Koninklijke Nederlandse Redding Maatschappij

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Flag of KNRM

Lifeboat (Reddingboot) Koos van Messel from IJmuiden station

Unimog S404.0 of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Redding Maatschappij

The Koninklijke Nederlandse Redding Maatschappij (KNRM) is the Dutch voluntary organization tasked with saving lives at sea along the Dutch coast of the North Sea, Wadden Sea and on the IJsselmeer. For that purpose, it maintains 39 stations from which its lifeboats operate. Its headquarters have been in IJmuiden since 1996. In English, the name translates to "Royal Netherlands Rescue Society."

The KNRM was created May 22, 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).

The KNRM also operates the Dutch Radio Medical Service (a task taken over from the Dutch Red Cross on January 1, 1999) which provides about 700 medical advices to ships via radio each year.

Like the comparable British Royal National Lifeboat Institution and German Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger organizations, the KNRM is entirely financed by private donations.