| Humber Lifeboat Station | |
| Map Type: | Lincolnshire |
| Location: | Port of Grimsby |
| Address: | Wharncliffe Road N, |
| Location City: | Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, DN31 3QF |
| Location Country: | England |
| Coordinates: | 53.5827°N -0.0664°W |
| Building Type: | RNLI Lifeboat Station |
| Opened Date: | 1810 / RNLI 1911 |
| Owner: | Royal National Lifeboat Institution |
Humber Lifeboat Station is an All-weather lifeboat station based at the mouth of the River Humber.
The station was opened in 1810, and was located on on Spurn Point in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Previously operated by Hull Trinity House, it was transferred to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1911.
Due to the waters around this part of the coast being so dangerous, and Spurn Point being so remote from the mainland, it is the only All-weather lifeboat station in the United Kingdom staffed by a professional full-time RNLI crew. Since 1810, the crews having been awarded 33 RNLI medals for gallantry.[1]
In June 2023, due to problems with the jetty on Spurn Point, and considering the continuing coastal erosion and difficulties getting access, it was announced that the Spurn Point base would close. Humber lifeboat station would move permanently to their second base at Grimsby Docks, previously used temporarily in certain weather conditions. [2]
The current lifeboat is the 17-05 Pride of the Humber (ON 1216), which has been on service since 1997.[3]
A lifeboat station was established in 1810 at Spurn Point with a crew supplied by Hull Trinity House.[4] A decommissioned gun battery emplacement, last used in 1809, was requisitioned as the main lifeboat building and was also partly converted into the Life Boat House Hotel. The crew of the lifeboat were billeted in Kilnsea, 5km (03miles) up the coast,[5] until 1819 when cottages were built adjacent to the life boat house. The lifeboat House Hotel was owned and operated by the master of the crew. Apart from selling drink and provisions, the master made a side income from loading gravel and sand onto passing ships.[6] The land and money to fund the operation had been supplied by the local lord of the manor. He petitioned Trinity House to take up the offer of the land and supply a lifeboat to use at Spurn. This they did, engaging Henry Greathead of South Shields in building a ship with ten oars.
In the early days of the rescue boat, the mood of the crew at Spurn was sullen as they were not paid too well and were at the mercy of the master who ran the inn to provide what food and drink they needed. Locals from up the coast would come to load ships with gravel and sand, which they did brandishing revolvers, threatening the crew members, who viewed the enterprise as taking away their self-sufficiency. In 1811, the master wrote to Trinity House to complain about this "Law of the Dunes" as he labelled it, to which they had no legal recourse, with the nearest officials miles away.
In December 1823, a fierce storm worked the ropes loose on the lifeboat and it capsized. It was ruined and needed replacing. Something similar occurred 60 years later in 1883, again after a particularly stormy night, the crew discovered that their lifeboat had been loosed of its moorings during the storm. This time it was safe and was later found drifting off the island of Texel, off the coast of the Netherlands.[7]
Between 1908 and 1911, the station came under the aegis of the Humber Conservancy Board,[8] who argued that the lifeboat station and crew should be handed over to the RNLI. For their part, the RNLI were reluctant to take on the crew as they were paid, which went against its policy of having volunteers.[9] Eventually, these issues were sorted out and the RNLI assumed control in 1911.[10] In 1919, the first motorised boat, the Samuel Oakes was launched and in 1924, the station name was changed from Spurn Lifeboat to Humber Lifeboat.The lifeboatmen were known to have taken advantage of the military railway between Spurn Point and Kilnsea as a means of quick transport up the coast to the village. They adapted a boat powered by wind to run along the line. When they met a military supply train travelling in the opposite direction, they were required to remove their sail wagon from the rails to allow the train to pass,[11] not an easy task as the sail wagon had no working brake.
