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Bob, I am not arguing with any of that but just want to make it clear that
the RNLI has nothing to do with the Royal Navy. The RNLI is entirely funded
by voluntary collections in pubs and fundraising functions held all over UK
and by legacies from people who know what fine work they do. They get no
money from the Government at all.
All the crews are volunteers, selected by those with whom they will jointly
risk their lives at short notice anytime.
When not at sea they hold down a range of ordinary jobs ashore, not all
water based.. They just have to live near enough to the quay to be afloat
within minutes of being called, formerly by maroons, now usually cellphones.
The only one who gets paid anything is the mechanic, who has to ensure the
boat is constantly ready for service.
Their primary task is to save lives but they almost never have claimed
salvage even when they have saved a vessel as well as its crew, from
disaster.
If someone is in trouble they will go out whatever the weather and thanks to
the generosity of the British public their boats are state-of- the art and
lack nothing that will help them do their work.

Just to add to the above, It's the Royal *National* Lifeboat
Institution. The "Royal" part just means they have a royal patron. Their
web site is http://www.rnli.org.uk/ (try pressing the green button and
answer all the questions :-) ) All their manning volunteers are fully
trained at their college.

They were under Govenment control during WW2 but returned to their
charitable status as a voluntary organization as soon as they could
afterwards... and have remaind so ever since.
--
John W
To mail me replace the obvious with co.uk twice