In winter, on ten to fifteen days out of every month, winds will blow at force 7 or above around the north-eastern tip of Scotland. The waters of the Pentland and Moray Firths are some of the most notorious in the world. The mainland lifeboat stations which overlook these waters hold a distinguished record of lifesaving and one to which new chapters continue to be added every year.WHETHER WE HAVE visited it or not, John O'Groat's is one of those faraway places familiar from childhood, conjuring up all the elusive romance of distant journeying. Remote in the extreme north east of Scotland, just as Land's End is remote in the extreme south west of England, its very name is evocative of a rugged headland jutting out into waters fraught with exceptional dangers.

John O'Groat's is close to Duncansby Head, the parting of the ways of the forbidding northern and eastern coastlines of Caithness. Go west from there and the way is along the bleak southern shores of Pentland Firth, looking across those often troubled waters to the cliffs of Orkney's southern islands; steep-to cliffs characteristic of the area, which throw back the waves, furious and confused, unameliorated by beach or shelving sea bed. Continue west past Thurso and the coast stretches away to the Kyle of Tongue, along the northern shores of Sutherland and on towards distant Cape Wrath.

Head east from John O'Groat's and, within a few miles, Duncansby Head is rounded and the coast runs away south, past Sinclairs Bay and Wick into Moray Firth.

These can be tempestuous parts. The Admiralty Pilot speaks of winds off the north coast reaching force 7 or more on from ten to fifteen days a month in winter, increasing to force 8 or more on about half of those days. When an intense depression develops near Iceland very severe storms can come in from the west; severe as these storms may be, however, they are comparatively short lived, rarely lasting more than 24 hours. Gales from the south east, on the other hand, occurring when an anticyclone becomes established over southern Scandinavia, can sometimes last for a whole week or more; it was just such a prolonged storm as this which, in 1969, built up the tremendous sea by which Longhope lifeboat was overwhelmed. Violent squalls blowing down from the hills and funnelling through the valleys, sudden changes of wind, line squalls and fog are among the other hazards which may be encountered.

In Pentland Firth itself, the passage between Scotland and Orkney from the North Atlantic to the North Sea, tidal streams flow with great strength. Eddies and races round headlands and islands, often turbulent at the best of times, can become extraordinarily violent and confused, particularly when the flow is opposed by strong winds or a heavy swell.

'All vessels,' warns the Admiralty Pilot, 'should, therefore, be thoroughly secured before entering Pentland Firth, even in the calmest weather.' A tidal stream sweeping in towards a race can reach ten knots or more.

Here the elements are indeed to be respected. Yet, undeterred even in the days of sail, trade routes passed this way, while men have fished these waters from time immemorial; local fishermen who can read the changeable winds and tides so fluently that they can use their very fickleness to advantage.

In olden days many a ship was lost, but even then remarkable rescues of their crews were achieved by the gallantry and determination of local seafarers. The early history of lifesaving in Caithness follows much the same pattern which was repeated all round our shores: individual effort followed by public concern, perhaps by the provision of a lifeboat by a corporate body moved to accept responsibility for the welfare of local mariners, and finally by the establishment of an RNLI lifeboat station. Today there are two RNLI stations in Caithness: Thurso, established in 1860 on the north coast, and Wick, established in 1895 on the east.

For some 50 years there were also RNLI lifeboats at Huna (1877 to 1930) and at Ackergill (1878 to 1932).

Early gallantry Long before any RNLI lifeboat had taken up station in Caithness, however, the Institution had already awarded five silver medals to men of Thurso and six to men of Wick for their outstanding gallantry; local coastguards, fishermen andpilots (from whose numbers came several early lifeboat coxswains) who had put out in little boats or even waded into raging surf to rescue their fellow seamen.

