The story
The KNRM was created on 1 May 1991 by merging the Koninklijke Noord- en Zuid-Hollandsche Redding-Maatschappij (founded November 11, 1824), called the Noord (North), and the Koninklijke Zuid-Hollandsche Maatschappij tot Redding van Schipbreukelingen (founded November 20, 1824), called the Zuid (South). Between 1824 and 2006, they answered 36358 distress calls and saved 79887 people out of distress situations.
Yearly they have about 1700 distress calls with about 3500 people saved (2008).
The KNRM also operates the Dutch Radio Medical Service (a task taken over from the Netherlands Red Cross on January 1, 1999) and provides medical advice by radio to about 900 ships each year.
Like the comparable Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which operates in the UK and Ireland, and the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service, the KNRM is entirely financed by private donations.
In November 2025 it was reported that the KNRM has commissioned the construction of thirteen new lifeboats. These boats will be built from 2026 by Frisian shipyard Dok en Scheepsbouw Woudsend BV in Woudsend and will be the largest lifeboat class operated by the KNRM.
From Wikipedia’s article on Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5