National Sea Rescue Institute: The urgent need for a sea rescue organisation in South Africa was highlighted in 1966 when 17 fishermen drowned after three fishing boats sank in a terrible storm near Still Bay. Due to the lack of a rescue service there was no help for them other than from a fishing boat that managed to weather the storm and save a single crewman from the three boats that sank.
Following this incident, Miss Pattie Price (whose own life had been saved by the RNLI lifeboat in the British Channel) began a committed letter-writing campaign to motivate the formation of a sea rescue organisation. Captain Bob Deacon and Mr Ray Lant were the first volunteers to respond to this call. The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) was established in 1967 when it acquired its first rescue craft -- a 4.7m inflatable boat called Snoopy donated by the Society of Master Mariners.
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