In 1848 great tragedy overtook the fishing community of Wick. The fleet had set out in gentle weather on an August Friday, but the wind shifted during the night and next morning quickly rose to a full gale. High winds and tremendous seas made it impossible for the boats to cross the bar and return to the safety of harbour. Eighteen were wrecked with the loss of 37 fishermen, despite desperate rescue efforts from the shore. As a result of that Black Saturday the British Fishery Society, which had been responsible for building much of the harbour, established a lifeboat station at Wick, and the Society's agent, Captain John Tudor, RN, was to play a very active part, both afloat and on shore, in the early provision of a lifeboat service in this area. Wick's first lifeboat, 28ft long pulling 12 oars, arrived on station that same November; she was the first of three British Fishery lifeboats which served this port before the RNLI was asked to assume responsibility for the station in 1895.

Captain Tudor, coxswain from 1848 to 1861, was awarded two of the early silver medals for gallantry. The first was for the lifeboat's attempt to reach a Netherlands galliot, Vronia Santina, which, on September 8, 1857, was perilously trying to ride out a gale at anchor. Swept back by tremendous waves, the lifeboat was struggling a second time to reach the galliot when she herself was filled by a heavy sea which carried away three of her crew. With most of her oars broken the lifeboat was driven ashore. Two of the men washed overboard were recovered but the third, Alexander Bain, could not be saved.

After this sad loss the BFS ordered a 34ft Peake self-righter to be built for Wick. She was brought to station aboard a steamer in June, 1858, under the care of Captain Tudor, but such were the obstacles to be overcome by lifesavers in the days of sail and oar that it was a shore boat, and not this new lifeboat, which was used in the service for which the good captain was awarded his second silver medal. One November day in 1860, Maria, a local sloop unable to enter harbour in deteriorating weather, sailed round Noss Head and took shelter, anchoring in Sinclairs Bay. By the next day a full gale was blowing and the seas were tremendous. Captain Tudor arranged for the lifeboat to be hauled overland to Ackergill, at the southern end of Sinclairs Bay, while he hurried on ahead. Once in sight of Maria he realised that there was no time to lose. Setting out immediately, with nine other men, in a local boat, he succeeded in bringing the two seamen from the sloop safely ashore, landing them just as Wick lifeboat arrived on her horse-drawn carriage. As well as the RNLI silver medal, Captain Tudor and each of his crew were awarded bronze medals by the Board of Trade.

It was in this same year, 1860, that the RNLI established a lifeboat station at Thurso to serve the 'numberless vessels' which passed through Pentland Firth each year. Polly, a 30ft self-righter pulling six oars, arrived at Thurso that October.

Her first coxswain, John Brims, was to be awarded the silver medal in 1886 in recognition of his long and valuable service, and a bar to his silver medal on his resignation in 1894; in those 34 years no less than 304 people had been rescued by Thurso lifeboats.

Days of sail and oar Look down the lists of services at Wick and Thurso from the 1820s to the early years of the twentieth century and it will be seen that, apart from local fishing boats, the casualties were mostly schooners, barques, brigs, smacks, brigantines or ketches trading under sail. They came from ports in Scotland or Norway; perhaps from Dublin, the Isle of Man or London.

They might be on passage laden with slate from Caernarvon, coal from Hartlepool, Dundee or Sutherland; they might be carrying local stone, or perhaps salt from Aberdeen or Runcorn. By the turn of the century steam cargo vessels and fishing trawlers begin to appear in the records.

These were the years when herring fishing was at its peak.

The herring fleet would sail round from the west of Scotland to Wick, making that port its base from June to September.

The harbour would be full of boats, from Scandinavia as well as from Scotland and England. When the time came to sail on down to Lowestoft for the autumn fishing the boats would vie with each other for the fastest passage south. Mrs Alison Atkins, a fisherman's wife who has been assistant honorary secretary of Wick ladies' guild since 1975, remembers with pride that in those years her grandfather held the record for the passage down to Lowestoft under sail. That is just one example of the deep roots of the Caithness fishing community.

