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Coastal Lifeboat Origins One of the earliest recorded attempts to develop a noncapsizable boat occurred in 1765, when de Bernieres, the controller-general of roads and bridges in France, fitted out a small boat with air cases in both the bow and stern, giving the boat enough buoyancy to prevent its capsizing or sinking.1 There is, however, no record indicating that this boat was ever placed in service as a coastal lifesaving craft. For boats intended for this purpose, we must turn to Great Britain. Three Englishmen are generally credited with contributing to the development of the first successful coastal rescue craft. The first of these was Lionel Lukin, a successful coach builder of Long Acre, London, who was given a patent in November 1785 for an “Unimmergible” boat.2 Lukin had taken a Norway yawl and converted it into a lifeboat by adding cork fenders 9 inches thick along the gunwales, filling the spaces under the thwarts and at the bow and stern with cork, and, finally, attaching a heavy iron keel. Lukin’s first boat seems to have ended up as a craft used for smuggling, but he converted other Norway yawls in a similar manner and, in 1786, converted a coble for Archdeacon Sharp of Bamburgh. This boat was placed by Sharp near Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast, and was regularly used as a lifeboat, saving many lives.3 Although incorporating many features that were later used extensively in coastal lifeboats and surfboats, Lukin’s boat was basically a conversion of an existing boat, and it was not until 1807 that he developed a totally original lifeboat design (i.e., from the keel up). This design had a self-bailing feature that enabled the craft to quickly free itself of water. Lukin’s later boats were sailing versions, and were not intended for rowing. Although self-bailing and nonsinkable, these boats were not inherently self-righting.4 Self-righting as a design factor in lifesaving craft initially had mixed support in Britain among crews and architects. Some felt very strongly that a truly effective and safe lifeboat had to include this capability; however, others felt that high initial stability, buoyancy, and selfbailing ability were more important. For many years, the British focused all their design efforts on developing a satisfactory self-righting lifeboat. This was followed by a period in which very few lifeboats were designed with self-righting capabilities. Finally, from the mid-1960s onward, lifeboat designs once again incorporated selfrighting features. Other European lifeboat services, such as those of the Dutch, Germans, and French, have also historically focused on constructing self-righting lifeboats . Self-righting capability would ultimately become a hallmark of American lifeboat types, along with selfbailing features. The second Englishman to develop a successful coastal lifeboat design was William Wouldhave, a house painter, choral instructor, and parish clerk of St. Hilda, South Shields, who in 1789 submitted a model for a self-righting lifeboat as an entry in a contest to find a successful coastal lifeboat design.5 Motivated by a series of terrible shipwrecks at the mouth of the Tyne River, the “Gentlemen of Lawe House,” a private citizens group in South Shields, sponsored the competition, with the winning design to be built for local use. Wouldhave’s entry was a doubleended boat of pronounced sheer, with cork lining along the interior of the hull, an almost-straight heavy keel, and airtight cases fitted with cork at both the bow and stern. Wouldhave’s experiments had shown him that such a boat would quickly right itself if accidentally capsized.6 The committee of judges, although approving a part of Wouldhave’s design, felt further improvements in the model were needed and awarded Wouldhave only half of the announced prize money. Two of the judges, 1 The Early Years 2 The Early Years Messrs. Rockwood and Fairles, then proceeded to model their own design and asked Henry Greathead, another of the contestants and a professional boatbuilder of South Shields, to construct the actual vessel. Greathead suggested that the judges’ model, which resembled a Norway yawl, be modified by giving it a curved or “rockered” keel to increase buoyancy, which was agreed to. The boat, as built, apparently bore some resemblance in design to Lukin’s lifeboat, although it is not believed that the “Gentlemen of Lawe House” were aware of Lukin’s work. The Original, as the South Shields boat was named, was completed in 1790. A double-ender of...

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