Skegness lifeboats – an illustrated history 
by Nicholas Leach
Review by Rory Stamp

Take a walk today along the beach at Skegness, Lincolnshire, and there are plenty of signs of the times on view: an RNLI lifeguard hut, a towering rollercoaster and an offshore windfarm. But you might also come across the lifeboat crew launching – and that’s been part of local life since the early 1800s.

As we discover in this comprehensive book, there have been many chapters in the story of the Skegness lifeboats. There are tales of 19th-century volunteers rowing wooden lifeboats to shipwrecks. There are stories of crews launching Skegness’s first motor lifeboat through minefields to downed Second World War aircraft. There are accounts of the inshore lifeboats – introduced in the 1960s – heading out to drifting airbeds, exhausted swimmers and capsized sailing dinghies. And today’s Mersey class all-weather lifeboat, The Lincolnshire Poacher, features heavily: she’s been operating at Skegness since 1990.

While the book focuses on the types of lifeboat launched and their activities, it serves as a fascinating case study of how the RNLI has responded to changing patterns of sea use since it was formed. It’s also interesting to read of the generations of volunteers involved, particularly as some surnames crop up again across the centuries. If you like the look of this book, the author has written many more its kind.

Paperback book
Published by Landmark
ISBN 9781843064237
Price: £9.99