LIFE-BOAT, and LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. The article on Drowning and Life-Saving (q.v.) deals generally with the means of saving life at sea, but under this heading it is convenient to include the appliances connected specially with the life-boat service. The ordinary open boat is unsuited for life-saving in a stormy sea, and numerous contrivances, in regard to which the lead came from England, have been made for securing the best type of life-boat.
The first life-boat was conceived and designed by Lionel Lukin, a London coach-builder, in 1785. Encouraged by the prince of Wales (George IV.), Lukin fitted up a Norway yawl as a life-boat, took out a patent for it, and wrote a pamphlet descriptive of his “Insubmergible Boat.” Buoyancy he obtained by means of a projecting gunwale of cork and air-chambers inside—one of these being at the bow, another at the stern. Stability he secured by a false iron keel. The self-righting and self-emptying principles he seems not to have thought of; at all events he did not compass them. Despite the patronage of the prince, Lukin went to his grave a neglected and disappointed man. But he was not altogether unsuccessful, for, at the request of the Rev Dr Shairp, Lukin fitted up a coble as an “unimmergible” life-boat, which was launched at Bamborough, saved several lives the first year and afterwards saved many lives and much property.
Public apathy in regard to shipwreck was temporally swept away by the wreck of the “Adventure” of Newcastle in 1789. This vessel was stranded only 300 yds. from the shore, and her crew dropped, one by one, into the raging breakers in presence of thousands of spectators, none of whom dared to put off in an ordinary boat to the rescue. An excited meeting among the people of South Shields followed; a committee was formed, and premiums were offered for the best models of a life-boat. This called forth many plans, of which those of William Wouldhave, a painter, and Henry Greathead, a boatbuilder, of South Shields, were selected. The committee awarded the prize to the latter, and, adopting the good points of both models, gave the order for the construction of their boat to Greathead. This boat was rendered buoyant by nearly 7 cwts. of cork, and had very raking stem and stern-posts, with great curvature of keel. It did good service, and Greathead was well rewarded; nevertheless no other life-boat was launched till 1798, when the duke of Northumberland ordered Greathead to build him a life-boat which he endowed. This boat also did good service, and its owner ordered another in 1800 for Oporto. In the same year Mr Cathcart Dempster ordered one for St Andrews, where, two years later, it saved twelve lives. Thus the value of life-boats began to be recognized, and before the end of 1803 Greathead had built thirty-one boats—eighteen for England, five for Scotland and eight for foreign lands. Nevertheless, public interest in life-boats was not thoroughly aroused till 1823.
In that year Sir William Hillary, Bart., stood forth to champion the life-boat cause. Sir William dwelt in the Isle of Man, and had assisted with his own hand in the saving of three hundred and five lives. In conjunction with two members of parliament—Mr Thomas Wilson and Mr George Hibbert—Hillary founded the “Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck.” This, perhaps the grandest of England’s charitable societies, and now named the “Royal National Life-boat Institution,” was founded on the 4th of March 1824. The king patronized it; the archbishop of Canterbury presided at its birth; the most eloquent men in the land—among them Wilberforce—pleaded the cause; nevertheless, the institution began its career with a sum of only £9826. In the first year twelve new life-boats were built and placed at different stations, besides which thirty-nine life-boats had been stationed on the British shores by benevolent individuals and by independent associations over which the institution exercised no control though it often assisted them. In its early years the institution placed the mortar apparatus of Captain Manby at many stations, and provided for the wants of sailors and others saved from shipwreck,—a duty subsequently discharged by the “Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society.” At the date of the institution’s second report it had contributed to the saving of three hundred and forty-two lives, either by its own life-saving apparatus or by other means for which it had granted rewards. With fluctuating success, both as regards means and results, the institution continued its good work—saving many lives, and occasionally losing a few brave men in its tremendous battles with the sea. Since the adoption of the self-righting boats, loss of life in the service has been comparatively small and infrequent.
Towards the middle of the 19th century the life-boat cause appeared to lose interest with the British public, though the life-saving work was prosecuted with unremitting zeal, but the increasing loss of life by shipwreck, and a few unusually severe disasters to life-boats, brought about the reorganization of the society in 1850. The Prince Consort became vice-patron of the institution in conjunction with the king of the Belgians, and Queen Victoria, who had been its patron since her accession, became an annual contributor to its funds. In 1851 the duke of Northumberland became president, and from that time forward a tide of prosperity set in, unprecedented in the history of benevolent institutions, both in regard to the great work accomplished and the pecuniary aid received. In 1850 its committee undertook the immediate superintendence of all the life-boat work on the coasts, with the aid of local committees. Periodical inspections, quarterly exercise of crews, fixed rates of payments to coxswains and men, and quarterly reports, were instituted, at the time when the self-righting self-emptying boat came into being. This boat was the result of a hundred-guinea prize, offered by the president, for the best model of a life-boat, with another hundred to defray the cost of a boat built on the model chosen. In reply to the offer no fewer than two hundred and eighty models were sent in, not only from all parts of the United Kingdom, but from France, Germany, Holland and the United States of America. The prize was gained by Mr James Beeching of Great Yarmouth, whose model, slightly modified by Mr James Peake, one of the committee of inspection, was still further improved as time and experience suggested (see below).
The necessity of maintaining a thoroughly efficient life-boat service is now generally recognized by the people not only of Great Britain, but also of those other countries on the European Continent and America which have a sea-board, and of the British colonies, and numerous life-boat services have been founded more or less on the lines of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. The British Institution was again reorganized in 1883; it has since greatly developed both in its life-saving efficiency and financially, and has been spoken of in the highest terms as regards its management by successive governments—a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1897 reporting to the House that the thanks of the whole community were due to the Institution for its energy and good management. On the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 she was succeeded as patron of the Institution by Edward VII., who as prince of Wales had been its president for several years. At the close of 1908 the Institution’s fleet consisted of 280 life-boats, and the total number of lives for the saving of which the committee of management had granted rewards since the establishment of the Institution in 1824 was 47,983. At this time there were only seventeen life-boats on the coast of the United Kingdom which did not belong to the Institution. In 1882 the total amount of money received by the Institution from all sources was £57,797, whereas in 1901 the total amount received had increased to £107,293. In 1908 the receipts were £115,303, the expenditure £90,335.
In 1882 the Institution undertook, with the view of diminishing the loss of life among the coast fishermen, to provide the masters and owners of fishing-vessels with trustworthy aneroid barometers, at about a third of the retail price, and in 1883 the privilege was extended to the masters and owners of coasters under 100 tons burden. At the end of 1901 as many as 4417 of these valuable instruments had been supplied. In 1889 the committee of management secured the passing of the Removal of Wrecks Act 1877 Amendment Act, which provides for the removal of wrecks in non-navigable waters which might prove dangerous to life-boat crews
