Mayday! Mayday!

A pitch black night in a winter Atlantic storm. A stricken trawler, her cold and frightened crew struggling to keep her afloat a little longer, knowing that before long she will go down.

For these men, it is certain death: a death that has been the lot of generations of fishermen before them.

Then out of the night comes the drone of helicopter blades and the searching eye of the spotlight.

On board, the helicopter crew prepares to rescue the beleaguered fishermen.

This requires immense skill and vast reservoirs of raw, physical courage.

It means being lowered on a winch from the safety of the helicopter into the teeth of a Force 11 gale and sheets of blinding rain in order to manoeuvre towards the deck of the sinking boat. And it has to be done as many times as there are men to save.

The people who do this work are not cut from an average cloth.

This book recalls and celebrates twelve cases where their courage, resourcefulness and persistence saved human lives that would otherwise have certainly been lost.

The helicopter crews are not daredevils, indifferent to danger. On the contrary, they are consummate professionals, calculating the odds, facing the dangers and calmly getting the job done.

These are tales of life and death and of the brave men and women who are ready on a daily basis to put their lives on the line for their fellow citizens.