Taste of the past / am writing to tell about some events here in Sweden this summer. Let me start back in 1855 when the first lifeboat station was established in Sweden near Sandhammaren, on the south east comer of Sweden, opposite the island of Bomholm.

The station was equipped with rocket apparatus and a lifeboat. The boat was built in Copenhagen along similar lines to lifeboats already in service on the Danish west coast. The boat was clinker-built of oak, 27ft by 8ft and fitted with copper aircases, four relieving tubes in the bottom and four scuppers. She pulled eight oars and was steered with both sweep and rudder. A heavy cork fender was also fitted. The boat still exists and belongs to the Simrishamns Museum. She is still kept in her old boathouse. She has a very interesting history, and I believe she also holds a world record: namely that she was in service at the same station for 90 years, from the opening of the station in 1855 to the closing in 1945.

In 1874 the British vessel the Brothers was lost off Sandhammaren, but the crew was rescued in a spectacular service in storm force winds. Coxswain and crew of the lifeboat received gold medals from the British government for this rescue. When the station closed in 1945 a total of 592 lives had been rescued. The lifeboat is still in a seaworthy condition, and last July, the lifeboat and the rocket apparatus once more went into action, this time in front of a large public with myself as coxswain.

The weather was fine with a gentle breeze and a smooth sea. Not so on our first practice launch. (See photo.) The day before an onshore near gale had been blowing and there was still some sea running with breakers on the shore.

With an untrained crew it was impossible to negotiate the breakers, and many crew members got cold water down their necks when several seas crashed into the boat. Finally we decided to return.

My respect for the lifeboatmen of the past, high as it was, rose even more after our experience. Really it was only afresh breeze blowing when we had to admit defeat. Imagine what it would be like in a whole gale!—JAN GRONSTRAND, Lomma, Sweden..