The lifeboat service was born in the days when Britons believed in independent, voluntary action. In 1789, a ship foundered in a storm in the mouth of the river Tyne. Spectators on shore watched in horror as crewmen fell into the sea and drowned; no one was able to rescue them. Moved by the tragedy, local philanthropists offered a two-guinea prize for a lifeboat designed to withstand heavy seas. Several inventors came forth with ideas, and the result was a long rowboat pointed at both ends and buoyed by 700 pounds of cork. One by one, local life-boat stations were established along the coast.
In 1823, Sir William Hillary, himself a lifeboatman on the Isle of Man with 305 rescues to his credit, wrote an "Appeal to the Nation" calling for the establishment of a national lifeboat organization supported by voluntary subscriptions. London merchants took up the idea and organized the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1824. The RNLI eventually set up stations all around the British Isles, including Ireland and Northern Ireland
Green pebbled mat.
Credit:- WOVEN IN PURE SILK
Credit:- WOVEN IN SILK BY THOMAS STEVENS, INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER,COVENTRY AND LONDON, (REGISTERED)
Die Seenotrettungsgesellschaft entstand in den Tagen, als die Briten an unabhängiges, freiwilliges Handeln glaubten. 1789 strandete ein Schiff in einem Sturm in der Tyne-Mündung. Beobachter an der Küste sahen mit Entsetzen, wie Besatzungsmitglieder in die See fielen und ertranken; niemand war in der Lage, sie zu retten. Von dieser Tragödie bewegt, lobten Ortsansässige einen Preis von 2 Guinea für ein Seenotrettungsboot aus, welches so konstruiert sein sollte, daß es schweren Seen widerstehen könnte. Mehrere Erfinder meldeten sich mit Ideen, und das Ergebnis war ein langes Ruderboot, das an beiden Enden spitz zusammenlief und dem 700 Pfund Kork Auftrieb gaben. Eine lokale Rettungsstation nach der anderen wurde entlang der Küste gegründet.
Grace Darling's Daring Deed
Who has not heard of Grace Darling and her plucky rescue of survivors from the wrecked steamship Forfarshire? Thanks to flowery Victorian journalism, and the British bent for fanfare, Grace's single and simple deed earned immortality. As her biographer, Jessica Mitford, puts it, "Grace Darling can be precisely and anachronistically described as the first media heroine."
At dawn on September 7, 1838, Grace and her father, William Darling, the keeper of Longstone Lighthouse off England's Northumberland Coast, awoke to the howl of wind and crash of sea about their home. Spume filled the air as they looked out on the North Sea morning, yet Grace's keen eyes spotted a ship aground on Big Harcar Rock, almost a mile away. A look through the telescope revealed survivors clinging to the wreck. Grace, 22-years-old and anxious for excitement, beseeched her father to attempt a rescue.
Words to the "Grace Darling Song"
- 'Twas on the Longstone Lighthouse, there dwelt and English maid;
- Pure as the air around her, of danger ne'er afraid;
- One morning just at daybreak, a storm-tossed wreck she spied;
- And tho' to try seemed madness, "I'll save the crew!' she cried.
- And she pull'd away, o'er the rolling sea,
- Over the waters blue --
- 'Help! Help!' she could hear the cry of the shipwreck'd crew --
- But Grace had an English heart,
- And the raging storm she brav'd --
- She pull'd away, mid the dashing spray,
- And the crew she saved!
HMS Australia, Royal Naval Coastguard ship.
HMS Australia - Coastguard Ship in Southampton Water
Australia was a steel first-class cruiser and was completed for sea in 1888. She was built by Messrs Napier at Glasgow, and engined by the same firm. Commanded in 1896 by Captain W A D Acland
HMS Majestic of the Majestic Class battleships
Majestic was a steel armoured battleship of the Spencer Programme and was completed for sea in 1895. She was built at Portsmouth dockyard and engined by the Naval Construction & Armaments Co. of Barrow. She was commissioned in December 1895 for the Channel Squadron where she carried the flag of Vice Admiral the Lord Walter T Kerr.
Class - Majestic
Type - 1st Class pre-Dreadnought Battleship
Built - at Chatham, 1895
Speed - 17 knots
Weight - 14,900
Armament - 12 x 6 inch Guns, 16 x 12 pdr Guns, 12 x 3 pdr Guns, 5 Torpedo Tubes
Crew - 672
Fate - She was sold in 1922 and broken up in 1923.
Notes - Despite the class speed of 17 knots, HMS Victorious actually managed to attain a speed of 18.7 knots making the her joint fastest with the Caeser of her class. She spent World War I defending the river Humber.
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