A TIME TO PAUSE AND LOOK BACK AROUND THE BEGINNING of the nineteenth century 31 'Original' lifeboats built by Henry Greathead of South Shields were established in ports and harbours scattered all round the British Isles. Not a great deal is known about their activity on the coast, but nevertheless they were an early practical expression of the mounting concern felt in seaboard communities for the great loss of life at sea.

Eight of those 31 'Originals' went to the coast in 1803: to Arbroath, Exmouth, Guernsey (with a boat first at St Sampson, then, in later years, at St Peter Port), Hoylake, Mount's Bay (first at Penzance, then Newlyn, now Penlee), Newhaven, Plymouth and Rye Harbour (with Winchelsea). Most of them were funded in part by the Corporation of Lloyds and in part by the communities they were to serve and the link with Lloyds has remained very close in Mount's Bay. The first RNLI honorary secretary of Penzance lifeboat station, Richard Pearse (1826 to 1862) was the Lloyd's agent for the area, as have been his successors in an almost unbroken line right down to the present honorary secretary of Penlee lifeboat station, D. L. Johnson.

In the early years a lifeboat presence was not necessarily continuous; in some areas the exact site of the boathouse was to change; gradually individual stations would be absorbed into the RNLI. Nevertheless for these eight communities a start had been made and by 1978 they could look back on 175 years of lifesaving history.

Those 175 years saw the gradual development of many different types of lifeboats and just some of the boats that have been, and are, stationed at one or other of these eight stations are illustrated on these pages. Oars and sails were followed by steam, petrol and finally diesel engines. The very first lifeboat to be fitted with an internal combustion engine, J. McConnell Hussy, was in fact sent to Newhaven in November 1904 on service trials. She was well received and it is reported that she gained 'golden opinions from the coxswain and crew'. Plenty, Palmer, Peake, Liverpool, Watson, Barnett . . .

so the roll call comes right up to the present day. There is now a 52ft Arun Class lifeboat at St Peter Port; a 48ft 6in Solent at Exmouth; a 47ft Watson at Penlee; 44ft Waveneys at Newhaven and Plymouth; a 42ft Watson at Arbroath; a 37ft 6in Rother at Hoylake.