Bezoek aan eenige reddingstations van de Noord- en Zuid-Hollandsche Reddingmaatschappij

Summary

Documentary about the lifeboats and rescue activities of the Noord- en Zuid-Hollandsche Redding-Maatschappij.

The documentary looks at two of the rescue stations of the Noord- en Zuid-Hollandsche Redding-Maatschappij: one in Friesland’s Hindeloopen, and the Midsland station on Terschelling. The images show the launch of a rowing lifeboat in Hindeloopen, and of Terschelling’s motorized lifeboat ‘Brandaris', named after the famous lighthouse.

Aboard the Brandaris (which, the film points out, had already saved more than two hundred lives) are Captain Jan Cupido and Daniel Goedkoop, the builder of the boat. We then see how the Brandaris volunteers carried out their rescue work on behalf of the American freighter West-Aleta, which sank off the coast of Terschelling on February 12, 1920. Forty-seven crew members were rescued. On October 23, 1921, the Brandaris itself sank during a heavy storm, killing four of the rescue workers.