Who are

Mumbles Coastguard?

Mumbles Coastguard Rescue Team is part of the U.K.'s Coastguard Rescue Service, the volunteer wing of Her Majesty's Coastguard, an Agency of the U.K.'s Department of Transport.

The team is made up from 12 local volunteers that are fully trained and able to respond, 24Hrs a day, every day, to maritime and coastal emergencies.

History of the Coastguard

In 1809 the Preventative Water Guard was established and can be regarded as the immediate ancestor of HM Coastguard. Its primary objective was to prevent smuggling, but it was also responsible for giving assistance to shipwrecks. Each Water Guard station was issued with Manby’s Mortar, which was invented by Captain George William Manby. The mortar fired a shot with a line attached from the shore to the wrecked ship and was used for many years.

In 1821 a committee of enquiry recommended that responsibility for the Preventative Water Guard be transferred to the Board of Customs. The Treasury agreed, and in a Minute dated 15 January 1822, directed that the preventative services, which consisted of the Preventative Water Guard, cruisers, and Riding Officers should be placed under the authority of the Board of Customs and in future should be named the Coast Guard.

In 1829 the first Coast Guard instructions were published and dealt with discipline and directions for carrying out preventative duties. They also stipulated that when a wreck took place, the Coast Guard was responsible for taking all possible action to save lives, to take charge of the vessel and to protect property.

Her Majesty's Coastguard became a government executive agency in the 1990's, and then combined with  the Marine Safety Agency in 1998 to become the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

Statutory Duty:

H.M Coastguard has a statutory duty under the Coastguard Act 1925 for:

The Initiation, coordination, mobilisation, organisation and  tasking of adequate resources to persons at risk of injury or death at sea, on the cliffs and coastline of the United Kingdom.

The U.K. Search & Rescue Region is over 1.25 million square nautical miles of sea and over 10.5 thousand nautical miles of coastline. 

H.M. Coastguard's Coastguard Rescue Service

The C.R.S. consists of around 3500 officers in 362 teams strategically placed around the coast. The teams are arranged in Sectors and each sector is managed by a full time Coastguard known as the Sector Manager. In the Gower Sector there are 6 Rescue Teams, other Sectors may have more depending on the local arrangements, coastline, islands etc.

The Mumbles Coastguard Rescue Team is made up of 12 Volunteers with a Station Officer and Deputy Station Officer responsible for day to day operations.

The Team's members are entitled Coastguard Rescue Officers or CROs for short. Each Officer is fully trained in the standard Coastguard procedures and will also be fully trained in any specialised rescue techinques that their team are required to operate. Each CRO is trained in Land Search management as well as Communications and First Aid.

The Mumbles team are a specialist Rope Rescue team and are equipped with the latest kit to rescue people from heights. Depending on the emergency, the Mumbles Team may be called to assist any other team in the Gower Sector or further afield as H.M. Coastguard are Category 1 responders.  The team has been despatched to many inland incidents including the Gloucester floods and Glanrhyd Train disaster as well as dealing with snow, ice and local flooding.