LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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The Caister Station Endangered

There have been two Life-boats at Caister, on the Norfolk coast, one for seventy, the other for sixty years, and they have the magnificent record of 1709 lives rescued from shipwreck.

These two boats lie on the open sandy beach, and are launched by hand over skids. At the end of last December, in one day, the spring tides and a strong north-westerly wind swept away some thousands of tons of beach, and in the evening the Life-boats were found overhadhanging a clifi of sand which the sea They had to be hauled overhad formed, inland uphill for over 100 yards or they would have been lost. The Institution has now rebuilt this part of the fore shore, filling in sand under the 8-feet high cliff made by the sea, and so has formed a slipway of sand down which the Life-boats can be launched. Had this not been possible, this famous Station would probably have had to be closed..