Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Brixham born and bred, and always fascinated by boats, it seemed inevitable that sailing and the sea would be part of Mark Criddle's life.

"I'd always been interested in getting involved with the lifeboat", Mark explains.

"Growing up here you couldn't really avoid it - or the maroon rocket calls to the lifeboat men!"

As a boy, Mark used to help land the fishing boats, and his uncle being a fisherman encouraged his interest as well.

It was his uncle who bought him his first boat for his 10th birthday, which he spent hours doing up.

Mark in his hometown of Brixham, by the harbour

After leaving school and starting work as a milkman, Mark would pester the lifeboat men in the town to let him get involved.

They told him to go and speak to the coxswain, and Mark was eventually given a chance to start as a volunteer.

"At first you would just work in the boathouse, helping to lower the gear whilst everyone else went out in the boat.

"But it was a chance to prove your enthusiasm and reliability."

After nearly 20 years of working hard and gaining experience, Mark worked his way up through the ranks, becoming the mechanic for the lifeboat and then eventually coxswain.

"It was never really my ambition to go full time, but through being the mechanic I got to be more involved to where my real interest lay - in driving the boat.

"So it was a natural progression to become coxswain."

There are 28 members of the crew at the moment, most of whom are volunteers, with Mark and the current mechanic Mathew Tyler being the only full time members.

Part of Mark's responsibility is the choice of crew, which can be of great importance when they get a call - like the night of the 13 January 2008.

Image from the rescue helicopter from 13 January

The Ice Prince

On that Sunday night, Mark and his crew were involved in one of their biggest tests so far.

"The initial report we got was that a cargo ship had a list, which is not really that unusual", describes Mark.

"We've had several jobs like that before, cargo can often shift in bad weather causing the ships to list.

"It soon became clear that it was more serious than we originally thought and after the first 30 minutes out at sea, we had to get our thinking caps on and start figuring out who was going to do what."

The Ice Prince, which was a 6,395 gross tonne vessel, now had a list of 45 degrees and had lost all power.

The coastguard rescue helicopter managed to winch 12 of the crew to safety, but there were still eight men left on board, including the captain, when the decision was made to abandon ship at around 10pm.

It was then down to Mark and the Torbay lifeboat, assisted by the RNLI's Salcombe lifeboat, to rescue the men left on board.

In severe gale force 9 winds, Mark and his crew made over 50 runs alongside the rolling, powerless cargo ship to get into a position where the remaining Ice Prince crew had to be persuaded to jump from their ship onto the lifeboat.

The lifeboat station in Brixham on a calmer day

"It's the ultimate job for a lifeboat. In those conditions, against a ship of that size, you are always going to come off worse if something goes wrong.

"However our boat performed better than I ever could have hoped - and we would have no fears about testing the boat in those circumstances again."

It took nearly two hours to rescue the eight men, in atrocious conditions, but the bravery of all the men has been recognised with awards from the RNLI, including for Mark a Silver Medal for Gallantry for his leadership and outstanding seamanship.

"That's the best thing about this job. You can really make a difference to people's lives. That night, with our actions, we made a real difference to the lives of those eight men.

"It can be a bit of a burden - it is 24/7, it becomes engrained in your life. Even when I'm not at the station, you are never off duty.

"But I would always want to be involved with the lifeboats.

"It's more than just a job for me - it's a way of life."