men and Aberystwyth the remaining 11. The next morning Aberystwyth lifeboat was out once again, helping to transfer men from the destroyer and a tug, which had now arrived, to the crippled submarine, and to help pass tow lines.

Since the arrival on station of Frederick Angus, the struggle to clear the shore and the rocks by strength of arm alone was a thing of the past, but the extra weight of the new motor boat made pulling her through the streets from her boathouse behind Marine Terrace to the slipway a more difficult undertaking. In 1948 the students of the University now helped with finance as they had helped, in the past, with added manpower. They gave the whole of the proceeds of that year's rag week, £1,425, and part of the previous year's total, £325, to the local station, and this money was used to fund a tractor to launch and recover the lifeboat.

Aguila Wren, a 35ft 6in Liverpool which came on station in 1951, was Aberystwyth's third motor lifeboat and the station's first boat not to be fitted with sails. She was, for the greater part, provided by a fund in memory of 22 Wrens who were lost in 1941 when ss Aguila, in a Gibraltar convoy, was sunk by enemy action; a party of volunteers —nine officers and 12 chief Wren wireless telegraphists accompanied by one QARNNS nurse—they were the first draft to go overseas. Dame Vera Laughton Mathews, DBE, at that time director WRNS, attended the naming ceremony on June 28, 1952, at which the lifeboat was handed over by the father of one of the chief Wrens and named by the mother of one of the officers.

Twin-screw rather than single-screw, as were her predecessors, Aguila Wren was considerably heavier than Frederick Angus or Lady Harrison, which had been on station from 1949 to 1951. A more powerful tractor was needed.

Trials of the prototype of a new waterlighted Fowler tractor with a 95hp diesel engine were held at Aberystwyth in November 1952, with such success that four more were immediately ordered.

These trials have become part of the folklore of the RNLI, the photographic sequence of the final test treasured with affectionate glee. The tractor was already in a depth of seven feet so that its controls were underwater, when the firm's driver, intending to put the engine into reverse, in fact put it into neutral. The tractor, by chance on the edge of a hidden gully, ran down into ten feet of water and the five men on board, including Fowler's chief engineer and the RNLI's chief inspector, had to 'abandon tractor' and swim for the shore. Nothing but a wallet was lost, and that was found afloat and rescued later. The tractor, when hauled ashore, was none the worse mechanically for its immersion It was for a service in Aguila Wren, on July 26, 1954, that Coxswain Baden Davies was accorded the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum. In a south-westerly gale and rough seas, an army launch was towing in to Aberdovey the 40ft MFV Lindy Lou, the engine of which had failed. It was high water and Aberystwyth lifeboat was asked to stand by at Aberdovey harbour bar. When Aguila Wren reached the two boats they were making heavy weather and the launch's fuel was running low. Then the towline parted. At first the crew of Lindy Lou, now at anchor in the confused cross seas on the bar, refused to be taken off, but the seas were sweeping over her and after half an hour they agreed to jump aboard the lifeboat, leaving Lindy Lou at anchor. As well as the award to the coxswain, a letter of commendation was sent to the head launcher, Captain T.Brodigan, MBE; during a difficult launch his hand had been injured but, although in great pain, he had carried on until the boat was safely afloat.

D class inflatables Just over 100 years after Aberystwyth was first established as an RNLI station, a whole new chapter in its history was begun. In May 1963 the town received the first of the Institution's new 15ft 6in D class inflatable lifeboats, powered by a 40hp outboard engine, and Aberystwyth was one of the first stations at which the inflatable lifeboat remained operational winter as well as summer. It was in keeping with the changing needs of the area. Commercial shipping now passed further to the west of Cardigan Bay; commercial fishing, as has been seen, had greatly declined; there was seldom need to go out to offshore yachts. On the other hand Aberystwyth had flourished as a very popular holiday resort, flanked by caravan sites, so that those in danger were more likely to be sea anglers, people off the beach in small pleasure boats, swimmers, children carried away on airbeds or cut off by the tide under the cliffs.

For this work the little D class lifeboat was ideal. She could be launched very quickly in the sheltered water of the harbour, rather than over the difficult beach, and, with her speed of 20 knots, reach a casualty in a matter of minutes. True she had to cross the bar at the harbour entrance but that is only a comparatively short distance and an inflatable lifeboat is soon through and away.

