Tuesday, 6 September started off as a normal day in the office at Poole, but by mid morning this had all changed after a call from the director of the RNLI.

I was to liaise with the British Red Cross Society (BRCS), he said, and to offer whatever assistance we could to help the BRCS provide aid for the flood victims in Bangladesh.

By 8pm that Friday agreement had been reached on the requirements and the format of the aid package which the RNLI would supply - and the date by which it would be available to be shipped out.

The package consisted of 10 recently withdrawn D class inflatable lifeboats, 15 40hp Mariner engines, all the spares and back-up equipment necessary to keep the boats and engines running in remote locations, andtwo members of RNLI staff to train Bangladesh Red Crescent Society people to operate and maintain them The two staff members chosen were Mike Brinton (Deputy Superintendent at the Cowes base, who had been on a similar expedition in 1970), and my self.

The period between Saturday morning and Wednesday afternoon, when all the boats and equipment started their journey to Bangladesh, was fairly hectic. RNLI staff at the Poole head office and depotworked wonders to prepare the boats and assemble and pack the equipment required The engines were provided by E.P. Barrus, who had recently received a batch of traded-in 40hp Mariner engines from us. 15 of these were checked-over, packaged and dispatched to Poole with their spares, arriving at the depot by Tuesday afternoon. A considerable effort by all concerned to get everything ready at such short notice.

Eventually all the equipment, plus Mike and I, arrived at Dacca the morning of Sunday 18 September. As we flew over Bangladesh approaching the airport the full extent of the disaster became apparent, with vast areas of the country under water.

We were met by a delegation from the League of Red Cross Societies and taken to our hotel, from whose gates the flood waters had only recently subsided. The temperature was in the 90s with very high humidity - quite a change from mid-September in the UK.

We were in Bangladesh to train a group of 22 Bangladesh Red Crescent staff and volunteers in the operation and maintenance of the boats - and at 2pm that afternoon we started doing just that.

Enthusiasm The boats and equipment were taken to the Red Cross HQ in Dacca and here, on a large pond about 50 yards square, the training commenced.

Although the flood waters were right on our doorstep we felt that we would be more in control in a confined area - as the worst that could happen would be a boat driven up the bank of the pond, and any loss of control would only be for a short while.

The local people showed great enthusiasm, and in some cases natural ability in coping with the training, but one major problem was the language barrier. This was soon overcome as one of the trainees spoke very good English and also proved to be a very good boat handler. The training in boat handling, engine maintenance and boat repair and maintenance continued for the next eight days. During this time three expeditions were mountedto distribute relief supplies to isolated communities around Dacca, at distances ranging from 5 to 25 miles.

These proved invaluable as training exercises, as we were able to see if everything we had tried to put across had been remembered.

Thankfully some had, but other problems were thrown up - for ex- ample the lack of appreciation of how quickly two boats come togetherwhen both are doing 20 knots, and who should turn which way... This prompted a short but fairly emphatic lesson in the Rule of the Road! We were working with an enthusiastic band who often asked if we thought they were getting better, and depending upon the degree of the latest near disaster - be it a near miss or the sound of a gear box nearing disintegration - the answer was framed accordingly.

Problems By the end of our time in Bangladesh we felt that we had taught the volunteers all that we could in the time available, and we had also learned a lot about the people and their problems in Bangladesh.

The people with whom we were dealing were extremely friendly and indeed 'Young Alok1, an 18-year-old student, who lived in fear of being launched into the water if he made a mistake, recently wrote to Mike Brinton (see Your Letters, this issue - Ed).

After our training programme we were told that the boats were to be split into two groups and based up-country to ferry food and medical supplies to isolated communities, which even at that time had had no contact with the outside world since the flooding began.

We both felt that the boats and our efforts would be put to good use, both now and in the future should more flooding occur.

We eventually boarded a British Airways 747 in the evening of Tuesday 27 for the flight home, arriving at Heathrow at 6.00am on Wednesday to find it wet and cold - a situation very much to our liking after the hot and humid environment in which we had been working for the previous 10 days.

The cost of all RNLI equipment and staff for the Bangladesh operation was met by the Red Cross..