Due to the remoteness of the station, its restricted access (by road from the north) and the dangerous waters around this part of the east coast, the crew were on-site full time and were the only full-time paid RNLI All-weather lifeboat crew in the United Kingdom. The station was one of nine RNLI lifeboat stations situated along the Yorkshire Coast and the most southerly of them all.[12] Up until 2012, the families of the crew lived in cottages on Spurn Head adjacent to the lifeboat station, but a decision was taken to have two crews revolving through a roster and so the families moved to new accommodation in Kilnsea.[13] As the spit of land is prone to breaches, this was also viewed as in the best interests of the families of the crew members. Latterly, the families had been housed in cottages built in 1975 to replace the row of houses first built in 1819. These were demolished when the seven new houses were built at a cost of £100,000.[14] The retaining wall built to hold the sea back from the domestic area still survives fulfilling its intended purpose.[15] From August 2012 to 2023, the two crews rotated through a shift of six days on and six days off.
The lifeboat was moored at the end of a pier that sets out into the Humber Estuary (westwards from Spurn Head) rather than a traditional launch down a ramp into the sea (which is on the eastern side of Spurn Head). This location has been described as being in the lee of bad weather, thereby providing a safer place to set off from.[16] The crew have pushbikes to cycle down to the end of the pier and then use a boarding boat to get to the lifeboat.[17] Despite some buildings being erected to launch the lifeboat, even from the early days, it was recognised of the difficulties in launching the boat from land, so it has been traditionally moored away from the coastline.[18] A traditional lifeboat house with slipway was built in 1923 and used up until 1977, but it fell into disuse with bigger lifeboats arriving, that were better moored afloat. The slipway and lifeboat house were demolished in 1995.
The Humber Lifeboat had an operational area that covers the Humber estuary to Immingham Dock, south along the coastline to Skegness, northwards to Bridlington and up to a out to sea. This overlapped with the Lifeboat to the south and the Lifeboat to the north and to other rescue agencies along the river.[19] The and lifeboats were the next nearest all-weather lifeboats along the east coast.[20] [21] [22]
In February 2023 following a routine inspection of the infrastructure of the station, issues were found and a decision was taken for cost and health & safety reasons to permanently relocate the boat and crew from Spurn Point to nearby Grimsby on the south side of the estuary.[23] [24]
During the stations 200 year plus history, 33 RNLI gallantry medals have been awarded to the crews for their gallantry,[25] including three gold, 13 silver and 17 bronze. Of these, Robert Cross, Coxswain for 31 years until 1943, won two gold, three silver and two bronze, as well as the George Medal.[26]
In just 7 weeks between December 1978 and February 1979, the Humber Lifeboat launched to three medal rescues. Coxswain Brian William Bevan MBE, is the only crew member in the history of the RNLI to be presented with Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals for Gallantry at the same awards ceremony.[27]
Exact records of the first 100 years of rescues are patchy, but between 1810 and 1854, over 800 people had been rescued from the seas around Spurn Head.[28] Between 1911 (when the Humber Lifeboat came under RNLI control) and December 2009, the lifeboat was launched 2,268 times saving over 790 lives in the process.[29] At least three crew of the lifeboat were lost at sea during rescues in the 19th century.[30]
