Willie Melville’s book, The Oban Lifeboat Story, sells 120 copies in 5 days
published this on 12:02 am, Saturday, 18th July, 2009News| Rescue | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
Launched on Thursday evening (16th July) in Waterstones Bookshop in Oban, Willie Melville – himself a member of the crew of the current Lifeboat – has seen his first book, The Oban Lifeboat Story, return very lively sales in its first week.
He’s delighted about the early sales figures and says that the RNLI should be pleased too. How come? Willie is donating all profits from the book to the Oban Lifeboat. That says a lot about how he feels about the job he and his fellow volunteers do on Scotland’s busiest Lifeboat.
Oban FMs Coll MacDougall interviewed Willie this morning (17th July) and that too should boost sales.
Willie thinks he’s sub-consciously been gathering material for his book since the first boat arrived in Oban – he was on the steering committee that set up the Station in 1972. He has also spent hours pouring over the boats’ 36 years worth of service returns – well in excess of 1,000 launches – chats with the Crew to mine their memories and drawing on his own experience.
To date there have been 4 classes of Lifeboat in Oban:
- a MacLachlan Inshore LB
- a 42 ft. Watson
- a 33 ft. Brede
- the present 14 metre Trent – the Mora Edith MacDonald.
Among his many and varied white knuckle experiences on shouts, the most memorable were probably the births on board – of no fewer than 3 babies: in 1997, 2001 and 2005.
Part of what makes the Oban Lifeboat the busiest in the country is what are called ‘MedEvacs’ – medical evacuations. With Oban’s position commanding access to so many of the Argyll islands, the Lifeboat is often called in as the fastest and most efficient route to help for those in medical need. Indeed its crew has a doctor in its number, often a hugely valuable resource.
How did he get into this way of life – giving time and risking life to bring, as all lifeboatmen do, his skills and experience to helping boats and people in distress? Membership of a Lifeboat crew is not in his family, so it’s not an inherited dedication.
Willie says that it came straight from his love of the sea and accelerated when he got the chance to join the crew of the newly-formed Station at Helensburgh in 1963.
The greatest reward of the job for him is ‘the great gratitude shown by the people we pick up’. When you think of the circumstances in which people need the services of a Lifeboat, the sight of that flaring bow carving through the water must be something you hardly dare to trust is real.
This is a book by a skilled, experienced insider about a service to which he remains passionately committed and which the entire nation holds as an emblem of selflessness in care for one’s fellow man.
It is also a book designed in its sales to support the service it records. Depending on where you are and what is most convenient, you can get the book from Waterstones in Oban, online from Amazon – or you could make it personal and pick it up from the Oban Lifeboat Station on the South Pier or direct from Willie Meville himself at £11.93 (£9.99 plus £1.94 Post & Packaging). Contact him:
- by phone on: 01631 562778
- by email at: treshnish3@hotmail.co.uk
- by post at: Treshnish, Glenmore Road, Oban PA34 4PG
The photograph above shows Willie Melville at St Paul’s in London. We have to read the book to find out what this was about – and we’ve just ordered it. But we won’t be telling you. Find out for yourself – the same way as us. Details above.
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