Hundreds are expected to flock to Historic Dockyard Chatham this weekend as they launch an exhibition to commemorate 200 years of the RNLI.
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00:00 200 years of history of the RNLI saving lives not only across Kent but across the UK.
00:09 And with more than 100,000 lives saved and plenty of stories to tell, it's all preserved
00:14 here at an exhibition hosted by the Historic Dockyard in Chatham.
00:19 This weekend they're opening a gallery to commemorate the RNLI's 200th birthday to look
00:24 back at the triumphs and the tragedies.
00:28 To look at the different boats used over the years, the changes in technology over the
00:32 centuries and the people behind the RNLI.
00:36 The RNLI is such an institution in the UK and Ireland so to be able to facilitate the
00:42 celebration of this 200 year anniversary has been really important and as I say they're
00:46 a really long standing partner of ours.
00:48 This has been the home of the Historic Lifeboat Collection since the mid 90s.
00:52 So when they talked to us about doing a 200 year exhibition we jumped at the chance really.
00:59 There are 10 RNLI stations in Kent and today crew members from the Gravesend station looked
01:05 back at their years dedicated to the service.
01:08 The 200 celebrations we're actually celebrating the work of our predecessors and we want to
01:13 commemorate the work that went into the 200 years but we also want to inspire people today
01:20 to help out the RNLI either by volunteering in an operational role or a fundraising role.
01:25 We're aware of when it started and how it started but looking at all the different artefacts
01:29 and the people that have been crewed before us and the lives that have been saved by people
01:32 who were crewed before us really does blow your mind.
01:34 I would like to think that as much as we can get to people as quick as we can now and identify
01:40 where they are that will improve.
01:42 So we get there even faster, we locate them even faster so they spend less time in the
01:47 water and we become even more efficient than we are today.
01:51 And in the past century crews across Kent braved the choppy waters to dodge bombs and
01:56 bullets in attempts to save stranded troops cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk.
02:02 This became known as Operation Dynamo.
02:05 So in 1940, 19 lifeboats including Ramsgate and Margate went out to help evacuate the
02:10 beaches of Dunkirk and on display we have the signal lamp from one of those lifeboats
02:15 which you can clearly see the bullet holes in it.
02:17 So it's a real time capsule of that event but also to recognise the bravery of the crews
02:23 that went out there.
02:25 This gives you an idea of how much this service has changed in the past 200 years.
02:30 These are the life jackets we all know and we're all familiar with but they didn't always
02:34 look this way.
02:35 In fact they started off looking completely different like this.
02:38 They were made of cork back in the day and then they started making them from plant fibre
02:43 and now it's something like this much more sturdy.
02:46 But it makes you think how much more this service could change in years to come.
02:51 The exhibition will be available from Saturday up until the start of September.
02:56 Sophia Akin for KMTV.
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