Both Wick and Thurso lifeboat crews still have a strong nucleus of fishermen, as they did in the past, and many of the fund raisers have been, and are, fishermen's wives.

In the early days, lifeboat service at Thurso was mostly to trading vessels which had sheltered in the bay, anchoring in Scrabster Roads, only to find, with a change of wind, that they were being driven, helplessly dragging their anchors, towards perilous rocks. At Wick, round Duncansby Head, enormous seas could be whipped up by onshore winds from east or south. Sailing vessels attempting to make the difficult entry across the bar and into harbour could be in great danger. Writing of Wick main harbour, the Admiralty Pilot warns:'Both South Pier and North Pier are of stone and concreteconstruction and have storm parapets from 3m to 6m high; despite the parapets, however, seas sometimes roll over both piers during E gales . . .' 'Wick Harbour should not be approached, even for shelter, during strong winds between NE and S, which raise dangerous seas in the head of Wick Bay.' Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have called the approaches to Wick 'The baldest of God's bays on the bleakest of God's shores', and he came from the Stevenson family of engineers which, in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did so much for the safety of navigation, pioneering the building of lighthouses on headlands and rocks, and improving harbour works. When endeavouring to build a breakwater at Wick in the 1870s, they had experienced incredible storms which had dislodged first a single block weighing 1,350 tons, and then its 2,600-ton replacement.

Sometimes, as has already been seen, unable to enter Wick Harbour, vessels sought shelter in Sinclairs Bay, only to be overtaken by shifting winds or deteriorating weather. On February 4, 1871, Wick lifeboat, hauled overland and launched in the bay, rescued the whole crew of the schooner Braes of Enzie which, deeply laden with coal, was in danger of being driven ashore. But the haul overland could sometimes take too long. In 1876 another collier, the schooner Emelie of Wolgast, was driven ashore in a violent storm two miles from Ackergill. After attempts had been made to fire a line from shore to six seamen clinging to the rigging, Captain John Cormack, with eight other men, embarked in a salmon coble. They took off three men but, trying to return to shore, the coble was fouled by a line and capsized. Despite all efforts, only one young lad survived from Emelie's crew and four of the coble's crew were also tragically lost.

Ackergill and Huna As a direct result of this disaster, an RNLI station was established at Ackergill in 1878. The first lifeboat, George and Isabella, a 30ft self righter, arrived in March that year.

The British Fisheries lifeboat at Wick and the RNLI lifeboat at Ackergill worked closely together; in fact, when there were too few fishermen at Ackergill, men sometimes came from Wick to make up a crew. The first president of the RNLI Wick and Ackergill branch was Mr G. Duff Dunbar, who had provided the site and material for Ackergill boathouse. The first honorary secretary of Ackergill was George Sutherland of Wick; he was followed in 1890 by Hector Sutherland, Town Clerk of Wick, who was also to become the first honorary secretary of the RNLI lifeboat station at Wick when it was formed in 1895, with the provision of the 34ft self-righting lifeboat John Avins.

In the years up till 1932, when it was closed, Ackergill lifeboat station had three boats: after George and Isabella came the 34ft Jonathan Marshall Sheffield in 1888 and the 37ft Co-Operator No 3 in 1907. The crews of these three boats rescued 38 people and, for all but two of those 54 years, Ackergill coxswains came from the Thain family: William Thain 1876 to 1894; David Thain 1894 to 1913 and James Thain 1913 to 1930.

For eight of James Thain's years as coxswain, Ackergill was the only lifeboat station on the east coast of Caithness because Wick was closed temporarily from 1913 to 1921, awaiting a motor lifeboat. The interval was not intended to be so long. A new boathouse with a deep-water slipway was built at Salmon Rock in preparation, and building of the new boat, a 45ft Watson to be named Frederick and Emma, was begun in 1915, but, delayed by years of war, she did not arrive on station until June, 1921. Robert Bain was her first coxswain, in command until 1935.

