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ADVENTURER BEAR GRYLLS has backed a new campaign to restore an Irish lifeboat that was involved in the attempt to save his great-grandfather’s life.
The television presenter’s relation, Sir Walter Smiles, was among 130 people who died in the Princess Victoria tragedy of 1953.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s (RNLI) volunteer crew at Donaghadee in Northern Ireland, aboard the Sir Samuel Kelly, risked their lives to save 33 passengers in the incident.
The lifeboat was also involved in saving yachtsmen during the 1979 Fastnet yacht race disaster.
Grylls said:
I am delighted to express my support and extend my best wishes to the Sir Samuel Kelly Project. I do so out of respect for the 133 passengers who were lost in the Princess Victoria tragedy of 1953. The dead include my great grandfather Sir Walter Smiles at whose home in Donaghadee I spent many happy summer days as a boy.
He said he also does so “out of respect for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the volunteer crew of the Sir Samuel Kelly lifeboat who battled monstrous seas for 36 hours and risked their own lives to rescue 33 people from the ferry”.
To the crew of today’s RNLI lifeboat based in Donaghadee, and the 234 RNLI lifeboat crews around the coasts of Britain and Ireland, I express my admiration at their courage and commitment.
He said that the restoration and preservation of the lifeboat, and the construction of a heritage centre in Donaghadee to provide it with a permanent home, “will create a fitting memorial to all those who were touched by the Princess Victoria tragedy”.
Restoration
A new initiative called the SSK Project has been set up to raise money to build a temporary shelter for the lifeboat.
The hope is that the public appeal will raise between £15,000 and £20,000.
The shelter was designed by architects Fraser Bell and Michael Collins, in order to allow the lifeboat to dry out so that the restoration job can be assessed.
The team behind the project also want to secure Lottery funding to build a permanent museum which would have the lifeboat as a centrepiece.
Project spokesman Ken Walsh said that the Sir Samuel Kelly is an important part of Ireland’s maritime heritage and is on the UK’s National Historic Ships register.
Restored, it will be a lasting memorial to the people who were lost in the Princess Victoria and Fastnet tragedies. It will also be a fitting tribute to the bravery of the RNLI crews who daily risk their lives to save others. With public support we believe we can raise the £500,000 needed to build her a fitting home in a town where she was stationed for 25 years and is still cherished.
The Sir Samuel Kelly lifeboat was named after a Belfast coal importer and philanthropist who died in 1937, and was built by J Samuel White & Co at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1950.
It was stationed at Donaghadee from 1951 until 1976, before becoming part of the RNLI reserve fleet at Courtmacsherry, Co Cork. It was retired in 1979.
The lifeboat was purchased by the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and passed to the project group in 1985.
Walsh added: “We know Bear has a special place in his heart for Donaghadee. He tells us it is where he found his love of the sea and the wild. We are delighted to have his support and encouragement.”
More information can be found at www.sirsamuelkellyproject.com or on Facebook.
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Plastics are numbered 1-7. It would be more definitive if recycling companies listed the plastic numbers they except. This is never listed on their websites
Don’t know what so hard to understand about filling the green bin. It’s pretty easy. PAPER, PLASTIC, METAL. NO NAPPIES, BATTERIES, OR GARDEN WASTE. How difficult is that to understand.
@Thomas Maher: It’s not all plastics. How difficult is it to read the whole article?
Dirty nappies and politicians .both changed regularly and for the same reason.
Curious about two questions: So I fill my green bin according to the list, but my neighbour throws a couple of batteries into his green bin. Both bins are then tossed into the refuse collection truck. Does this mean that everything else inside the refuse collection truck is contaminated? Also if the used yoghurt container is not washed prior to disposal is it also treated as contaminated?
Ok – I confess my ignorance: What about thin plastic bags or Pringles tubes?
Now think really hard , and ask yourself what are they made from?. If you arrive at the answer paper, plastic or metal. They can go in the…..
@Thomas Maher:
Except that’s not really true though – only certain types of plastics can be recycled. It appears you’re even more ignorant than me.
@Avina Laaf: Pringles tube is, I think, *not* recyclable. That’s what Google says.
(Not an expert, but I think it’s because of the bonded metal and paper layers.)
Thanks Stephen :)
Given that worldwide they probably churn out billions of them annually, Pringles should really work on making a tube that’s recyclable.
