High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A Volunteer Life Brigade is a search and rescue organisation which assists HM Coastguard in the United Kingdom in coastal emergencies. There are only a few Volunteer Life Brigades left in the United Kingdom, with most being replaced by Auxiliary Coastguard teams.On 24 November 1864, at Tynemouth, North East England, a gale at sea caught out many vessels, including a schooner called "Friendship" and a passenger steamer called "Stanley". These vessels tried to make it into the River Tyne for shelter, but were driven ashore onto the infamous Black Middens at the mouth of the Tyne.