Today HM Coastguard is a world leader in maritime search and rescue. Looking back 200 years, the goods, which now travel by road, were carried by hundreds of small ships. Year in year out dozens of ships and hundreds of lives were lost within sight of the coast. Public shock and dismay at the tragedies drove forward the creation of national life saving organisations. Though its beginnings lie in those decades HM Coastguard originated not to meet the dangers of the seas but to combat a pernicious threat to the country’s economy and security - smuggling.

Created to end smuggling, as a disciplined coastal force the Preventive Water Guard quickly acquired extra duties. In the 1820s officers were instructed to take responsibility at shipwrecks to safeguard cargoes and vessels from looters. In addition boatmen were to train with life saving equipment, supplied by the Board of Ordnance.

In 1923 the Coastguard, placed under the Board of Trade, was dedicated to life saving, salvage from wreck and administration of the foreshore. The new force was sanctioned by the Coastguard Act (1925). The early Coastguard had been caught between the demands of different government departments, but change could now focus on the needs of seafarers, especially the scope for new technology to improve both safety and rescues.

The RNLI's gold medal for gallantry was awarded first in 1824 to Charles Fremantle of the Lymington Coastguard for swimming with a line to rescue crew from the 'Carl Jean' ashore near Christchurch. Like fishermen and seamen around the coast, Fremantle seized whatever was available to save the lives of fellow seafarers.

From 1831 the Admiralty had fostered the Coastguard as a naval reserve. However, there were criticisms of the 2,300 Coastguards who joined naval ships in 1854 to combat Russia in the Crimea. While character and discipline were praised many were thought too old and out of touch with modern warships. The Admiralty responded by gaining control of the Coastguard and imposing training, with sea time, suitable for a naval reserve.

Coastguards saved life not only with Life Saving Apparatus (LSA) but also by braving the seas in their own boats and as lifeboat crews. The story of their heroism has yet to be told.

While radio communication was being developed in the 1890s, merchant and naval ships still depended on visual signalling. Coastguards were expected to read/send 18 words per minute with semaphore flags and 10 with a flashing lamp, the new acetylene fuel extended visibility to 12 miles. By the First World War telephone lines linked coastal stations and Coastguards were operating wireless with ranges from 100 to 1,000 miles.

Efficiency drives in the 1990s made Her Majesty's Coastguard a government executive agency, then in 1998 the Marine Safety Agency and the Coastguard Agency were joined to become the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).