When Eilidh Sutherland said she wanted to join Fraserburgh’s lifeboat crew aged 18, her dad, coxswain Victor Sutherland, was not too sure.
Despite the lifeboat station being very much in his family’s blood, with his brother and nephew still on crew, Victor’s dad instincts kicked in.
That, and the very real fear of the pair butting heads.
So Victor – known as Vic – employed some tactics.
“The problem we’ve got is we’ve both got the same attitudes, temperaments and sense of humour,” Vic admitted.
“So I sort of put up a few speedbumps initially for Eilidh when she first spoke about joining.”
In his mind, she needed to focus on her studies at North East Scotland College (NESCOL) and starting her personal training business. Something which he does not regret.
But when she asked to join again two years later in February this year, he was out of excuses.
“She came into the station this year just after she turned 20 and said ‘I want to sign up. Nae excuses this time, I want onto the crew.’
“And actually, I couldn’t even give her a good excuse for her not to.”
The Sutherland lifeboat legacy
Funnily enough, Vic went through the same scenario with his dad, Victor Snr.
However, he said his dad’s concerns had more to do with his maturity at the time which is partly why he signed up aged 20 instead of 17.
His dad and dad’s twin brother Albert were themselves rescued by Thurso lifeboat when they found themselves in a “very serious situation” in the early 1960s after fishing in Caithness.
From then, they wanted to give back to their community and RNLI by joining the crew at Fraserburgh.
The pair were on crew, but not at sea, when the last lifeboat and five crewmen were lost in a dreadful accident in 1970 and the station closed.
Vic was six years old when it again reopened in 1978 and he always remembers that day.
“I can mind the sense of pride that my dad and my uncle Albert and James, my dad’s brothers, had.
“It was just that larger than life camaraderie although it was a new crew.”
It was through watching his family that Vic had no hesitation in signing up aged 20.
He said: “I feel very privileged with the role I’m in.
“It’s just over 32 years since I signed up. And same as Eilidh, I’m just following in my dad’s footsteps.
“For Eilidh’s entire life she’s been involved in some shape or form in and around the lifeboat station, the same as I was when I was growing up. I think it was a fairly natural progression.”
‘Seeing who we are, I just wanted to do the same’
Eilidh’s own memories of her dad growing up involve his speedy exits from the house.
Looking at her dad, the 20-year-old said: “A good few memories involve the pager going off and you bombing it down or falling doon the stairs and trying to get there as fast as possible.
“And then we would go doon to the harbour and look for the boat if we could.”
For Eilidh and her family, which includes her mum Pamela and sisters Lucy, 15 and Ailsa, 18, the Fraserburgh lifeboat station has been a firm fixture in their lives.
Whether it was shaking buckets at fundraising events, watching out for their dad at the harbour or helping with search scenario training sessions by holding icicles in a spot for crew to find, Eilidh laughed and said for them it was normal.
So much so, when the Boxing Day fundraising swim was cancelled during Covid, Eilidh said: “None of us actually kent what normal folk did on Boxing Day.
“We dinnae ken what to do with ourselves.
She added: “I’ve always helped with little bits and bobs on the boat and then I just wanted to be that bit more involved and get to do the more exciting bit of it.
“And just seeing who we are and everything, I wanted to do the same.”
Eilidh’s first call out
After seven months of intense training, a few weeks ago Eilidh received her pager – the official step to joining the crew at sea – and also her first call-out.
With the crew receiving a very unusual three callouts in the space of 48 hours, Eilidh joined the crew for the second one at 9pm one night.
“I think it was just total disbelief,” she said. “But I found it fine once we were on the boat and we were moving because then you snapped into remembering what you were training for and what you need to be doing and get on with it.
“But when I was getting my gear on and actually getting ready to go out I was probably a bit shaky, a bit feart.”
Eilidh then joined the team for another call-out involving towing a local fishing vessel the next day.
Vic, 52, added: “For her first call-out it was a fine scenario and a good result.”
Turning to her, he said: “You did really well on your first one, the second one we had to pull in a local fishing vessel.
“It was a good positive feedback during that call.”
The good and the bad incidents
Throughout the years, Vic has seen his share of incidents and callouts.
After the awful helicopter crash north of Peterhead in 2009, he admitted it is a day that comes back to him every time a helicopter flies overhead.
“That sticks so vividly in my mind,” he said.
“Another one was a rescue we did on July 9 2014 when we rescued two children off Fraserburgh Beach.
“If the crew hadn’t responded so quickly and all the training hadn’t kicked in, it probably would have been a completely different outcome.
“You have a lot of bad call-outs, you have a lot of good call-outs. You’ve just got to take the good with the bad.
“You learn from it, it probably makes you a better person irrespective if it’s the result you want.
“I always like to think for the families that are left behind, hopefully they are aware of or think that we’ve done our best to try and get the result that they would hope for.
“But it doesn’t always work out that way.”
‘If you were to think about what could happen you would never set foot aboard the lifeboat’
In a fishing town like Fraserburgh, much of the community is well aware of the dangers of going out to sea.
When asked if going out on the boat as father and daughter makes them more nervous at all, Vic said: “If you were to think about what could happen you would never set foot aboard the lifeboat.
“The lifeboats we’ve got now, they’re fit for purpose… things have moved on so much through the years regarding the standard of the boat we’re working on, and the standard of training is second to none.
“I’ve got no issues at all with going to sea with my family members.
“The fact that you’ve gone out and helped somebody, irrespective if you’ve saved a life or if you’ve just helped a person with their boat get back to the harbour safely, it’s the fact that you’ve helped somebody.
“That’s the best feeling in the world from my perspective.”
What is next for the Sutherland family?
Seeing Eilidh handle herself well on board the boat, Vic admitted he had “nothing to worry about”.
However, it does not seem like the Sutherland line are done volunteering with the lifeboat station.
“I’m very proud of the fact that Eilidh’s come in to join the crew,” added Vic.
“We’ve not had any arguments and it seems to be working okay to be honest.
“My two other daughters have mentioned they want to join the crew come time as well.
“It might not be in my time but certainly if we all finished up on the crew at the same time it really would be a thing of privilege to see the three of them progressing through their training.
“It’s been a learning curve for me as well if any of my other daughters come forward.
“I don’t think I would have the same apprehension to take either Ailsa or Lucy on board. The only next issue is for the three of them to get on.”
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