The following are awards made at Spurn / Humber[37] [1]
Robert Cross, Coxswain - 1940
Robert Cross, Coxswain - 1940
Robert Cross GM, Coxswain - 1943 (Second Service Clasp)
Brian Bevan, Superintendent Coxswain - 1979
James Norris, Master of the Smack Waterloo - 1839
J M Williams, Mate of the quarantine cutter Bee - 1843
Edward Weldrake - 1877
Robert Cross, Coxswain - 1916
Robert Cross, Coxswain - 1925 (Second-Service Clasp)
Robert Cross, Coxswain - 1939 (Third-Service Clasp)
John Sanderson Major, crew member - 1940
William Jenkinson, crew member - 1940
William James Jenkin Hood, crew member - 1940
Samuel Cross, crew member - 1940
Samuel Frederick Hoopell, crew member - 1940
George Richards, Reserve Mechanic - 1943
Brian Bevan, Superintendent Coxswain - 1979
Robert Cross, Coxswain - 1922
John Sanderson Major, Motor Mechanic - 1939
Robert Cross GM, Coxswain - 1941 (Second-Service Clasp)
George Stephenson, crew member - 1943
Samuel Cross, crew member - 1943
Sidney Harman, crew member - 1943
William Major, crew member - 1943
George Shakesby, crew member - 1943
Dennis Bailey, Second Coxswain - 1979
Barry Sayers, Mechanic - 1979
Ronald Sayers, Assistant Mechanic - 1979
Michael Barry Storey, crew member - 1979
Peter Jordan, crew member - 1979
Sydney Rollinson, crew member - 1979
Dennis Bailey (Jnr), crew member - 1979
Brian Bevan, Superintendent Coxswain - 1979
Brian Bevan, Superintendent Coxswain - 1982 (Second-Service Clasp)
R Buchan, Coxswain - 1966
Humber Lifeboat Crew - 1979
Peter Jordan, crew member - 1980
Dennis Bailey Jnr, crew member - 1980
David Steenvoorden, Acting Coxswain Superintendent - 2004
David Steenvoorden, Superintendent Coxswain - 2006
Dennis Bailey, Second Coxswain - 1987
David Steenvoorden, Superintendent Coxswain - 2005
Daniel Atkinson, Assistant Mechanic - 2006
Brian Bevan, Superintendent Coxswain - 1987
Dennis Bailey, Second Coxswain - 1987
Richard White, Mechanic - 1987
Peter Thorpe, Assistant Mechanic - 1987
Jack Essex, crew member - 1987
David Cape, crew member - 1987
Brian Bevan, Superintendent Coxswain - 1994
Robert White, Second Coxswain - 1994
Peter Thorpe, Mechanic - 1994
Leslie Roberts, Assistant Mechanic - 1994
Sydney Rollinson, crew members - 1994
David Steenvoorden, crew members - 1994
Christopher Barnes, crew members - 1994
David Steenvoorden, Coxswain - 2012
Stephen Purvis, crew member - 2012
C Alcock, Second Mechanic - 1957
Dr James Duncan Busfield - 1976
Brian William Bevan, Superintendent Coxswain - 1999[38]
David Leonardus Steenvoorden - 2017[39]
| ON | Op. No. | Name | In service[40] | Class | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 206 | – | Manchester Unity | 38-foot 2in Self-righting (P&S) | On loan to Spurn from the RNLI when the Spurn boat was away on repair. | |
| 631 | – | 1903–1913 | 34-foot 6in Norfolk & Suffolk (P&S) | ||
| 516 | – | Charles Deere James | 1913–1919 | 38-foot Liverpool (P&S) | |
| 651 | – | Samuel Oakes | 1919–1923 | ||
| 680 | – | City of Bradford, | 1923–1929 | Paid for by a fundraising effort in the City of Bradford.[41] [42] [43] | |
| 709 | – | City of Bradford II | 1929–1954 | She was named at Bridlington to allow people to witness the event and reach the ceremony easily; it was decided that Spurn Point was too remote.[44] | |
| 680 | – | City of Bradford I | 1930–1932 | ||
| 911 | – | City of Bradford III[45] | 1954–1977 | Transferred to Lifeboat station in 1977 | |
| 828 | – | The Princess Royal (Civil Service No.7) | 1968–1969 | ||
| 1052 | City of Bradford IV | 1977–1987 | Funded by the Lord Mayor of Bradford's Charity Appeal 1974 - 1975.[46] | ||
| 1123 | 52-37 | Kenneth Thelwall | 1987–1997 | Named after its benefactor, Kenneth Thelwall from the East Riding of Yorkshire. Transferred to Lifeboat Station.[47] | |
| 1216 | 17-05 | 1997– | |||