But to go back, a second RNLI station had been established on the north coast of Caithness in 1877, preceding Ackergill by a matter of months. The Lifeboat of August, 1878, reports: 'It being thought advisable to have another Life-boat Station on the south shore of Pentland Firth, a Life-boat has been placed by the Institution at Huna (west of John O'Groat's), in which neighbourhood most of the wrecks in that district take place. The fishermen were desirous to have such a boat, believing they would be able to do good service in it to shipwrecked crews . . . " The first Huna lifeboat, the 34ft W.M.C., was followed by two 37ft boats: Caroline and Thomas went on station in 1889, and Ida in 1901. Between them they had rescued 27 people when the station was closed in 1930. By that time there were motor lifeboats at both Wick and Thurso able to provide much wider cover than had been possible with the older lifeboats.

Even in the days of sail and oar, however, lifeboats sometimes travelled far on service, perhaps working with boats from other stations. On May 1, 1900, in a full gale, Thurso and Huna lifeboats, with Longhope lifeboat from Orkney, all went to the help of the Swedish barque Hans, five miles east north east of Dunnet Head. Hans managed to resolve her immediate difficulties and rounded Duncansby Head unaided, but Thurso lifeboat (under the command of Donald Brims, coxswain from 1894 to 1904), unable to return home through the extremely heavy seas, also continued round the headland to find shelter in Wick Harbour until the weather moderated; her crew returned to Thurso by road.

Early next morning Wick received a 'shout'. To save time, Coxswain Alexander McKay (1895 to 1911) took Thurso lifeboat, lying afloat, and in her rescued the two crew of Shaw, a line fishing boat stranded on passage home to Aberdeen from Stornoway.

Thurso's last sailing lifeboat was the 40ft Watson Sarah Austin, very powerful for her day. Coming to station in 1909, she took part in one of the RNLI's best recorded delivery trips (The Lifeboat, August, 1909). She made the passage from London in company with the Institution's first two lifeboats to have motor as well as sail power: Stronsay's new 43ft sailing Watson fitted with a 40 bhp engine, and a new42ft sailing self-righter for Stromness in which a 30 bhp motor had been installed. Under the command of Cdr Howard F. J.

Rowley, RN, inspector for the northern district, Stromness lifeboat led, towing the Stronsay boat which, in turn, had the Thurso boat in tow. On April 30,15 days after setting out, the flotilla entered Pentland Firth: 'Rounding the head at 10.30, the full force of the ebb tide was picked up, and the wind drawing to the N.W., the effects of the "races" were soon felt. Passing to the southward of Stroma, the masts were raised and canvas put on . . . soon after, the flotilla headed into the heaving "race" known as the "Merry Men ofMey".

Here the force of the sea was so strong that all three boats became free of their tow . . . The spectacle here was simply magnificent, the sea was a veritable churn, but the boats made light of it and came through without a murmur . . . the Thurso boat, at times showing three parts of her keel, proved what the "Watson" boats can do with plenty of wind and when close hauled. Neither of the Watson boats took any heavy water on board.' Sarah Austin was housed in the new Thurso boathouse, built in 1906, with a deep-water slipway, just outside Scrabster Harbour. In her 20 years on station she and her crew gave fine service. On January 13, 1916, under the command of Andrew Thomson, coxswain from 1904 to 1922, she fought her way through to ss Ashtree of Cardiff at the height of a violent north-westerly gale, saving both the vessel and her 18-man crew. For this service Coxswain Thomson received the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum. It was also Coxswain Thomson who took Sarah Austin on her most distant service when, in April 15, 1922, ss Pretoria broke adrift from two tugs near Whiten Head, Loch Eriboll, 35 miles west of Thurso. By the time Sarah Austin arrived, Pretoria's crew had been taken aboard one of the tugs, but the lifeboat stood by for some hours, in worsening weather, before returning to station; she had sailed more than 70 miles and had been afloat for 14 hours.

