Broughty Ferry RNLI on December 8 will remember the eight crew who were lost in the Mona disaster of 1959. In a new episode of the RNLI 200 Voices podcast Robin Smith tells how but for a ‘twist of fate’ he could have been part of the crew on that fateful night.
Robin Smith was a young man in 1959 and he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather in volunteering as a crew member on the Broughty Ferry lifeboat. When the RNLI lifeboat ‘Mona’ capsized, and all eight crew members were lost he should have been on board.
In Twist of Fate, which becomes available as an RNLI 200 Voices podcast on the anniversary (Friday 8 December) he recalls the call-out on a stormy night to the North Star Lightship which had lost her moorings.
In an emotional recollection we are taken inside the boatshed before the launch, the failure to raise a signal from the lost lifeboat and the devastating effect of the disaster on the entire community.
The podcast series will hear from people connected to the RNLI in Scotland and those whose lives have been touched by the lifesaving charity. Hear from locals with a special kinship to their lifeboat station, a crew member who’s been on service for a generation, or the family of someone rescued by an RNLI frontline lifesaver – each episode is sure to take the listener on a journey through a touching story.
Available across all podcast platforms and the RNLI’s website, listeners can hear from survivors, supporters, volunteers, lifeguards, celebrity ambassadors, historians and many more from across Wales, England, Scotland Ireland and beyond.
Launch into a podcast like no other: Listen to the RNLI’s 200 Voices daily, wherever you get your podcasts or at RNLI.org/200Voices.
An audio trailer for 200 Voices can be downloaded here and a video trailer can be downloaded here.
