Following your feature on lifejacket development (Spring 2012), here's what happened to me in 1971 or so. I was in the Blessington Sailing Club in Co Wicklow. Despite the Finn class boats experiencing such conditions that their event was cancelled, I thought I'd test the Fireball that I'd built.

A girlfriend who could not swim said: 'No problem, I'll crew for you.' What happened is an advertisement for lifejackets. Suffice to say I lost the boat in very bad conditions. We were rescued after almost an hour in freezing cold water, driving rain and a force 7–8. But I'd made sure both of our lifejackets were fitted properly. It was touch and go but without lifejackets neither I nor my courageous crew member would be around today.

Yours sincerely
Charles H Egan (pictured off Clear Island, west Cork in 1966)

I have just been loaned the Spring 2012 issue of your magazine. My daughter was given it after her teacher read out the article on the Titanic to her class. To which she was reduced to tears. The person quoted in the article is who she is named after: Mary Keziah Dooley Humphries Roberts.

Her teacher had remembered Keziah telling her that her great great grandmother had worked on the ship and survived. My mother, Barbara Green (nee Williams – her mother was Mary's youngest daughter Jean Williams nee Roberts) and I are keen to find out more about the letter so are planning a trip to visit your library at Headquarters.

With regards,
Fiona Kilbane, Somerset

******

As I read your account of the service to the Bonita by the Guernsey lifeboat 30 years ago (Winter 2011–12) it brought back vivid memories of the same Sir William Arnold rescuing us during a very stormy night on 31 August 1982. The boat was Suelee and we were in real trouble off a large rock.

I recognised three of the men in your feature but I don't have the names of the rest of the crew who were so kind to us, although I have photographs. These brave men saved our lives and we will be grateful to them and the RNLI for the rest of our lives.

Yours sincerely
Helen Hayes, Middlesex

The Editor comments: RNLI archives revealed Helen and her family's rescue to be 'a difficult service, well executed'. We're sending on the details.