A Brief History of the RNLI

Prior to formation of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) most rescues were undertaken by the Coastguard and local boatmen. However, there were about 30 boats built from 1780 but these were privately financed, not regularly crewed and many soon fell into disrepair.

One boat was located at Plymouth and another at Penzance in 1802.

In 1822 the RN Brig HMS Racecourse was wrecked on rocks in the IOM and 3 local boatmen were drowned attempting a rescue along with 6 sailors. This led William Hillary, a Yorkshire Quaker to resolve to set up an adequate national rescue service.

In March 1824 he convened a meeting at the London Tavern where he set up the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (or the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwrecks), with the following aims:
• Make awards of medals for bravery in sea rescues
• Install rocket lines around the coast
• Provide adequate lifeboats by an improved and standard design

This incidentally was 10 years before slavery was abolished in Great Britain.

The Looe Lifeboat Service

One of the earliest recorded incidents at Looe was in 1824 when a boatman saved 7 people in Whitsand Bay when the ship Hamione was lost.

Numerous other rescues took place until in 1865 the loss of the Renovatio with all hands lost attempting to save a local Crabber, matters were brought to a head to establish a lifeboat service in Looe.
In March 1866 Sir John Willoughby presented the RNLI with £420 from families in Oxfordshire to allocate a lifeboat for Looe. This was on condition that the Looe townspeople provided a boathouse for £220 and maintained it for £35 per annum.
With the assistance of the Buller family the boathouse was constructed adjacent to the coastguard building on the seafront. Because of its prominent position it was perhaps unusually ornamental and was constructed with a tower containing a reading room on the 1st floor. Here a light was kept burning at night until a lamp standard was established on the Banjo pier.

On 28th December 1866 the new lifeboat was delivered, free of charge by GWR, to Liskeard station then drawn on a carriage of 10 horses to Looe the same day. It is said that she made her mark on Looe before entering service by damaging properties in Fore Street with her masts and demolishing drainpipes with her carriage. Eventually she was removed from her carriage and drawn on runners to the boathouse where she was duly named The Oxfordshire.

The boat was a double ender 32’ 6” x 7’ 6” and built by Woolf at Shadwell on the London banks of the Thames. By virtue of airtight air boxes fore and aft, a heavy keel and buoyant gunwales she was self righting.
The boat successfully completed her trials and on 5th January performed her first service. A fishing boat, The Emerlyne of Plymouth was reported in distress. The Oxfordshire was launched but before she could reach the stricken boat it capsized with the loss of all 6 crew.

The Oxfordshire continued in service until August 1881. During this period 14 lives were saved. At that time subscribers of the popular boys weekly paper The Boys Own had raised £1,200 which financed 2 new lifeboats. One for Poole and one for Looe.
The Boys Own No.1 was again build by Woolf at Shadwell and was a similar design to the Oxfordshire but 2’ longer and 6” wider. Next day she was taken out by the crew in rough weather when they expressed their satisfaction with the boat.

The Boys Own was involved in numerous services and on December 7th 1901 responded to a call. The French Barque Gypsy lost her bearings and having mistaken the lights of Downderry for Plymouth ran aground on the rocks. The French captain attempted to keep the boat afloat by pumping out, but eventually gave the abandon ship command and 14 of the crew were taken into the lifeboat which had been standing off. Also saved were 3 kittens. The lifeboat eventually returned to Looe at 1.30am. By morning the Gypsy was a total wreck.
In recognition of this service the French Government awarded a Gold Medal to the coxswain and silver medals to the rest of the 5 crew. In 1993 the gold medal was presented to the Looe branch for safe keeping by the Toms family. No silver medals came to light. This proved to be the final of 7 shouts by Boys Own and during its service saved 23 lives and 3 kittens.

In May 1902 a new boat arrived, funded by a legacy from the late William Ryder of Brixton, London. Similar in design and built at a cost of £750 plus £85 delivery. This boat was named Ryder by Lady Trelawny.
During the following years the Ryder distinguished herself in many services. In 1915 many of the crew had gone to war and 5 new volunteers were recruited. In 1929 the Ryder was dispatched to assist the Paris, a French Liner with 1,500 passengers bound for Plymouth which had run aground on the Eddystone Rocks.
The Plymouth lifeboat was out of action so the Ryder launched and made all possible speed to the Eddystone, but later a message came through that the Paris had got off on a rising tide with little damage.
This was the last service to be performed by the Ryder and much to the consternation of local people the Looe lifeboat station was closed in July 1930.
The Ryder had carried out 12 services and saved 37 lives.

Please see the Gallery for historic pictures of the Ryder and other vessels.

All of the lifeboats of this period were powered by the crew rowing.

Modern Times

In 1991 the RNLI resolved to re-open the Looe Lifeboat service for a trial period.

In 1992 a D Class boat from the reserve fleet was in operation for the summer only and was located in a temporary shelter on East Looe seafront.

In 1994 a new boat the Spirit of The Royal Ordnance Corps was officially dedicated. Monies for the boat had been raised by members of the Royal Logistics Corp who had run from their bases in Germany, swum to England and ran around the coast of England.
A new location for the boathouse was donated along the Looe Quay. Later that year Regina Mary was brought into service. This boat performed the longest service at over 9 hours at night in a search for a local fisherman. Sadly the fishing boat was found but the fisherman was not seen again.

In 2002 with the plans to scuttle the Scylla reaching fruition for recreational diving the RNLI realised that a larger facility to house a faster in-shore boat would be needed.

East Looe Town Trust agreed to sell the Albatross site for a new 2 boat station and a souvenir shop.

The new Albatross station was operational in October 2003 with a new Atlantic Class boat named Alan & Margaret donated by Miss Elizabeth Beaton in memory of her parents. A new semi-submersible tractor came into service at the same time. The boathouse and slipway was completed at a cost of £763,297.

Up to the end of 2002 the various D Class boats have launched 235 times rescuing 175 people and saving 58 lives.

RNLI Statistics

Looe

Looe lifeboats were launched 31 times in 2006 and 35 people were rescued.

 

During 2007, there were 30 launces (6 of which were hoax or false alarms and 32 people rescued, with sadly 2 lives lost. Total crew man hours at sea was over 64 hours.

 

This current year, 2008 has started quite busily with 5 launches to date.

South-West

The 737 operational volunteers working at the 34 RNLI lifeboat stations in the south west, spent 1,961 hours at sea on emergency calls during 2006.

Last year the RNLI’s south west fleet of 54 lifeboats launched 1,559 times, rescuing 1,552 people – an average of 30 people every week.

National

In 2004 more than 7,000 people were rescued at sea by its volunteer lifeboat crews.

RNLI has a fleet of 330 lifeboats around the British Isles, launching 7,656 times and rescuing 7,507 people, an average of 21 people per day.

Last year the pattern of services reflected the growing leisure on the water with 52% of all services being leisure craft, 27% people without boats i.e. swimmers and walkers, 13% commercial and fishing vessels and 8% others.