Rescue Buoys

No, not another post about this week’s hot boy band from Korea (although maybe we should copyright it.) As you might guess, this is a post that throws waaaayyy back, well into World War two. If you have the slightest inkling of what those horrific days were like, then you’ll be well aware of some of the situations that the fighters had to endure. Many were on the ground, many were pilots and many were sailors. Overall, an estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, or about 3% of the 2.3 billion (est.) people that comprised the global population in 1940. (Your editor’s father was involved in the second World war, so these kinds of finds and remembrances are still of importance to many.)

But, some fighters miraculously managed to survive and, recently, we’ve just learned about a little-known technology that helped. Britain and Europe built floating “cubicles” with food, air, warm clothing that could be submerged, but just enough of these would float to the surface – painted a bright yellow – so that they could be retrieved by the Allied forces. Known as Rescue Buoys, or, alternately, Floating Hotels they saved innumerable lives. A submarine rescue buoy is a floating buoy, attached to a submarine and released in the event of a serious accident or sinking. The buoy remains attached to the submarine by a cable. Once on the surface it can indicate to rescuers the position of the submarine, and may include a telephone for communication with the trapped submariners. Watch the video above to learn more about this little-known bit of history. (Be sure to turn on closed captions.)

After the war, most of these Rescue Buoys were discarded, but some also washed ashore and were simply ignored. Happily, there are historically-oriented individuals who recognized the work that these devices performed during the war and have been working hard to bring them back to life. The buoy above is located in Vlieland is a municipality and island in the northern Netherlands. Main image courtesy of the YouTube authors.