Purpose-built lifeboats first appeared towards the end of the 18th century. Some of the first were designed by Lionel Lukin who adapted local boat designs to be more buoyant so they could operate safely in rough seas. He designed one for the Suffolk Humane Society in 1807 for use at . It was based on a local yawl with a shallow draft and sails so it could reach offshore sandbanks, but oars were also provided.[1]
The design proved successful and was adopted by other lifeboat services in East Anglia including the Norfolk Shipwreck Association. The Suffolk Humane Society merged with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1855 as did the Norfolk Shipwreck Association in 1857.[2] The RNLI continued to build lifeboats to the Norfolk and Suffolk design and stationed them at other places on the east coast between the River Thames and the Humber.
The last Norfolk and Suffolk lifeboat was built in 1925 and was in use until 1953. The design evolved throughout this time, the last boats being built with petrol motors.
The Lowestoft lifeboat of 1807 was 40feet long and wide. It had wood and cork 'wales' or pads deep that projected up to from the sides. Empty casks along the inside of the sides with two more each at the front and back of the boat to give it buoyancy. An iron keel was fitted and a large volume of water ballast kept it lower in the water so that it cut through the waves instead of riding up and down over them. The water ballast was let in and out by plugs in the bottom to reduce the boat's weight when being launched and recovered from the beach. It had three masts, lug sails and 12 oars.[1]
Most of these features continued to be used in Norfolk and Suffolk lifeboats built during the next 85 years. The empty casks were replaced by detachable wood and canvas air cases along the sides and fixed air boxes in the bow and stern like Palmer-class lifeboats. The water ballast, up to 7 tons of it, was just left in the bottom of the boat so lifeboat crews worked in wet conditions. If too much water was taken on board, the excess drained out through gaps along the side. They were rigged with 2 lug sails.[3] [4]
| Name | Station | Built | Builder | Length | class=unsortable | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | Frances Ann | 1807–1850 | 1807 | Bareham | Suffolk Humane Society.[5] | |||
| [6] | – | 1833–1861 | 1833 | Suffolk Humane Society, to RNLI in 1855.[7] | ||||
| [8] | – | 1833–1858 | 1833 | |||||
| [9] | Marianne | 1840–1872 | 1840 | Teasdel | Suffolk Humane Society, to RNLI in 1855. Marianne was renamed Sisters in 1868.[10] | |||
| Sisters | ||||||||
| – | Solebay | 1840 | Teasdel | [11] | ||||
| [12] | – | 1846–1865 | 1846 | Branford | Norfolk Shipwreck Association, to RNLI in 1857.[13] | |||
| [14] | Victoria | 1850–1876 | 1850 | Sparham | Suffolk Humane Society, to RNLI in 1855. Victoria was renamed Laetitia by 1874. | |||
| Laetitia | ||||||||
| – | 1852–1858 | 1852 | Teasdel | Norfolk Shipwreck Association, to RNLI in 1857. | ||||
| [15] | Birmingham No. 2 | 1865–1883 | 1865 | Birmingham No. 2 was renamed Covent Garden by 1879. | ||||
| Covent Garden | ||||||||
| 14 | British Workman | 1870–1893 | 1870 | Sold 1893, broken up 1995. | ||||
| 15 | Anne Maria | 1861–1896 | 1860 | Anne Maria was renamed as Edward Birkbeck at an unknown date. | ||||
| Edward Birkbeck | ||||||||
| 16 | Husband | 1869–1879 | 1869 | [16] | ||||
| 1879–1890 | ||||||||
| – | George | 1870– | 1870 | |||||
| 17 | Covent Garden | 1883–1899 | 1882 | |||||
| 18 | Boys | 1867–1892 | 1867 | Renamed Godsend by 1877. | ||||
| Godsend | ||||||||
| 19 | Duff | 1859–1892 | 1859 | Renamed Abraham Thomas by 1875. | ||||
| Abraham Thomas | ||||||||
| 20 | Brave Robert Shedden | 1861–1883 | 1861 | |||||
| Mark Lane | 1883–1889 | |||||||
