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The Lifeboat

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The Lifeboat THE LIFEBOAT. The Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. VOL. XXVIII.—No. 303.] SEPTEMBER, 1930. [PEICE 6d. The New Dover Motor Life-boat. Inaugural Ceremony by the Prince of Wales, K.G. THE PRINCE or WALES, as President of To meet these special conditions, it the Institution, on 10th July named the was decided to re-open the Dover new Dover Motor Life-boat Sir William Station, which had been closed in 1922, Hillary, after the founder of the Institu- and to provide for it a Motor Life-boat tion. with the highest speed obtainable with- This new boat marks an important out sacrificing the essential qualities of development in Motor Life-boat con- a Life-boat, the chief of which are struction. The aim of the Institution buoyancy and stability. The original in the design and construction of Motor proposal had been for a Motor Life-boat Life-boats and their engines, which shall able to travel between 25 and 30 knots, be suitable for the work of rescuing life but it was found that, unless essential from shipwreck under all conditions, Life-boat qualities were to be sacrificed, has been, not high speed, but a great the highest speed possible was between reserve of power. It is this reserve of 17 and 18 knots. This is nearly twice power, enabling the Life-boat to main- as high as that of any other Life-boat. tain her speed in face of the worst con- The new boat has been designed by ditions of weather, which may make Mr. J. E. Barnett, O.B.E., M.I.N.A., of all the difference between success and Messrs. G. L. Watson & Co., of Glasgow, disaster at that critical moment when the Consulting Naval Architect of the a Life-boat is manoeuvring to get along- Institution, and Messrs. John Thorny- side or to get away from a wreck. croft & Co. She has been built by While there is no intention of depart- Messrs. Thornycroft at Hampton-on- ing from this as the general policy of Thames. construction, the Committee decided The keel was laid down in September, two ye,ars ago that the conditions of 1928, and the boat was completed in cross-Channel traffic made it desirable November, 1929. Early in December to provide a special and faster type of she ran her trials at the mouth of the Motor Life-boat to be stationed at Thames, and on her way down paid a Dover. In addition to the very heavy visit to Chelsea, where she was welcomed passenger-steamer traffic across the at Cadogan Pier by the Mayor of Chelsea Straits, there is now a considerable daily (Lady Phipps), President of the newly- traffic by aeroplane, maintained in all formed Chelsea Branch, Captain Basil but the worst weather. The time during Hall, E.N. (the Chairman), and Miss which an aeroplane is exposed to the Edith Place (Honorary Secretary). risk of coming down while over the sea Members of the Chelsea Branch and is very short, but once she is down in many other visitors, among them being anything but a calm sea, the time during the late Archbishop Lord Davidson and which she will remain afloat is generally Lady Davidson, went over the boat, so short that the ordinary Motor Life- which was described to them by Air boat could scarcely hope to reach the Vice-Marshal Sir Oliver Swann, a mem- casualty soon enough to rescue those on ber of the Chelsea Committee. board. After returning to Hampton for some 118 THE LIFEBOAT. (SEPTEMBER, 1930. minor modifications, she went to her in touch with the wireless stations at Station on 21st January, 1930. Lympne and Ramsgate, and with the various light-vessels in the area of the The Hull. Goodwin Sands. She is 64 feet long and 14 feet broad, She has cost £18,430, and has a crew with a maximum depth of 5 feet 1 inch. of seven men, of whom four are perma- Her displacement is 27 tons. The skin nent. She has been specially designed of the hull consists of double planking and built to deal with casualties at sea, of mahogany, each planking f inch and is not suitable for work inshore or thick, and her timbers, or ribs, are very on the Goodwin Sands. Casualties there close together, the space between being will continue to be dealt with by the from 5 to 9 inches, instead of the usual Life-boats at Ramsgate, Deal, Walmer 21 to 36 inches. The result is an un- and Hythe. usually strong and elastic boat. Her The Dover Station was established in keel is 12 inches deep and 7 inches thick. 1852, was closed from 1914 to 1919, It was cut from an oak grown in the during the war, was reopened in 1919, Tongues Wood Estate at Hawkhurst, and closed again in 1922. It then had Kent, which' was felled in 1921. Its a record of ninety-eight lives rescued length was 48 feet and its girth over from shipwreck. 