Watch our video tour of Sheffield museum's new exhibition looking at 200-year story of coastguards

And, as the West Bar museum’s curator Holly Gosling pointed out on our Star Retro Facebook Live tour of its new exhibition, people from places that aren’t near the coast get into trouble at sea because they often don’t have as much experience.

Holly said that the museum was approached by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to put together the exhibition to celebrate the 200th anniversary of HM Coastguard.

They managed to pull together an impressive display in a really short time. The exhibition only opened on Friday and will be on view for at least a year.

Holly explained that the NESM has linked up with the National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC) in Falmouth, who have their own version of the exhibition.

That's a first for both museums.

She said that the origins of the coastguard service lie in combating smuggling. Amazingly, the dangerous job was undertaken by volunteers.

A barrel on display has little portholes, so that children can have a look to see what they can spot inside.

See self-heating soup!

A swordstick on show was used by the early coastguards to discover where hidden compartments were in the barrels they examined for contraband – as well as for fighting on occasion, explained Holly.

Many of the exhibits are from the coastguard service collection. If you’ve ever wanted to see a real foghorn, there’s one on show!

Other fascinating items include a horse-drawn rocket cart that was used to fire rockets with rope lines attached to them on to ships in trouble. Another early way of getting the ropes where they needed to go looks just like a mini cannon.

Thankfully, a clever Dutchman called Augustus Schermuly invented a special pistol to do the job in a far less cumbersome way.

It was fascinating to learn that the famous breeches buoy, a rescue device designed to get people off shipwrecks, is so called because it’s basically something like a pair of shorts attached to ropes and a flotation device.

Captain George Manby’s innovation may be simple but it has saved many lives. There is a vintage film of one in action.

The amazing ingenuity also extended to feeding people at sea. A tin of soup on show has a cordite fuse on top that could be lit in order to heat it up.

The lives of two coastguards whose stories have never been told before were researched for the exhibition. Both were former sailors who went to sea aged only 10 to 12.

One, Harry Cowling, was so determined to save lives that he once stripped naked in February to swim out to a wreck in a last-ditch attempt to get people ashore. Somehow, both rescued and rescuer survived.

He encapsulates the amazing bravery of the coastguards and the RNLI.

Guarding the Coast is well worth a visit and there’s plenty of hands-on fun for young visitors.

Find out more at www.visitnesm.org.uk/guardingthecoast

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