Baltimore celebrates 100 years

Baltimore RNLI is celebrating 100 years of saving lives at sea with the official naming of a new lifeboat.

As part of the station’s centenary celebrations, the lifeboat which was placed on service earlier this year will be officially named exactly 100 years on from the day the first lifeboat, The Shamrock, arrived in the West Cork coastal village.

The new Atlantic 85 lifeboat will be officially named Rita Daphne Smyth during a ceremony at the North Pier in Baltimore at 3pm on Sunday 8 September.

The new lifeboat has been funded by a generous legacy from the late Rita Daphne Smyth and replaces the station’s Atlantic 75 class lifeboat Alice and Charles.

When in 1919, the RNLI put a lifeboat in Baltimore, it was the fourth county Cork station. Since then, Baltimore RNLI lifeboats have launched more than 940 times and the crews have rescued 867 people including 280 lives saved.

Speaking ahead of Sunday, Tom Bushe, Baltimore RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, said that to receive and name a new lifeboat during the station’s 100th year celebrations was something special.

He added: “Our volunteers and the Baltimore community are delighted and excited to name our new inshore lifeboat exactly 100 years on from the day the very first lifeboat arrived at our station. We are most grateful to the late Rita Daphne Smyth for her generous legacy which has funded our lifeboat. Volunteers from the local community have been crewing a lifesaving service here for 100 years and we will be proud custodians of this new lifeboat, which will go on to rescue and save many more lives in the years ahead.”