FROM PULLING 'ORIGINAL' TO HIGH SPEED 'FAST AFLOAT' WAVENEYPLYMOUTH, host city for the first International Lifeboat Exhibition, 'Lifeboat International', from July 19 to August 17, was one of the 31 stations to have a Henry Greathead 'Original', the first boat ever designed specifically as a lifeboat. This summer the Plymouth station has taken delivery of one of the RNLI's latest self-righting lifeboats, a 44' Waveney. Thus, Plymouth has grown with the lifeboat service from the wood and oars of the earliest days to the steel and twin diesel engines of a 'fast afloat' lifeboat capable more than 15 knots and fitted with the electronic navigational aids available to the modern seaman.

It was in 1803 that Philip Langmead, Member of Parliament for Plymouth and a former mayor, bought an 'Original' for use at the port. Launched at South Shields in 1789, these boats were about 30' long with 10' beam and relied solely on oars. The new boat arrived on July 20, 1803, and was greeted with due pomp and ceremony, including a 21-gun salute. Apparently, however, it was never used as a lifeboat and by the time the RNLI was founded, on March 4, 1824, all traces of it had disappeared.

During a violent storm in November 1824, at least 22 vessels were lost off Plymouth and the question of stationing a lifeboat there was raised once again.

A branch of the RNLI was formed and a new lifeboat supplied, probably a 26' Plenty type, but again, no trace has been found of this boat having been used for lifesaving and in 1840 she was transferred to the Scilly Isles.

Twenty-one years passed before the subject was discussed again. In 1861, Miss Burdett Coutts offered to provide the cost of a lifeboat for Plymouth; an offer that was readily accepted. A boathouseboathouse was built at a cost of £159 on the west side of Millbay and, on February 25, 1862, the station was formally opened and the boat, a 34' self-righter costing £180, named Prince Consort.

The station's first recorded service came on December 6, when Prince Consort helped to save the Dutch galliot Aremana and her crew of six. This lifeboat served for 11 years, saving 60 lives in that time, but had to be replaced after receiving considerable damage while saving 12 men from two vessels on December 8, 1872, in near hurricane winds. The new lifeboat was Clemency, a 34' self-righter, which stayed until March 1886, saving 38 lives. She was followed by yet another 34' self-righter, Escape, which added seven to the total of lives saved by this station before she in turn was replaced in March 1898 by Eliza Avins.

Eliza Avins was a 37' self-righter and, to accommodate her, a new boathouse was built at the Camber, near the West Pier of Millbay Docks, at a cost of £427 10s; it can still be seen today.

Eliza Avins spent 24 years at Plymouth, saving 27 lives on 27 rescue calls, and being replaced in 1922 by the former Littlehampton boat, Brothers Freeman.

Brothers Freeman was the last pulling Robert and Marcella Beck which, in a near gale on January 13, 1942, saved an RAAF Sunderland flying boat from the rocks on to which she was drifting. For this service Coxswain Walter Crowlher was awarded a bronze medal.

Plymouth's 52' Barnett class lifeboat, Thomas Forehead and Mary Rowse (left), has recently been replaced by a 44' Waveney steel self-righting lifeboat, Thomas Forehead and Mary Rowse II: she is this issue's cover picture. photograph by courtesy of 'Western Morning News' and sailing lifeboat to serve at this Devon station, for, on July 1, 1926, a fine new 60' Barnett class motor lifeboat arrived to take up duty. Driven by two 76 hp petrol engines which gave her a top speed of 9£ knots, she weighed 44 tons and had to be kept permanently afloat at moorings within the harbour, as have all subsequent lifeboats at thisstation. She cost over £14,000 to build and was named Robert and Marcella Beck by Lady Jellicoe on July 12, 1927.

On January 13, 1942, Robert and Marcella Beck took part in one of the finest services performed by the Plymouth station. In the early hours of that bitterly cold January morning, flares were seen coming from Jennycliffe Bay. In a near gale, very rough sea and torrential rain, the lifeboatmen found the casualty to be a Royal Australian Air Force Sunderland flying boat, with two men on board. It had been torn from its moorings by a coaster and had drifted dangerously near to the rocks.