@Avina Laaf: Now your talking. Bring back milk in glass bottles and the option to buy things which are not sealed in enough packaging to survive a small nuclear blast. Bananas and oranges wrapped in plastic for example. Last time I checked nature had already wrapped these up.
If in doubt about something, throw it in the ordinary waste bin. I looked on the McKane oven chips bag for recycle symbol, it doesn’t have one, so I throw it in the black bag. Even though most of the other freezer stuff have the recycle symbol.
They should print this list on the side of the bins. Or send out stickers to existing customers to stick on the bin. That might help
How the f**k do I wash my old newspapers?
Last week I observed my binman pick up my food waste bin and empty it into my ordinary rubbish bin before then putting it in the truck. Why do we bother separating our rubbish at all if the binman can’t even be bothered!
Recycling, most people do their best. But lack of understanding what can and can’t be recycled. I know it causes confusion in our house hold. We do had debates on which is and isn’t. Better marketing of tiems you can Recycle.
Just rub them with a baby wipe
Oh my happy nappy, up on the wheely bin, Shall you join your fallen brothers, when gravity kicks in? Or perhaps you’ll be like blanky and lay under refuse sack, Nappy and blanky in worlds unknown destined to never come back, I miss thee happy Nappy and the words of which you’d speak, O Nappy, my Nappy where are you, of you I am in seek.
Wow! Someone is happy chappy this morning. Got your pipe emptied last night yeah!?
I can sort of understand the nappies in the green bin. Not that I condone it but the weight of nappies is something else. If you are being charged by weight on your grey bin and the reasoning is to reduce consumption then it is unfair, as you really have no choice. I know you could say use non disposal one but the up front cost is huge and there isn’t a culture of using them. You could invest and realise their are a nightmare to use thus wasting money at a time you have less. Maybe look at changing that rather than complaining about contaminating green bins. Sometimes you have to ask why are so many people doing it.
@Melissa . Sometimes i have to ask why are so many people like you so idiotic with some of the stuff you come out with. There is no reason to be throwing used nappys into a recycling bin. People who do this are not doing it because they are unaware that it is not recyclable. They are just 100% ignorant.
And that would be a completely rhetorical question.
@Melissa O’Callaghan: I’m trying to figure out why your statement was so unpopular. I used to live in Galway city and I was charged for weight on the black bin only….and it was because of nappies and ashes from the fire that I had to pay more for my bins. I did the right thing but it cost me an extra 100 a year so I’m not surprised what others do.
Steady Paddy, I had three children in nappies and 2 at the same time and NEVER put nappies in the green bin but if I was strapped for cash then I could understand why people would, (empathy) as nappies fill your bin up in no time and weigh a ton. Families are being penalised. Maybe make environmental nappies cheaper.
So thats why panda didn’t pick the bin up. I didn’t wash the newspaper’s.
Anyone with babies, check out the Cloth Nappy Library. There are actually quite a few people using cloth and it isn’t like it used to be when yer ma was hand rinsing terries. The Cloth Nappy Library even have new born and long term loan pack available at a low cost so that you can try them out before you commit to buying. http://www.clothnappylibrary.ie/
I looked into it, 6 years ago. If they are viable why are the mid wives on the pre baby talks promoting environmental options. It’s just the same as breast feeding, it’s culturally declining (paddy, before you react I fed all my kids!) but people need help, reassuring that’s it’s not more work / difficult. Another example of cutbacks in one area having impacts elsewhere and only when you ask why is this behaviour happening that you can change the outcome and not just blame. One the subject of plastics and films. Why are the packagers allowed to use the unrecoverable plastic? Not why are people recycling badly.
You know, I was considering that babies grow out of nappies. But are there not adult ones for incontinence too? Maybe some older people get confused.
How is it that in this entire article, it wasn’t mentioned that almost all packaging that’s recyclable has an internationally recognisable recycling symbol on it? Stranger still, one of the main symbols is shown in an image on the article with no explanation of what it is.
The repak website has the examples on their “For Consumer” section.
Gráinne, the sentences leading up to the list imply that this is a list of things that should NOT go in the green bin. It’s obvious by the nature of the items themselves that they can but can you clarify it in the article please?
What about dirty books?
what about washing powder boxes ?? the symbol is there but someone said they should not be put into the green bin.
Any tips on how to get the bins washed?
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