Two of the lifeboatmen who were helmsmen of the D class lifeboat in her early years provide at Aberystwyth that strong traditional family link, from one generation to another, to be found at so many lifeboat stations. David Jenkins, who also served on Aguila Wren and who is now station administrative officer (as well as being the station's historian), and Ralph Kenyon are both grandsons of former crew members: an earlier David Jenkins and John Williams, who were friends and fellow lifeboatmen a hundred years ago just as their grandsons have been in present times. David Jenkins' family has, in fact, been involved with the station in one way or another from its very beginning and Ralph Kenyon's for probably as long. Ralph's great grandfather, Thomas Williams, was coxswain from 1876 to 1891 after serving in the crew for several years, while his great uncle, David Williams (Thomas's son), served as coxswain for no less than 42V years, from 1891 to 1933. There is still a family connection because Ralph's nephew, Tony Meyler, a former crew member, is now a deputy launching authority.

It was Ralph Kenyon who, with Gwyn Martin, the honorary secretary at that time, ere wed the D class inflatable lifeboat for another of the station's more unusual services: three miles inland.

Early on August 6, 1973, theRiver Rheidol, in full spate, flooded a campsite and the lifeboat rescued 65 people and three dogs from the roofs of their caravans and cars.

Awards for gallantry were made for two services during the 1970s. Alan Blair, Michael Nichol and Keith Stone were accorded the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum for the rescue on September 1, 1970, of a woman bather overwhelmed by breaking seas and surf, and of a man who had gone out to help her. On that occasion they were manning the D class lifeboat.

Nearly six years later when, on February 22, 1976, Tony Meyler, skipper of MFV Western Seas which was lying alongside in the harbour, was told that a motor cruiser had capsized in heavy surf outside the harbour entrance, he and six other lifeboatmen with him, immediately set out in the fishing vessel. Despite all their efforts, however, the two men trapped inside the hull could not be rescued. Alan Blair, who had swum on a line to attempt an underwater search, was awarded the bronze medal, Tony Meyler the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum, and the other five lifeboatmen all received medal service certificates.

In passing—if ever a group of lifeboatmen are gathered together and Alan Blair is one of them, the singing will go on well into the night—and very fine it will be! C class Twenty years after the first D class inflatable became operational at Aberystwyth, almost to the day, on May 19, 1983, one of the first of the RNLI's new twin-engined 17ft 6in C class inflatable lifeboats were established at the station.

For some years the Institution had been looking into the establishment in the fleet of a twin-engined inflatable lifeboat with a night capability for allocation to certain stations where there is an operational need for a larger boat than the 15ft 6in D class inflatable but where, because of a variety of reasons, it is not possible to operate an Atlantic 21.

An experimental boat, which has been under development at the RNLI's Cowes base for several years, has now proved herself to be a good seaboat and a successful answer to the problem. She has been called the C class. Her length overall is 17ft 6in, her beam 7ft lin, and her twin 40hp outboard engines give a maximum speed of 27 knots. A fabricated keel, to the RNLI's requirements, has been fitted to the original hull to give improved lateral stability. She has limited night capability and righting equipment has been designed and a drill to right the boat after capsize developed by the staff officer responsible for lifeboats under ten metres in length working with the staff at Cowes base.

Various improvements have been made during the development stage. At first the boat was fitted with water ballast, but that has now been replaced by permanent lead ballast, bolted to the underside of the floor board. The floor itself is padded and it is made of two hinged parts, short forward and longer aft, giving flexibility to allow for the movement in an inflatable boat in a seaway. A single tiller to control and steer both outboard engines has also been developed at Cowes.

The C class inflatable is equipped with a watertight VHP radio, an anchor box incorporating a battery box for a small searchlight and, of course, all the equipment, like an anchor, a sea anchor and quoit line, found in a D class boat.

There are now eight of the class on station (with one in the relief fleet): the station boats are at Aberystwyth, Criccieth, Cullercoats, Mudeford, Newquay (Cornwall), Portaferry, St Abbs and St Catherine. More boats will be goinginto both the station and relief fleets in 1985.

At Aberystwyth the new C class boat was welcomed by the chairman, Mr Ivor Davies, the station honorary secretary, Donald Smyth, the branch, the guild and the town, as well as by the crew, and they have all worked hard for her.