| 21 | Leicester | 1870–1883 | 1870 | |||||
| 1883–1894 | ||||||||
| 22 | Samuel Plimsoll | 1876–1905 | 1876 | |||||
| 23 | Sisters | 1872–1886 | 1872 | |||||
| The Two Sisters | 1886–1890 | |||||||
| Mary and Hannah | 1890–1910 | |||||||
| 24 | Henry Burford RN | 1871–1895 | 1870 | |||||
| 25 | Bolton | 1870–1893 | 1870 | |||||
| 26 | Grace & Lalley of Broadoak | 1867–1870 | 1867 | |||||
| St Michaels, Paddington | 1870–1897 | |||||||
| 27 | Charles Bury | 1884–1897 | 1884 | |||||
| 28 | Harriett | 1855–1869 | 1855 | Beeching | Renamed in 1869.[17] | |||
| London Coal Exchange No. 1 | 1869–1893 | |||||||
| 29 | Dorinda and Barbara | 1871–1882 | 1871 | Displayed at the Imperial Institute in London from 1897 until 1917. | ||||
| Quiver No. 2 | 1882–1897 | |||||||
| 233 | Mark Lane | 1889–1892 | 1889 | |||||
| Reserve No. 1 | 1892–1899 | Reserve Fleet | ||||||
| Margaret | 1899–1907 | |||||||
| 270 | Margaret | 1890–1899 | 1889 | Beeching | [18] | |||
| 1899–1902 | ||||||||
| 1902–1924 | Reserve fleet | |||||||
| 288 | Stock Exchange | 1890–1892 | 1890 | Ellis | Sold 1922 and converted to a houseboat. Broken up in 1978 at Felixstowe Ferry. | |||
| Mark Lane | 1892–1921 | |||||||
| 304 | Aldeburgh | 1890–1899 | 1890 | Critten | Had 14 oars, double banked. Capsized with the loss of 7 of the 18 crew in 1899; broken up in 1900.[19] [20] | |||
| 319 | – | 1891–1895 | Spare | 1890 | Spare boat, never named or allocated to a station. Sold to Ghana. | |||
| 326 | Thora Zelma | 1892–1904 | 1891 | |||||
| Reserve No. 8 | 1904–1913 | Reserve fleet | ||||||
| 327 | Beauchamp | 1892–1901 | 1891 | Sold 1901, broken up 1966. | ||||
| 329 | John Burch | 1892–1912 | 1892 | Sold in 1912 and converted to a yacht. |
The RNLI staged a trial of sailing lifeboats in 1892. Of the four different boats, the Norfolk and Suffolk class was deemed the least effective. The trial was held at Lowestoft and that station's two-year-old lifeboat was used. The water ballast proved to be a problem, the boat getting into difficulty in the surf close to the beach before the water ballast could be taken in. Even when properly ballasted, the boat could become unstable as water was able to shift side-to-side and back-and-front. Boats built after the trial had the water ballast constrained in tanks beneath a deck in the centre of the boat where it was not able to shift so much. Valves were fitted to allow water above the deck to drain out. An alteration was also made to the shape of the wales so that waves flowed over them better; in the past they sometimes waves coming from the side got caught under the wale and pushed the boat over the opposite side.[21] [1]
| Name | Station | Built | Builder | Length | class=unsortable | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 351 | Hearts of Oak | 1893–1917 | 1893 | Sold and used as a yacht. Broken up about 1990. | ||||
| 352 | Bolton | 1893–1902 | 1893 | Sold 1926. Renamed Juno and now a houseboat at Horsford, Norfolk. | ||||
| 1902 | ||||||||
| 1902–1918 | ||||||||
| 1918–1925 | ||||||||
| 353 | Alfred Corry | 1893–1918 | 1893 | Beeching Brothers | 16-oar boat. Sold 1919 but now on display at the Alfred Corry Museum, Southwold, which is the relocated Cromer lifeboat house.[22] | |||
| 356 | Stock Exchange | 1893–1912 | 1893 | |||||
| 1912–1918 | Reserve fleet | |||||||
| 371 | Leicester | 1894–1923 | 1894 | |||||
| 397 | Edward Birkbeck | 1896–1925 | 1896 | Sold 1925, now awaiting restoration at Winterton in Norfolk. | ||||
| 405 | Rescue | 1897–1920 | 1897 | Sold and used as a houseboat until at least 1969. | ||||
| 406 | St Paul | 1897–1931 | 1897 | On display at Chatham Historic Dockyard since 1996. | ||||
| 430 | No. 9 | 1899–1923 | 1899 | Carried a crew of 15. Sold 1923, renamed Viking but destroyed by a bomb at Dover in World War II.[23] | ||||
