The Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution ( Dutch: '' Koninklijke Nederlandse Redding Maatschappij'', abbreviated: ''KNRM'') is the voluntary organization in the Netherlands tasked with saving lives at sea. For that purpose, it maintains 45 lifeboat stations along the Dutch coast of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

and

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( ; ; or ; ; ; ) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of low-lying Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tida ...

and on the

IJsselmeer The IJsselmeer (; , ), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed-off freshwater lake in the central Netherlands bordering the Provinces of the Netherlands, provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of with a ...

. It maintains 78 boats ranging from small boat to 21 meter long RHIBs. It also provides lifeguard services at some beaches on the Frisian Islands in the Waddensea, and the beach of Wassenaar. Its headquarters have been in

IJmuiden n IJ (digraph) and that should remain the only places where they are used. > IJmuiden () is a port town in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality of Velsen which lies mainly to the south-ea ...

since 1996.

History

The KNRM was created on 1 May 1991 by merging the Koninklijke Noord- en Zuid-Hollandsche Redding-Maatschappij (founded November 11, 1824), called the ''Noord'' (North), and the Koninklijke Zuid-Hollandsche Maatschappij tot Redding van Schipbreukelingen (founded November 20, 1824), called the ''Zuid'' (South). Between 1824 and 2006, they answered 36358 distress calls and saved 79887 people out of distress situations. Yearly they have about 1700 distress calls with about 3500 people saved (2008). The KNRM also operates the Dutch Radio Medical Service (a task taken over from the Netherlands Red Cross on January 1, 1999) and provides medical advice by radio to about 900 ships each year. Like the comparable

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on s ...

, which operates in the UK and Ireland, and the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service, the KNRM is entirely financed by private donations.

Famous lifeboat-saviors

* Dorus Rijkers

Famous rescues

* Rescue of the Renown

Citations

External links

Official site (Dutch)

Official site (English)

Locations Lifeboat Stations KNRM in Google Earth
{{Authority control Sea rescue organizations Transport in the Netherlands Organisations based in North Holland Organisations based in the Netherlands with royal patronage Velsen 1991 establishments in the Netherlands Organizations established in 1991

History

Famous lifeboat-saviors

Famous rescues

See also

Citations

External links