Tag: History

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911

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lifeboat, lifeboat institution, john cameron lamb, lukin, wouldhave, tyne lifeboat, greathead, history, lifeboat history

‘It is impossible to assign to any one person the merit of inventing the Life-Boat’

Based on a 1910 Royal Society of Arts lecture, Sir John Cameron-Lamb’s small book The Life-boat and its Work was published in the following year, and sold for the now-laughable sum of one shilling. I promised the gentlemen who look after Southwold’s historic Alfred Corry I’d scan this book, and so here’s the first instalment!

To see the rest of this series:

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part I

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part II

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part III

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More photos of the traditional wooden clinker-built fleet of fishing boats at Hastings

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modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

As promised, some more photos from the working beach at Hastings (see my earlier set of photos). I haven’t much to say about them, except that I’m awestruck that these old wooden boats are still working in such numbers – at one time I would have said they were reducing in numbers so quickly they I thought they wouldn’t last more than a few seasons. But a few seasons later, here they are still…

These boats have hardly changed since the days of sail, and notice that there are plastic beach boats built along the old fashioned lines. Whether sailing or motoring, it seems there’s still nothing better for fishing off this coast.

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modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

The sinking of HMS Colossus

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HMS Colossus, sunk ship, Scilly Isles, 1797

HMS Colossus

‘The Water gained upon us fast… before day light, I was obliged to Order the People on the Quarter Deck & Poop, the Water being up to the Cills of the Upper Deck, and as the Ship rolled, struck with so much violence against the Quarter Deck, as to break several of the Beams… About 8 o’Clock in the Morning, I had the pleasure to see several Boats coming to our assistance’

So wrote Captain George Murray describing the events leading up to the 1797 sinking of HMS Colossus while anchored off the Scilly Isles. The horrific story is vividly described in an extract from the ship’s log included in an appendix to an impressive archaeological survey, and it makes harrowing reading until rescue comes in sight.

See a pdf file of the survey here; the story of the sinking appears on page 94 onwards.

My thanks to Martin Corrick of the Openboat Yahoogroup for spotting and reporting this astonishing piece of material.

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