9 feet. It was then approximately 130 years old. That is to say, it must have "Sir William Hillary." been planted a year or two after the It was felt that no more fitting name first Life-boat, Original, was launched could be given to this special new type at Tynemouth in 1789, and was already of Life-boat than that of the founder a flourishing tree when Sir William of the Institution, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hillary founded the Institution in 1824. William Hillary, Bt. It is peculiarly The boat has eight water-tight compart- appropriate, not only because the new ments, with steel bulkheads, and some boat represents the latest developments eighty air cases. They give her an in Life-boat construction, but because excess of buoyancy of 50 per cent, of she is stationed at Dover, our chief gate- her weight. way to the Continent; for Sir William Hillary travelled very widely in Europe, The Engines. and during the Napoleonic Wars raised She has twin screws and is driven by a force in Essex for the defence of the two engines, also designed and built by south-east coast. Messrs. Thornycroft. They are each of 375 h.p., and give her a speed of Yl\ The Inaugural Ceremony. knots. The next most powerful type of As already stated, the Prince of Wales Life-boat, the Barnett type, has two himself named the boat Sir William engines each of 80 h.p., with a speed Hillary, the ceremony taking place on of 9J knots. She carries 350 gallons of 10th July in the Wellington Dock at petrol in four tanks, and can travel 156 Dover. miles at full speed, or 198 miles at 12 The Mayor of Dover (Mr. E. Hilton knots, without refuelling. She is pro- Russell) presided, and in opening the vided with two cabins, and can carry a proceedings recalled the splendid record maximum of 200 persons—not, it is of the Life-boat Stations on the coast of hardly necessary to say, as first-class Kent—3,931 lives rescued since 1850, passengers. while eight Gold, ninety-eight Silver and She has a Line-throwing Gun, with a two Bronze Medals have been awarded range of 80 yards, an oil-spray in the by the Institution to men of the Kentish bows for use in rough water, and an Stations for gallantry in saving life. electric searchlight. She is lighted by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman electricity. She is fitted with a Marconi of the Committee of Management of the receiving and transmitting wireless tele- Institution, presented the Life-boat to phony set, with a range of over fifty the Dover Branch, and she was received miles. By means of this she can keep by Dr. J. R. W. Richardson, the SEPTEMBER. 1930.1 THE LIFEBOAT. 119 Honorary Secretary. Captain H. F. J. Civil Aviation), Lieut.-Commander S. E. Rowley, C.B.E., R.N., Chief Inspector Deacon (Civil Air Traffic Control Officer, of Life-boats, described the Life-boat, Lympne), Major Richards (Civil Air and she was dedicated by the Ven. E. H. Traffic Control Officer, Croydon), Hardcastle, M.A., Archdeacon of Canter- Brigadier Sir Hereward Wake, Bt., and bury. The vote of thanks to the Prince Lady Wake, Sir John and Lady Thorny- of Wales was proposed and seconded by croft, the Countess of Guilford (Presi- two members of the Committee of dent of the Dover Ladies' Life-boat Management, Captain the Right Hon. Guild), Mr. R. E. Knocker (Town Clerk the Earl Howe, P.C., C.B.E., V.D., of Dover and Registrar of the Cinque R.N.V.R., and Captain G. C. Holloway, Ports), Sir Edmund Davis, Mr. Rutley O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R. The vote of Mowll (Register of Dover Harbour), thanks to the Mayor was proposed by Captain Iron (Harbour Master, Dover), Major the Right Hon. Sir Philip Sassoon, Canon Elnor (Vicar of Dover), Dr. Bt., G.B.E., C.M.G., M.P., President of C. A. Preston-Hillary (great-great- the Folkestone and Hythe Branches, grandson of Sir William Hillary and and seconded by CoJoneJ the Master of Deputy Chairman of the Nottingham Sempill. and District Branch), Miss Davidson (Honorary Secretary of the Dover Representatives of Foreign Life-boat Services. Ladies' Life-boat Guild), Vice-Presidents Foreign Life-boat Societies were repre- and Members of the Committee of sented by Vice-Admiral Lacaze, Presi- Management, representatives of Life- dent, and Commandant Le Verger, boat Stations, Financial Branches and Secretary of La Societe Centrale de Ladies' Life-boat Guilds in Kent and Sauvetage des Naufrages, Mr.
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