| 431 | Covent Garden | 1899–1919 | 1899 | |||||
| 432 | James Stevens No.14 | 1900–1905 | 1900 | Thames Ironworks | Stood down in 1905 for an engine to be fitted. It returned to service in 1907 and was sold in 1928.[24] | |||
| 482 | City of Winchester | 1902–1928 | 1902 | Thames Ironworks | 12-oar boat.[25] [26] Sold 1928 and renamed Ellen Gordon. Became a houseboat at Maldon but broken up in 1980. | |||
| 506 | Nancy Lucy | 1903–1929 | 1903 | |||||
| 543 | Kentwell | 1905–1921 | 1905 | |||||
| 1922–1924 | ||||||||
| Reserve No. 1 | 1924–1928 | Reserve fleet | ||||||
| 589 | Eleanor Brown | 1909–1924 | 1909 | Sold and converted to be a houseboat at Blakeney.[27] | ||||
| Reserve No. 1C | 1924–1931 | Reserve fleet | ||||||
| 607 | James Leith | 1910–1919 | 1910 | Sold in 1936, On display at Chatham Historic Dockyard since 1996. | ||||
| 1919–1929 | ||||||||
| 1930–1935 | ||||||||
| 629 | Hugh Taylor | 1912–1919 | 1912 | Sold and became the yacht Johannes J, last reported in Holland in 1987. | ||||
| 1919–1922 | ||||||||
| Reserve No. 1A | 1922–1929 | Reserve fleet | ||||||
| 1929–1931 | ||||||||
| 1931–1936 | ||||||||
| 631 | – | 1903–1913 | 1903 | Boat never given a name. | ||||
| 656 | Hearts of Oak | 1918–1929 | 1918 | Sold and became the yacht Wander Bird, last reported to be in Frontignan, France, in 2002. | ||||
| 1929–1934 | Reserve fleet |
The RNLI deployed its first experimental motor lifeboat in 1904 and in 1905 converted three pulling and sailing lifeboats into motor lifeboats. One of these was 's Norfolk and Suffolk-class lifeboat James Stevens No.14. It was fitted with a Blake 40 hp petrol engine with 4 cylinders and running at 550 . Tests on 7 June 1906 measured the converted lifeboat's speed to be 6.952kn. It was then sent to Harwich for sea trials in October. These were completed in February 1907, after which the boat returned to Walton-on-the-Naze to take up duty.[28] [24]
The engines in motor lifeboats were regarded as a supplement to sails at first but the experimental conversions were deemed a success. Construction of new motor lifeboats was protracted as it was difficult to obtain the parts and skilled staff, especially during World War I. Three Norfolk and Suffolk class motor lifeboats were built for service at East Anglian stations in the 1920s.[29] The engines were a 4-cylinder 60 bhp unit in John and Mary Meiklam Of Gladswood of 1921, and 6-cylinder engines of 80 bhp in the two boats built in 1923 and 1925.
| Name | In service | Station | Built | Builder | Length | class=unsortable | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 432 | James Stevens No.14 | 1907–1928 | 1900 | Thames Ironworks | Auxiliary engine fitted to a sailing lifeboat in 1905/1906, returned to service in 1907. Sold in 1928, now in store at Titchmarsh Marina, Walton-on-the-Naze.[30] | ||||
| 663 | John and Mary Meiklam Of Gladswood | 1921 | 1921 | S. E. Saunders | Renamed in 1921 when transferred to Lowestoft, the original name was reused by ON 670 in 1924. Used at Dover for a while during World War II. Sold October 1952. Last reported as workboat Wimp in Aden in 1955. | ||||
| Agnes Cross | 1921–1939 | ||||||||
| 1940–1941 | |||||||||
| 1941–1952 | |||||||||
| 670 | H.F. Bailey | 1923–1924 | 1923 | J. Samuel White | Renamed in 1924, the original name was then reused on lifeboat ON 694. Sold October 1952. On display at Gorleston Lifeboat House since June 1994.[31] | ||||
| John and Mary Meiklam of Gladswood | 1924–1939 | ||||||||
| 1939–1952 | Reserve fleet | ||||||||
| 691 | Mary Scott | 1925–1940 | 1925 | J. Samuel White | Sold March 1953. In April 2022 it was reported to be at Littlehampton as a yacht with a cabin added. | ||||
| 1940–1953 | Reserve fleet |