She is being funded, together with her tractor and trolley, by local effort. The largest contribution has come from gifts from the University student rag days while the crew themselves have raised more than £4,000, one year joining together in a sponsored row from New Quay to Aberystwyth, and the next in a sponsored relay swim from Aberaeron.

The row started at 5.30 in the morning, and so swiftly did these present-day lifeboatmen cover the ground that they arrived off Aberystwyth much earlier than expected and before everyone was ready for their reception! For the launching trolley, the RNLI provided an Atlantic 21 bedstead type, which three of the crew, Keith Stone, Thomas Ridgway and Brian Pugh James, helped by Graham Edwards, Sandro James and Peter Heading, then modified, so that it is 'custom built' for the C class inflatable with the weight of the boat being taken on her keel and sponsons. It has also been fitted with a square section tow bar which can be pushed through a larger square section channel running the length of the trolley on the centreline so that, with a towing eye fitted each end, the trolley can be towed equally well from either end.

Wide, low pressure, deep tread tyres were also added, to prevent bogging down when, at low tide, the lifeboat has to be launched over the silt at the foot of the slipway. This design is to be used for other C class stations where the Dodo trolley is not required or cannot operate. A second Atlantic bedstead trolley is being modified by Aberystwyth crew to be used by the RNLI depot as a pattern from which to build more 'in house'.

To pull the trolley, a secondhand commercial four-wheel drive tractor was obtained and modified for lifeboat work, the greater part of the modifications to protect vital components from seawater damage and painting being done by the crew led by Bryan Jones, a crew member and tractor driver (who had also been the tractor driver forAguila Wren). Boat, trolley and tractor, all are cherished with loving care by the members of this very happy station.

To accommodate the larger boat and tractor the boathouse had to be extended, and a crewroom and shower has also been provided; it was the crew, once again, who did all the painting and laid down heavy protective strips on the floor exactly to follow the tracks of trolley and tractor as they are housed and there are plans afoot to add a souvenir sales area in the future. That will greatly help the ladies of the guild, led by their chairman, Mrs Mabel Hughes, honorary secretary, Miss Melanie Lloyd and honorary secretary, Mrs Sonia Jenkins, the wife of David Jenkins. At one time they had had a shed for the sale of souvenirs on the beach, but it was blown away by a gale.

They next used an empty shop. Do they now have a mobile stall? Yes, they reply: it is called three cardboard boxes.

And they have found their moveable stand very profitable when taken to caravan sites, fairs and a number of other events.

Here's a good idea. When attending a Saturday night disco dance at a caravan park club, the ladies take with them a tailor's dummy dressed in a dry suit. As the evening progresses and money is raised by sales, raffles or gifts, further RNLI protective clothing is added to the 'lifeboatman' according to the amounts coming in: at £5 seaboots, another £8 for the bump cap, and so on.

It has proved a great spur to the generosity of the dancers.

The added operational scope of their new lifeboat, with its extra size and speed, is much appreciated at Aberystwyth.

It makes, for instance, quite a difference to the time it takes to get out the six or seven miles to the Patches, if a fishing boat is in trouble, and it is a more powerful boat for winter calls. Summer calls are very often to rescue groups of holidaymakers who have walked along the beach below the cliffs to the north of the town and have been cut off by the rising tide; the face of these cliffs is loose shale and impossible to climb.

Over one weekend last summer, seven people were rescued from the cliff foot on one launch on the Saturday, and another seven were picked up in one trip on the Sunday. The larger boat is proving her worth.

The pattern of seafaring may change over the years and the type of lifeboats may change, but the work of RNLI stations is still essentially the same: the saving of life at sea. Since 1861 Aberystwyth lifeboats have launched on service 378 times, rescuing 245 people.

That is the great achievement.For much of the record of Aberystwyth before the establishment of an RNLI station the author is indebted to Maritime Wales No 4, 1979, and No 5, 1980, and in particular to two papers by Lewis Lloyd: 'The Ports and Shipping of Cardigan Bay' and 'The Port of Aberystwyth in the 1840s'. Maritime Wales is an annual publication, each volume containing the fascinating results of historical research on the ports, ships and seamen of Wales. Edited by Aled Eames, Lewis Lloyd, Bryn Parry and John Stubbs, No 8, 1984, which includes first hand accounts of more than one sea captain, is available from the Gwynedd Archives Service, County Offices, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, price £3.75..