History Of Lifeboat Services

The need for organized lifeboat services was recognized as early as 1824, when the voluntary organization, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was founded in Britain. Also in 1824, two lifeboat societies were founded in the Netherlands and similar organizations were established shortly thereafter in other European countries. In recent times, voluntary organizations have been established in such places as the Bahamas and Netherlands Antilles.

In the United States, volunteers manned lifeboats and lifesaving stations along the U.S. coasts until the establishment of the U.S. Life-Saving Service in 1878. In the early decades of the young nation, these volunteers were marshaled under the auspices of organizations such as the Massachusetts Humane Society and the Lifesaving Benevolent Association of New York. The birth of the Life-Saving Service made sea rescue a full-time paid occupation, and the Service was later combined with the Revenue Cutter Service to create the United States Coast Guard. Today, the tradition of voluntary service is preserved through the activities of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

In recent times, voluntary lifeboat organizations have been established throughout the world. AFRAS is an associate member of the International Lifeboat Federation which has 75 members in 55 countries. We work very closely with many of these volunteer services.