Three lifeboats in succession served the Looe Station, each one propelled by ten oars and one or two masts hoisting lug sails typical of Looe fishing boats.
Between 1866 and 1930, three lifeboats were stationed in Looe in succession:
- OXFORDSHIRE
- 28th December 1866 to July 1882
- Boy’s Own No. 1
- 17th July 1882 to June 1902
- Ryder
- 26th June 1902 to July 1930
All three were sailing and pulling lifeboats, without engines. All Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats were equipped with lugsails – quadrilateral sails cut with a longer leading edge (the luff) than the after edge (the leech), giving the sail a high peak. The head of the sail was hung from a yard, which extended further aft than forward. There were two principal rigs – a dipping lug on the main mast and a standing lug on the mizzen; or standing lugs on both masts. In common with many of the fishing vessels of the Southwest, the Looe lifeboats were rigged in the former manner. To tack, the yard was lowered, its leading edge swung around to the leeward side of the mast, and then rehoisted. The standing lugsail was left either to fill or be blown against the mast. Although more work was involved with a dippling lugsail, it was more efficient than a a standing lug when long distances were to be travelled with little tacking or gybing.
Each boat was deployed in exactly the same manner. The lifeboat was housed with its bow facing the sea, in the station on a wheeled carriage. Paid helpers pulled the carriage by ropes on the sides of the carriage, which was steered from the rear by two men known as the ‘shaftsmen’. At the time, there was no sea wall or paving stones, just an earth bank with a gap. When this was reached, the crew would board by means of a ladder and the boat dragged to the water. The lifeboat’s keel sat on trolley and as soon as the carriage stopped in the water, the coxswain would release the only rope that still connected the boat to the carriage and the boat would shoot forward into the sea.
Launching from the beach was only possible 1½ hours either side of high tide, because of the risk of the carriage wheels, despite their width of nine inches to one foot (23–30 cm) in width, sticking into the sand. At other times, the launch was down the Albatross slipway into the river, where the carriage was restrained by tackles fixed to a wooden post. Halfway out to the pier on the river side was a chain attached to which and running out to the roadstead was a 3in. or 4in rope moored with a heavy anchor. If it was low water when the lifeboat was needed she could be taken down on her carriage to the bed of the river by the Banjo Pier, wheeled out as far as possible, this rope picked up and the crew would haul the boat off the carriage.
The lifeboats had two crews, which would alternate between manning the boat and helping the launch, along with other helpers. Each of the haulers were given a brass token the size of an old penny, inscribed ‘LBI’, to be redeemed for payment. The signalman had some two dozen of these and if there were any left, they would be handed out to fishermen. At the March quarterly practice session, when the fishing boats might not have been to sea for weeks – and even if they had, little fish would have been caught – there could be over 100 men around the boathouse hoping for a token.
Once a practice or a rescue was complete, the boat would be floated back onto to the carriage and hauled back to the boathouse, where is was the coxswain’s responsibility to wash it down with fresh water.
Overall responsibility for the lifeboat rested with the local committee, made up of ex-master mariners, the harbour master, chief coastguard officers and one or two local businessmen. It was on their recommendation that extra pay was made for exceptional duties, even for haulers. However, the lifeboat could only be launched on the orders of the Honorary Secretary in conjunction with the coxswain.
Between them, these three boats saved some eighty lives. Each had a crew of 13 (although on at least one occasion was launched with only 12) – a coxswain, a second coxswain, a bowman and ten oarsmen. In addition, there was a signalman who summoned the crew by means of a rocket, and later a signal gun, and up to 30 men who helped haul the boat in and out of the water.. All members of the crew received a payment for participating in a rescue. Oxfordshire’s crew received 10s. each and 1s went to each hauler; by 1894 Boy’s Own No. 1 crew received 15s. and haulers 2s 6d each; while by 1926 the Ryder’s crew received 19s. each and the hauler 4s. 6d. From around 1900, the two shaftsmen received a fee – it is not clear whether this was in addition to the hauler’s fee. The signalman, responsible for summoning the crew by rocket (‘maroon’), and later a signal gun and for communicating with the boat for as long as she was visible also received a fee. Payments were increased if the crew was called out at night – in 1899 this was doubled for the crew, but they also received half as much again for rescues between 1st October and 31st March. Crews were also paid for the quarterly exercises the boats undertook, under the supervision of a Royal National Lifeboat Institution inspector. For this they received 4s.