The huge seas which were rebounding off the face of the cliff were sweepingclean over the flying boat, making communication difficult. The coxswain, Walter Crowther, therefore returned to Mount Batten, where he embarked an Air Force officer to help with this problem.

In spite of the fact that it was wartime, a searchlight was switched on from the shore and, by its light, Coxswain Crowther began his rescue attempt.

Three times a line was fired across to the stranded men, but without success; so, although there was very little room to manoeuvre, Coxswain Crowther took his boat in as close as he could and the heaving line was thrown across.

After several attempts, it was caught and made fast. The lifeboat meanwhile was being thrown about violently by the terrific seas, and the second coxswain and one of the crew were very nearly washed overboard. Slowly, however, the flying boat was pulled clear and taken to safety in the Cattewater.

For this fine service, Coxswain Crowther was awarded the bronze medal for gallantry. It was presented to him at a ceremony in the Guildhall at Plymouth on July 11,1942, by HRH the Duke of Kent, President of the RNLI.

Sadly, this was the last meeting between the Duke and the lifeboat service, for he was killed just seven weeks later.

In March 1943, Robert and Marcella Beck was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and stationed in Iceland for lifesaving service on the most hazardous of the convoy routes, the northern route to Russia. In her place at Plymouth the RNLI stationed a Belgian lifeboat which had been picked up derelict in the channel. She was a 46' Watson, Ministre Anseele, and was called out five times during her stay at Plymouth, saving five lives.

Robert and Marcella Beck returned to her home station in February 1947, and remained there until 1952, bringing her total of lives saved to 72. In March of that year a new 52' Barnett class boat arrived on station. She cost nearly £31,000 to build and was named Thomas Forehead and Mary Rowse by HRH the Duchess of Kent, President of the RNLI, on May 16.

In 1961, Walter Crowther retired after serving for 34 years in the Plymouth lifeboats, 22 of them as coxswain. His place was taken by Jeff Carter, who served for 18 months before handing over to Peter White, who, at 31, was one of the youngest coxswains ever appointed in the lifeboat service.

People often assume that all lifeboatmen are inshore fishermen, and at some stations this is still so; but when Peter White took over as coxswain he worked in a nearby timber yard, and when the Duke of Edinburgh visited the station during a tour of the city on July 22,1965, he was surprised to find a variety of occupations among the crew, including a carpenter, railwaymen and electricians.

In May 1967 the RNLI sent one of its expanding fleet of high-speed, inflatable rescue boats to Plymouth, to supplement the conventional lifeboat during the summer months. These boats have a top speed of over 20 knots and are ideal for calls involving small yachts, cabin cruisers, bathers and people cut off by the tide, all instances where speed is essential. In July 1968 the 18' Hatch boat No. 18-01 replaced the inflatable boat, she being replaced in her turn last year by one of the new 18' glass-fibre McLachlan boats.

During 1971 Coxswain Peter White left the service to take up a government position in the Gilbert Islands and his place was taken by the second coxswain, John Dare. He is a rigger in Devonport Dockyard and, today, most of the crew work within the dock complex. Cyril Alcock, the motor mechanic, joined the Plymouth lifeboat in 1968 after serving at Humber and New Brighton.

Working in an office in Millbay Docks, the honorary secretary, Ray Sainsbury, who is a director of a firm of timber merchants, is not far away from the lifeboat. The station branch committee members all have close connections with the sea, including the chairman, Captain Tom Hornsby, who is the Cattewater Harbour Master. The only lady representative on the committee is Mrs Frances Zessimides, honorary secretary of the ladies' guild, which has over 75 members.

The Plymouth branches are closely involved in helping to staff 'Lifeboat International' in West Hoe Park this summer, and members of the ladies' guild are running the souvenir stand throughout the whole of the four weeks of the exhibition. The branches are also busy with their own events during this 150th anniversary year, and, of course, the other big event of the summer was the arrival of Plymouth's new lifeboat, the 44' Waveney Thomas Forehead and Mary Rowse II. 1974 will be a year to remember in Plymouth..