Longhope lifeboat, also launched to help Pretoria, was afloat for 13 hours, sailing no less than 90 miles.

Coxswain Angus McPhail's service (1922 to 1935) bridged the change at Thurso from pulling and sailing to motor lifeboat, and he handled the old and new types of boat with equal skill. When ss Aase of Hamburg went ashore on March 6, 1928, Sarah Austin was launched in a strong southerly gale and heavy rain. She stood by in bitter cold for the rest of that night, the following day and into the next night before Aase's captain agreed that he and his crew of 14 should be taken off.

For this 22-hour service Coxswain McPhail and his crew received a commemorative iron plaque and other personal recognition from the German Government.

On the evening of the following February 2, Sarah Austin was launched to help a Grimsby steam trawler, Edward VII, which had grounded on a reef off Brims Ness, six miles west of Thurso. Again the night was bitterly cold, and there was a heavy ground swell. It was too dangerous to anchor among the rocks, hidden reefs and floating gear, so Coxswain McPhail worked his boat in under oar, brought her safely alongside Edward VII, took off her ten crew and brought the lifeboat out again without a scratch. Again he received thanks on vellum, while a letter of thanks was sent to John Miller, station honorary secretary, and to Captain G. Shearer, the honorary shore signalman. Mr Miller was to continue as SHS for many years; on his retirement in 1948 he was made an honorary life governor of the Institution, and he was also awarded the MBE.

Motor lifeboats A few months after the service to Edward VII, on June 25, 1929, a 45ft 6in Watson Cabin lifeboat with twin 40 bhp engines, to be named H.C.J., arrived at Thurso. Now there was a motor lifeboat at both Wick and Thurso.

On September 28, Coxswain McPhail was in command of H.C.J. on a service for which, once again, he was to be accorded thanks on vellum. In heavy seas and a westerly gale he went to the aid of a naval cutter with 20 men on board which, launched from HMS Marlborough to destroy a mine washed ashore, was in difficulties in heavy surf. H.C.J. was anchored and veered down into the shallow water. Attempts to fire a line across failed, but a buoy, taking with it a heavier rope, was eventually floated down to the cutter and she was pulled clear. Marlborough's crew sent a gift to each Thurso lifeboatman, and a donation to the RNLI, 'In gratitude and admiration for their promptitude and skill'.

Two years later, on March 18,1931, Coxswain McPhail was awarded the bronze medal for gallantry and Second Coxswain Adam McLeod the thanks on vellum for a service to the schooner Pet of Chester. On a dark, foggy night, Pet had gone ashore at Brims Ness, where there was heavy ground swell over offshore rocks and the remains of an old wreck. Thurso lifeboat was anchored to windward, veered down as close as was judged safe, and a line fired across. One man was taken off by breeches buoy, but he told Coxswain McPhail that the other three men on board were all elderly. So 'coolly andskilfully' the coxswain veered the lifeboat in over the intervening hazards, illuminating the scene as best he could by searchlight, and, with the lifeboat rising and falling on the swell, lifted the three men off the rolling schooner.

War years Adam McLeod followed Angus McPhail as coxswain of Thurso lifeboat from 1935 to 1937. His successor, Angus Macintosh, had only completed two years as coxswain, however, before he was called up, in September 1939, to serve in the Royal Naval Reserve for the duration of the Second World War; he was to be awarded both the DSM and Croix de Guerre for his service at Narvick.

For those who crewed the lifeboats in wartime, usually older men, there was still much hazardous work to be done.

On the afternoon of February 8, 1944, two objects, possibly dinghies, were reported to seaward of Melvick Bay. Thurso's H.C.J. battled west for two hours through a northerly gale, storms of sleet and snow, and high, confused seas before sighting two rafts, one only about 170 yards from rocks.

