The RNLI's David Morgan: "Safety is our permanent priority"

In 1998, the mostly volunteer crews from the UK's 222 lifeboat stations launched 5,119 times, saved 951 lives, brought 937 at-risk people ashore and gave assistance to a further 3,222.

The good news is that figures are continuing to fall since peaking at about 6000 launches in 1995.

The charity-funded RNLI's actual birthday is on 4 March, but the lifeboat service will launch its 175th anniversary year at the Boat Show in London next week.

Lifeboat crews used to rely on muscle-power

The RNLI was founded by Sir William Hillary in 1824 and since then is estimated to have saved up to 132,000 lives and brought more than one million people to safety.

Speaking from the organisation's headquarters in Poole, Dorset, RNLI engineering chief David Morgan said that the UK's lifeboats would keep evolving to provide a better rescue service.

"I think that the focus will be permanently on safety, but I also think we'll be going a bit quicker and keeping the boats simpler, because we have to be very conscious of the training load on the boat's crew," he said.

"If you look back over the history of the RNLI, the changes are really in the speed, the navigation equipment and the whole design process.

"Ninety years ago we got the first engine in a lifeboat and 60 years ago we went from the eight knots of those days to 18 knots. And now of course we have 24-knot lifeboats.

"Getting the boat to the right place at the right time is also a critical factor. 175 years ago the boats just went as far as they could see. It wasn't until 1930 we got the first radio and 1960 the first radar.

"Now we have the latest equipment to make the life of the lifeboatman as simple as possible so that when he gets to you he doesn't have to worry about anything but the job he has to do."