Andy Smith passed away last Friday, 7th May at the age of 92.

One of my earliest memories was the flurry of activity in the house when the thump of a maroon was heard, usually in bad weather and often at night. Andy (Da) would get his oilskins on and get ready to head down to the pier in his van once the Coxswain John Robert Nicolson had arrived from Skarvataing on his pushbike.

Da was a member of the Aith lifeboat crew for 20 years across the 50's, 60's and 70s. He had been one of the men that fetched the brand new John & Frances McFarlane from the Thames in London in 1961 following her exhibition at the Earls Court Boat show. 

During his lifeboat service he was involved in saving 31 lives, including the call to the Aberdeen Trawler Juniper in 1967 when she was wrecked in a South East gale on Papa Stour. As usual he was reluctant to say much about the dangers involved, but from what I can piece together he was the Bowman. Part of that role was to "surge" one of the ropes they used to keep contact, as the lifeboat rose and fell, maybe as much as 18 feet, on the waves washing over both vessels. 

This had to be done when they were struggling to repeatedly get close enough alongside for each of the 12 trawler crew to make their individual leap to safety. The lifeboat was substantially damaged in the rescue, but all the Junipers crew were saved.

Da was always very proud of his service, the comradeship with the other volunteers and understood the RNLI's significance and direct value to seafarers and seafaring communities.

Thankyou for visiting this page, and thankyou for any support you can give to the Aith Lifeboat and the RNLI.

John Smith (son)