Books The Lone Ranger story – from salvage tug to super yacht by John Julian Published by Seafarer Books ISBN 0955024307 Price £19.95 hardback This is the remarkable story of a vessel’s transformation over a period of more than 30 years. Starting life as a working tug, then named Simson, she travelled the world for 20 years working on large-scale assignments such as the movement of oil platforms across thousands of nautical miles. She was refitted in the early 1990s to become a luxury home for a billionaire and his family. For the last 10 years, the re-named Lone Ranger and her owners have covered the world, as befits a vessel so accustomed to such a wide range of seascapes.

Told in great detail thanks to the author’s vast experience of the sea and writing for yachting journals, this large-format hardback is impressive in appearance and includes ‘hands-on’ photography on virtually every page. Voices from the sea by Ruth Cocks Self published Price £14 paperback (plus £3.50 postage) Astronomer Patrick Moore wrote the Foreword to this extraordinary record of oral history: ‘I have known Selsey all my life, and have lived here for almost 40 years now, so although I am (or was!) an airman I am very well acquainted with the people of the sea. I know the coastguards, the divers, the fishermen and the lifeboat crews.

They are remarkable people and Ruth Cocks has written a remarkable book about them. She has spent 16 months talking to them and she has let them speak for themselves. They have much to say and much to tell us.

‘There are puzzles: how do you tell a male cuttlefish from a female cuttlefish, and why do you want to know? ‘There are unexpected twists:…Divers inspected the Nab Tower, a disused lighthouse, which is now of no use to anybody; the authorities wanted to blow it up until they were told that it lies on a fault in the earth’s crust, and exploding it would trigger the fault to such an extent that parts of Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight would sink into the sea (needless to say, the Nab Tower is still intact).

‘There are great characters, such as “Honest Bill”, who still has his hut at East Beach and makes his team provide excellent fish at excellent prices as I know, because I am a very regular customer.

He is noticeably reticent about an episode in 1950, when after a particularly dangerous rescue he was presented with the RNLI’s [Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on] Vellum and also the Maud Smith Award, for the bravest act of lifesaving by any lifeboat man during the year.

‘There are tragedies: the sea can be merciless, but the Selsey lifeboat men [and women] have saved many lives, and Ruth Cocks makes us realise how brave and how dedicated they are. ... ‘When you read this book you will look into the past and also gain a better understanding of the present. Techniques have changed, but the “people of the sea” have not. Let us pay tribute to them and thank Ruth Cocks for giving us so vivid and accurate a picture.’ Ruth is keen to sell her last remaining 150 copies so that she can donate £12,000 to the RNLI, £4,000 to The Coastguard Association and £4,000 to The Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society. The book is available from the author, by telephone 01243 601272 or email [email protected].

Further details can also be found at voicesfromthesea.net. Unless other ordering details are stated, all books reviewed in the Lifeboat are available from all good bookshops and online from Amazon via the RNLI website at rnli.org.uk/amazon.

Amazon will donate a minimum of 5% of the value of all such orders to the RNLI.

(For the RNLI to benefit in this way you must access Amazon via the RNLI website and not go direct to Amazon.) .