This year marks the 200th anniversary of the patenting of Lionel Lukin's 'unimmergible boat', the first craft ever to be designed specifically for saving human life at sea. Frank Martin, honorary treasurer of the Hythe branch of the RNLI, has made a study of the life of this 18th century innovator who spent his final years at Hythe.IN 1834, AN OLD GENTLEMAN DIED IN Hythe, Kent, and was buried there in the churchyard of St Leonard's. He was 92 years old, and had retired to the old Cinque port ten years earlier. On his gravestone, which is maintained by members of the Hythe branch of the RNLI, is an inscription which states: 'This Lionel Lukin was the first to build a lifeboat, and the original inventor of that principle of safety by which many lives and much property have been preserved from shipwreck, and he obtained for it the King's patent in the year 1785'.

The Post Office has just issued a set of stamps on the theme of Safety at Sea, one of which commemorates the issue of this patent. But what was Lukin's contribution to lifesaving at sea, and what sort of man was he? In 1982, maritime England year, the Hythe branch of the RNLI undertook research into the life and times of Lionel Lukin, and mounted an exhibition in St Leonard's church, which was subsequently transferred to the National Lifeboat Museum in Bristol. This research led to a fascinating picture of Lukin as a benefactor of mankind, such as had not been assembled before.

Lukin was born in 1742, in Dunmow, Essex, the son of a well-to-do farmer, and a descendant of Admiral Lionel Lane, one of Blake's sea captains. Admiral Lane had commanded the Victory, in the Dutch wars, the second ship to hold the name later made so illustrious by Nelson. Lukin did not put tosea, but was apprenticed to a local coach-maker. He reached the top of his profession, eventually becoming Master of the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harnessmakers.

He became established in business in Long Acre, centre of the London coaching trade, and had a house in fashionable Chelsea. He was said to have been a friend of the Prince Regent, a great coaching enthusiast.

However, it is not for his professional career that he will be remembered, but for his inventive mind. This was the age of discovery, and Lukin, from an early age, experimented on a variety of subjects. He designed a ship's stove, which could be used safely in rough weather, an invalid's bed, which could be manipulated by a single attendant and was used in several London hospitals, and a raft for rescuing people who had fallen through ice. He perfected a rain-gauge, and kept meteorological records all his life.

Many of his inventions were commended by the Royal Humane Society, and none more highly than his unimmergible boat, the subject of the patent in 1785. This boat design incorporated the addition of buoyant gunwhales to the sides, and watertight bulkheads within, so that, 'by this means the boat will be so much lighter than the body of water it must displace in sinking that it will, with safety, carry more than its common burden, though the remaining space should, by any accident, be filled with water'. Under the bottom, a false keel of cast-iron or other metal was placed to act as ballast. Later, Lukin was to add holes in the bottom to his specification, which would allow shipped water to escape. These principles are readily recognisable in modern lifeboat design, but at that time they were innovatory.

In 1785, the word 'lifeboat' did not exist, though there is evidence of a boat being specially maintained by the municipality of Formby, in Lancashire, in the 1770s for rescue work. Lukin saw his design as suitable for ships' boats, and he made representations to the Admiralty for it to be taken up by the Navy. Despite his friendship with the Prince Regent, or perhaps because of it, no action was taken, though the loss of life from inshore shipwreck was appalling.

The following year, in 1786, Archdeacon Sharp, administrator of a charitable trust in Northumberland, heard that Lukin had successfully converted a Norway yawl to his design. He requested Lukin to do the same with a coble, suitable for the waters round the coast at Bamburgh, and this he did. Thus, Bamburgh was probably the first place to have a craft specially adapted for the task of saving life at sea.

Lukin published his design and was commended by the Royal Humane Society for his 'very praiseworthy liberality' indoing so 'without any view to profit, at the trifling price ofl!6d, that all, whom either business or pleasure may expose to the danger of drowning, may easily be made acquainted with the principles of this life-saving invention'.

In 1789, a particularly tragic shipwreck took place off the mouth of the Tyne. The whole crew of the Adventure died within full view of thousands of people who had no way of helping. This prompted the idea of a competition for the design of 'a lifeboat calculated to brave the dangers of the sea, particularly of broken water', with a prize of two guineas for the best entry. The winning design by William Wouldhave, a parish clerk, was considered worth only one guinea. The design, by using a straight, heavy keel and high-peaked ends with watertight cases, was self-righting and unsinkable.

Wouldhave reputedly refused the prize money and took no further part in lifeboat history, although his tombstone in St Hilda's parish church, South Shields, bears the inscription: 'Sacred to the memory of William Wouldhave, inventor of that invaluable blessing to mankind, the lifeboat'.

Another entrant, Henry Greathead, was a boat builder, and although unsuccessful with his entry, he was awarded a contract to build a boat incorporating the best features of Wouldhave's design, but with a curved keel. This, The Original, went into lifeboat service and saved many lives before being lost in 1840. Greathead built 31 boats on the lines of The Original, and received a parliamentary grant of £1,200, substantial sums from the Royal Society of Arts, Trinity House and Lloyds, and a ring from the Tsar of Russia.

Lukin does not appear to have benefited financially from his patent or his work, but in a letter to the Gentleman's Magazine in 1806, he stated that he had never sought monetary reward, and had published his designs cheaply inthe hope that they might be developed by others for the benefit of all mankind.

In 1807, the Lowestoft lifeboat, built by Henry Greathead, was found to be too heavy and cumbersome for the shallow water and sandbanks round that coast. The Suffolk Humane Society asked Lukin to superintend the construction of a replacement boat more suitable for the area. The Frances Ann, cost £200, and was launched on November 19,1807. She remained in service till 1850 and saved 300 lives.

It was in 1823 that Sir William Hillary launched his famous 'appeal to the nation for the formation of a national institution for the preservation of lives and property from shipwreck'.

When, in the following year, the Institution became a reality, Lukin wrote to the chairman of the inaugural meeting, offering his help, but at the age of 82 he was doubtless considered to be too old. He soon gave up business, and retired to Hythe, where he was active in church affairs until his death. He had one son and one daughter.

It matters little today whose contribution to the invention of the lifeboat was the greatest. These three, William Wouldhave, Henry Greathead and Lionel Lukin, each helped to hasten the day when well-designed, specially constructed boats could be launched from the shore with the best possible chance of rescue for those ship-wrecked, and of safe return for the brave men who would man them.

Since 1824, over 111,000 lives have been saved by boats of the RNLI, and there are, therefore, at least that many reasons for remembering these three pioneers of life-saving at sea, and for marking the 200th anniversary of Lukin's patent for an unimmergible boat.Lukin commemorated On June 18, 1985, the Post Office issued a set of stamps to commemorate Britain's contribution to the international safety network.

The 17p stamp (above) of a lifeboat launching marks the 200th anniversary of Lionel Lukin's patent. Other watersheds for 1985 are Britain's hosting the eleventh conference of the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities and also the 50th anniversary of radar.

The 22p stamp features Beachy Head lighthouse with a section of an Admiralty chart; the 31p shows a communications satellite over the Atlantic and the 34p depicts a buoy warning shipping to keep south of a marked hazard..