Coxswain John McLeod (1943 to 1945) brought his boat inshore through the heavy, swirling seas and two exhausted men were quickly lifted aboard before the lifeboat headed for the other, larger, raft, a mile and a half away. As this raft was made fast alongside, Assistant Mechanic William Sinclair and Crew Member David Thomson jumped aboard. They found five men huddled together, all dead of exposure, and for ten minutes, in continual danger, they struggled to free the bodies and pass them up to their fellow lifeboatmen. The two survivors told the crew that the Norwegian steamer Freidig of Haugesund had been bound from Aberdeen to Liverpool when her cargo of grain had shifted off Cape Wrath and she had foundered. For this service the bronze medal was awarded to Coxswain McLeod, with the thanks on vellum to Assistant Mechanic Sinclair and Crew Member Thomson.

Coxswain McLeod was also awarded the MBE.

About a year before the outbreak of hostilities a new 46ft Watson Cabin lifeboat, with twin 40 bhp diesel engines, had taken up station at Wick. She was named City of Edinburgh by Mrs Henry Steele, Lady Provost of Edinburgh, on August 19, 1939, just a fortnight before the declaration of war.

Coxswain Neil Stewart, Jnr (1940 to 1970) was in command of City of Edinburgh when at 0225 on September 21, 1942, she was launched into pitch darkness and torrential, ceaseless rain to go to the aid of the tug St Olaves and the barge Gold Crown wrecked on the Ness west of Duncansby Head. A north-easterly gale was blowing and the sea was very high with a dangerous cross swell. Visibility was virtually nil.Lighthouses were normally blacked out in wartime and, with no electronic navigational aids to help, it was all too easy to mistake a headland on a black night and enter a bay instead of rounding into Pentland Firth. In fact, Duncansby Head Light had been lit that night to help the rescue, but the lifeboatmen saw no glimmer of it until 0545. The wrecked vessels were sighted as the first streak of daylight appeared, and Coxswain Stewart brought the lifeboat in to take 27 men off the barge and then four more off the tug in a bold and skilful rescue for which he was awarded the bronze medal for gallantry. Thanks on vellum were accorded to Motor Mechanic William Mowatt and a letter of thanks was sent to the station honorary secretary, John S. Duncan. Mr Duncan, much honoured during his years as SHS, was made an honorary life governor on his retirement in 1954 and he was also awarded the MBE.

Coxswain Angus Macintosh, home in Thurso once again after the war ended and back at the wheel of the lifeboat until 1967, received the RNLI's thanks on vellum for two services in the early months of 1953; on January 15, in a westerly gale and a very rough sea, Thurso lifeboat took off 11 men from the Aberdeen trawler Sunlight, aground on a ledge of rock on the Spur of Murkle; and on March 22, with Stromness lifeboat, H.C.J. searched for 21 hours through dense fog in the treacherous waters of Hoy Sound for men from the wrecked trawler Leicester City.

In 1956 Coxswain Neil Stewart of Wick, and Coxswain Daniel Kirkpatrick of Longhope were each awarded a silver medal by King Haakon of Norway for their lifeboats' part in a rescue from the freighter Dovrefjell of Oslo which, on February 3, ran on to a shelf of rock on Little Skerry in exceptionally heavy seas. Unable to get alongside, the two lifeboats stood by in those huge seas while 41 seamen were lifted off by RN and RAF helicopters. Wick lifeboat was at sea for nine hours on this service.

Royal friends HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother has great understanding for the lifeboatmen of Caithness, for she is their near neighbour. Her Castle of Mey looks out over Pentland Firth. When a new lifeboat, the first 47ft Watson, was sent to Thurso in 1956, The Queen Mother graciously visited the station and named her Dunnet Head (Civil Service No 31). But this lifeboat was to have little opportunity to prove her worth. Less than a year after coming to station she was totally destroyed by a fire which also burnt down her boathouse.

