Scott Begbie: Story of the RNLI in Aberdeen deserves to be told often and loudly

It’s funny how you can miss something without realising you’ve actually missed it.

Case in point is the Aberdeen Maritime Museum, which reopened a couple of Saturdays back after being out of commission since last September to have a new lift installed.

Now it’s back, ship shape and looking splendid, as I discovered when I went for a visit a couple of days after it set sail with its new look.

It’s a bit fresher and there’s a nifty wee soft play area now (not that I’m worked up over that in these days when ‘no cats, no brats’ is the motto of Begbie Towers) but the museum is very much still a place to linger and love.

What I really liked was the new gallery downstairs focussing on Wreck And Rescue.  To be precise, it’s the story of shipwrecks and daring rescues to save lives at sea off the coast of Aberdeen.

At its heart, of course, is the story of the RNLI in Aberdeen, one that deserves to be told often and loudly.

Especially so when you look at the origin story of folk in home-made cork jackets taking to the waste of mountainous seas to save souls from being lost.

It is genuinely inspiring and not just from view of “jings, how did they do that in the old days?”

Because today the RNLI is still very much with us and still very much striving to protect those who take to the water for work or for pleasure.

From RNLI beer mats in my local telling folk basic water survival techniques to the weekly drills these courageous men and women carry out on weekday nights, the work they do is exemplary.

RNLI heroes are ordinary folk with ordinary lives

These are ordinary folk with ordinary lives and ordinary jobs who do extraordinary things when called on.

Volunteers all, they will drop whatever they are doing and rush to a shout, putting themselves in harm’s way to do the most noble thing anyone of us can – save lives.

I have nothing but admiration for our lifeboat crews, here in the north-east and around the country.

It makes my blood boil when you hear the likes of Nigel Farage traduce the good name of those braver than him because he seems to think refugees should be left to sink or swim in the channel. Gosh, I wonder which he would prefer.

But closer to home we cannot overstate the importance of what the RNLI do and how grateful we should all be to them in our part of Scotland where maritime history and culture should be remembered, honoured and celebrated.

So kudos to the Aberdeen Maritime Museum for doing that and for telling the story of our seafaring history, the people who wrote it and are still writing it today.

But this wee treasure chest on Shiprow deserves more than just a round of applause and ‘well done’.

It deserves people through the door to discover the rich treasure trove that is Aberdeen’s maritime history. So go see it, savour it and you can thank me later.

Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired