THE LIFE-BOAT the Journal of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution
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THE LIFE-BOAT The Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution VOL. XXXII APRIL, 1949 No. 349 THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET 156 Motor Life-boats 1 Harbour Pulling Life-boat LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Life-boat Service in 1824 to March 31st, 1949 - 76,400 As the last of the sailing life-boats was a motor, the second boat at Whiiby, used replaced by a motor life-boat on the 12th only in the harbour entrance, will be of December, 1948, the term motor life- called "the harbour pulling life-boat." boat will no longer be used. " Life-boat" In this number of the journal "motor will mean "motor life-boat." life-boat" is used in the accounts of The one boat remaining which has not services up to the end of 1948. The Last of the Sailing Life-boats AT half-past eight in the morning of Institution from Mr. Charles Carr Sunday, the 12th of December, 1948, a Ashley, who died in 1906, leaving new motor life-boat, the St. Albans, £65,000 to provide and endow five arrived at New Quay, Cardigan, from life-boats.* She was built in 1907 and the building yard at Cowes, after one had spent her forty-one years at New of the stormiest passages which a life- Quay. There she was launched on boat has ever had from the building service 18 times and rescued 10 lives. yard to her station. She replaced the The first of all life-boats, the Original, last of the pulling and sailing life-boats built at South Shields in 1789, had in the Institution's fleet. only oars. The first sailing life-boat The St. Albans is a Liverpool boat, was built by the London coachbuilder 35 feet 6 inches long, with a beam of Lionel Lukin for the Suffolk Humane 10 feet 8 inches, and is driven by two Society in 1807, so that sailing life-boats 18-h.p. engines. She carries a crew of have served on our coasts for 141 years. eight, and with gear and crew on board When the St. Albans arrived at New weighs 8J tons. She is a gift to the Quay the William Cantrell Ashley Institution from the people of St. sailed out to meet her and the two boats Albans. were filmed by the B.B.C's television The last sailing life-boat, which that unit. They were the first life-boats to day came to the end of her service, was be televised. the William Cantrell Ashley. She was The William Cantrell Ashley has been a Liverpool boat, 35 feet long with presented by the Institution to the 10 feet beam. She was rigged with jib, Outward Bound Sea School at Aber- fore lug and mizzen. and had twelve dovey, and on the morning of the 25th oars. She carried a crew of fifteen^ and of February she sailed from New Quay with crew and gear on board weighed * A full account of this legacy was pnblUhed in MM just over 5 J tons, She was a gift to the last issue of The Life-tio^t. A 266 THE LIFE-BOAT [APRIL, 1949 for the last time manned by some of time they returned with the steamer's her old crew and by members of the whole crew. committee of the New Quay station. "In a November gale in 1919 off At sea she met the school's ketch Land's End a naval launch was flung Garibaldi, and a crew of the boys of on the rocks, broke into pieces, and the school took her over and sailed her in a few minutes had disappeared, tq Aberdovey. The school wrote to leaving four of her men clinging to the the Institution: rocks. There the Sennen Cove life- boat found them. Her coxswain took " We are delighted with the life-boat. her right through a gap in the reef, Sailing her to Aberdovey exhibited her where a single mistake would have splendid qualities. She is going to be destroyed her, and rescued all the men. our most proud possession." " In another November gale in recent years the coxswain at Moelfre, Anglesey, "Exploits of the Old Sailing Life-boats" found a wreck sinking. He sailed his life-boat right on to her deck, and seized On the evening of the day after her men. But the life-boat had had the St. Albans arrived at New Quay, three holes broken in her. Full of the secretary of the Institution, Colonel water, she beat home against the gale A. D. Burnett Brown, M.C., T.D.. M.A., all through the night, and arrived with broadcast a farewell to the sailing life- two men on board dead, and her cox- boats in a news talk in the Home swain temporarily, but completely, Service programme of the B.B.C. blind. " For over a- century the old pulling " In those old life-boats there was not and sailing life-boats have braved the only danger and exposure, but often worst of the weather round our coasts. terrible toil. Once in the open sea There is not a year, in those hundred they could set their sails, but to drive years, without an exploit of their them through the surf, and again at gallantry. the most dangerous moment of their "There was a scene at the famous task, when they came alongside the Cromer station in 1917 which not one wreck, their crews had only the strength of those who saw it will ever forget. of their own bodies at the oars. The life-boat's crew were old men—for "From that toil the engines of the the younger men had joined the Navy. motor life-boats have freed the crews. They came back with a rescued crew, But do not think that the dangers are exhausted after their long struggle. less. The motor life-boats can travel Then they put out again to a second further. They can come sooner to steamer. In the blaze of searchlights the rescue. They can manoeuvre much they could be seen at their oars, some- more swiftly when they approach the times with the life-boat standing on wreck. But they can take bigger risks. end, next moment buried in the seas. And they do take them. Less than They fought on until five of their oars two years ago all the men of another were broken, and three washed away; Welsh crew, from The Mumbles, and then the life-boat herself was flung lost their lives when their motor life- back on the beach. More oars were boat capsized in a hurricane. So the fetched; once more the weary men work goes on, with a greater hope of rowed her through the surf; and this rescuing life. But the dangers remain." Miniature Life-boat Medals THE Institution is issuing to living rescuing an exhausted man from the holders of its gold, silver and bronze sea. On the other side the holder's medals, miniature reproductions of name and the date of the award will their medals. These miniatures will be inscribed. There will be two tvpes be half the size of the originals. They of fastening, a stud to fit into the will have on them the reverse of j buttonhole in a coat lapel, or a safety- the originals, three men in a life-boat i pin. APIUL, I'J49| THE LIFE-BOAT 267 December Passage The Journey of the St. Albans from Cowes to New Quay By Commander E. W. Middleton, V.R.D., R.N.V.R., Western District Inspector of Life-boats BY some unfortunate chance, new life- crew and coastguard. This friendly boats seem to make a habit of being welcome, and obvious desire to make ready for delivery during the winter things as easy as possible, is one of the months. But one can experience good most pleasant features of these coastal weather in winter and bad weather in passages, and one that shows that the summer. The main disadvantage of brotherhood of the sea is still a very winter seafaring is the lack of daylight, real thing. which usually means leaving in the The weather forecast being reason- dark and arriving in the dark. The ably good we decided to push on, so passage of the St. Albans was chiefly we refuelled, had a hot meal, and sailed remarkable for the persistent gales. again at ten o'clock that night. Her crew for the passage consisted of Portland Race was kind, and there Coxswain Arden Evans, Motor Me- was nothing like as much sea off the chanic Gwilym Davies and Life-boat- Bill as we expected. We passed the men Meurig Lewis and Eric Swan. As lighthouse within a few boat's lengths, district inspector, I was in command, in order to keep inside the Race, and and Mr. Ireland, the district engineer commenced the long plug across West was in charge of the machinery. Bay. There was quite a big sea run- ning, but not a lot of wind, for the first From Cowes on a Friday few hours. Sleep is virtually impossible We left Cowes on the morning of in a boat of this size, and after an hour Friday, the 3rd of December; not a or two the cold begins to get you. popular day of the week for sailing; About one in the morning we opened and the crew were inclined to blame some tins of self-heating soup and were this for the weather we afterwards ex- more than grateful for the steaming perienced.