Relief lifeboats gave cover at Thurso until a replacement 47ft Watson, Pentland (Civil Service No 31), once again provided by the Civil Service Lifeboat Fund, could be built.

She came on station just after Christmas 1957.

One of the last times Pentland was launched on service was for the heartbreaking search, together with Kirkwall, Stromness and Stronsay lifeboats, an RAF Shackleton and an RN helicopter, for T.G.B., the Longhope lifeboat tragically overwhelmed with the loss of her entire crew on the night of March 17, 1969. It was Thurso lifeboat which sighted the capsized boat just before noon the next day, four miles south west of Tor Ness, and took her in tow to Scrabster Harbour, escorted by Stromness lifeboat.

In 1970, new self-righting lifeboats were placed on station at both Caithness stations, as well as at Longhope: a 48ft 6in wooden Oakley at Wick, and 48ft 6in steel Solents at Thurso and Longhope. All three boats were fitted with twin 110 bhp engines.

That September, HRH Princess Alexandra came to Wick to name the new Oakley lifeboat Princess Marina in memory of her late mother who, in 25 years as President of the RNLI, had won the deep respect and affection of all lifeboat people by her concern and kindness. Princess Marina had accepted the office after the tragic death of her husband, HRH George, Duke of Kent, in a wartime air crash in northern Scotland. At the time of the naming ceremony Neil Stewart was ending his long years as coxswain; he had been awarded the BEM in the previous New Year's Honours List and in November 1970 he handed over to Donald McKay, a fisherman who had first joined the crew in 1946. After servingas bowman from 1960 to 1963, and as second coxswain from 1963 to 1970, Donald McKay first became coxswain and then, in 1980, coxswain/mechanic. He was one of the lifeboat people to receive the Queen's Silver Jubilee medal in 1977, and the wheel of Wick lifeboat is still in his good hands.

August 11, 1971, was another joyful royal occasion, because on that day The Queen Mother visited Thurso once again to name the station's new Solent lifeboat The Three Sisters.

Raising funds Nor has The Queen Mother's interest been solely operational; she has also given much valued personal support to the fund raisers of Thurso. The gardens of the Castle of Mey are opened twice each year, once in the spring, at daffodil time, and once in the summer. The lifeboat ladies serve teas on both these days, which have become annual engagements greatly appreciated and enjoyed.

Thurso ladies' guild has traditionally been led by the coxswains' wives. Nowadays, everyone works together as part of the branch, but the ladies still organise the fund raising, backed up by the menfolk. From the start they have been extremely successful. A number of efforts are arranged during the course of a year, but the principle event is a Lifeboat Gala in the first week in August, when every day contributes to a very full programme. After a Sunday church service, the week rolls ahead with all manner of activities (one highlight has been a ceilidh on board St Ola, the Scrabster-Stromness ferry), and the week ends with a fete at Scrabster. There is plenty of good Caithness fare; as the ladies say, 'It is baking every day of the week.1' Everyone enjoys themselves and remarkable results are achieved. Even the first gala, 20 years ago, raised a total of £1,000 - and that with a population of little more than 3,000. So impressed was The Queen Mother that she paid the lifeboat people of Thurso a visit during their gala week in 1962. Their efforts were indeed royally crowned. Mrs D. Macintosh, president of the branch and formerly of the guild, is the latest of the Thurso fund raisers to be awarded a gold badge for long and devoted service. By happy chance she received her badge from The Queen Mother herself at the 1984 Royal Festival Hall presentation of awards, and she was given a very warm welcome.

There are close family bonds among the members of Wick ladies' guild. Mrs M. D. MacKenzie, the president, is the wife of Captain MacKenzie, a former station honorary secretary, while her niece is Mrs Alison Atkins. Mrs D. G. Gall was honorary treasurer from 1953 and she, together with Mrs C.

Campbell, the honorary secretary, received the silver badge in 1967 and the gold badge in 1982; when Mrs Gall handed over her office, in 1981, it was to her daughter, Mrs Netta Munro, whom she still assists. As in the past, a number of the 30-strong guild are fishermen's wives.

Ask the Wick ladies, and they will tell you that, with flag days, coffee mornings and stalls at outside events, there is much hard work to be done, but it is all laced with fun and laughter.

And they will tell you of the generous support they receive from people of all ages in the town. The branch also plays its part in fund raising (for instance, holding an annual ball) and so do the crew members' wives. Each group works separately, but all help each other, and they all meet at the branch AGM. They all meet on Harbour Day, too, each making their contribution to a very full and merry day. While the branch is organising a rescue demonstration, the crews' wives will be running a bottle stall and selling home baking and seafood (with perhaps a raffle for a salmon) and the guild will be selling tea, coffee, and something like 400 hot dogs. There will, of course, be plenty of lifeboat souvenirs on sale, with competitions in which everyone can take part.

Outstanding services Such is the good heart of Thurso and Wick lifeboat communities. And the lifeboats, most lovingly cared for, are always poised, ready for service.

William Farquhar, whose wife Elizabeth is vice-president of the branch, has been coxswain/mechanic of Thurso lifeboat since 1983. He joined the crew in 1967 and, after a couple of years as assistant mechanic, became coxswain in 1975. Like Coxswain/Mechanic McKay of Wick, he is a fisherman. So are the second coxswains of both boats and several others of the two crews. Shore-based lifeboatmen are also needed now, when fishing boats are away from port longer than they would have been in the past; the crews include men who have served in the Merchant Navy and men who work in the harbours, as well as those following other ways of life. At Wick, some crew members come from the nearby radio station.

The roll of honour continues to lengthen. Coxswain/Mechanic McKay of Wick was awarded the bronze medal of gallantry for the rescue on June 25, 1984, of the crew of a salmon coble, in among rocks just east of Ackergill with a net round her propeller. With a north-westerly breeze, gusting to gale force, it proved impossible to float a breeches buoy down to the coble through the high breaking seas. So Coxswain/Mechanic McKay drove the lifeboat in over the rocks and among the staked nets and creels which fouled the water, until a line could be fired to the casualty and she could be towed clear.

Both the coxswain and second coxswain of Thurso lifeboat received the Institution's thanks on vellum for services performed in 1982. Coxswain/Mechanic Farquhar received his for the help given to the trawler Arctic Crusader, which had broken adrift on the night of November 16 in north-westerly gales gusting to storm force. He brought the lifeboat close inshore alongside the trawler through breaking waves, ready to take off her crew, but just at that moment Arctic Crusader succeeded in getting her engines started and was once again under control.

Second Coxswain John Manson received his vellum for a service two months earlier, on September 7. As acting coxswain he had succeeded in putting pumps, and two lifeboatmen, on board the fishing vessel Coronella which, making water, had anchored close to the Men of Mey rocks. A strong westerly breeze was blowing across the overfalls, and confused seas hid the exact position of the rocks. But John Manson is a Stroma man; he, his parents and brother were the last family to leave that island. No one but the lighthouse keepers are there now.

He had fished in these waters since he was a young man, going close inshore to set his lobster creels. Lobsters are at their best when, in the spring, they go into the shallows to shed their old shells, before growing new, larger ones; so the boats must follow them in. Like generations of seamen who have fished in Pentland Firth, John Manson knew exactly where the rocks would be, and how best to use the tides and eddies, because he had always worked among them; they were his familiar ground.

This is the sort of confident knowledge on which Caithness lifeboatmen from Thurso, Wick and, in their day, Huna and Ackergill, have been able to draw. Since 1860, when the first RNLI station was established in the area, 125 years ago, these four stations have between them rescued 941 seamen. At Thurso and Wick the watch over their waters in the North Atlantic, the North Sea and Pentland Firth, is still constant and sure..