An additional payment was also given to the person who first brought the news of a vessel in distress.
The Coxswain was paid a salary (of £8 a year in 1899). He was responsible for boathouse and at sea would sit at the stern and steer the boat. The Second Coxswain took a salary of £2 a year, and the bowman, who was responsible for throwing ropes when the boat was alongside a vessel or coming into harbour, was given 80 shillings and the signalman £1 a year. The Coxswain, 2nd Coxswain and Signalman also received small pensions.
Oxfordshire
Lineage
Image: A 37ft, 6 oared self-righting lifeboat of 1866. © RNLI
- Type
- Self-righting lifeboat
- Length
- 32 ft
- Beam
- 7 ft 6 in
- Draft
- 3 foot 6 in
- Shipwright
- Thomas William Woolfe & Sons
- Service
- 16 years
- Rescues
- 12
Looe’s first lifeboat was funded by a donation of £420 from Sir John Pollard Willoughby (1799–1866). She was named Oxfordshire after his native county, but Sir John died in the September of 1866, so never knew the boat was launched. A standard 32ft long by 7ft 6in with a depth of 3ft 6in. (9.75 m x 2.29 m x 1.07 m) self-righting lifeboat, the Oxfordshire was built by Thomas William Woolfe & Sons of 46-47 Lower Shadwell, London, one of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s regular boatyards. She cost £247 15s 0d and her carriage an additional £84 19s 6d. No official number was given to her, but after a successful harbour trialon 21st December, presumably on the River Thames, she was readied for transport the following day. Carried free of charge on the railways, she reached Liskeard on 28th December. Rather than being transferred on the Moorswater to Looe railway line (which had opened for freight in 1860), and which transported 100 people to Looe for free to see the inauguration of the boat, she was drawn to Looe on her carriage by a team of ten horses.
Between twelve and one o’clock a procession was formed at Church-end in the following order:
- Police
- Band of the 2nd D.C.A.V. [probably the 2nd Devonshire Artillery Volunteers]
- Volunteers
- Mayor and Corporation
- Coastguard
- Naval Reserve
- Customs
- Clergymen of the neighbourhood
- Ministers of all denominations
- Committee
- Subscribers
- Public
This procession then made its way to the borough boundary to meet the boat which arrived at one-thirty. However, once the boat reached Looe, the narrow streets proved a problem. A mast struck a shop near the entrance to Fore Street and further down the carriage pulled off a house’s water spout. So she was taken off her carriage and rolled on logs to the beach. Here around 3,000 people had assembled.
W.H. Pole Carew, president of the local branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, addressed the assembly, praising those who participated in rescues, acknowledging the generosity of the recently deceased Sir John Willoughby and expressing the town’s indebtedness to the Institution, which was represented by Captain Ward. The Captain made a short speech emphasising that the Institution was as much a Cornish one as a London one. The naming of her was undertaken by the President’s wife, Frances Pole Carew (née Buller), who broke a bottle of wine over the stern. A short service was then held, with the choirs of Looe and Morval churches singing. The day ended with tea for the singers and others at the Mayor’s house, a pubic supper at the Mechanics Institute and illuminations at Church-end.
The ceremony was noted in the diary of Harriet Buller Kitson: ‘Lifeboat launched. Choir sang. Mrs Eliot there and Lord Eliot’ – meaning William Gordon Cornwallis Elliot, 4th Earl of St Germans. ‘Mrs Eliot’ possibly refers to his mother Jemima (née Cornwallis).
The Oxfordshire served at Looe for 16 years and was launched for rescues on fourteen occasions and rescued fourteen lives; mostly from small trading ships and fishing vessels.
But not every launch was a rescue or one of the regular quarterly exercises. On 2nd June 1868, she left Looe at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and arrived in Falmouth at 11 o’clock in the evening. The following morning she raced against eight other lifeboats and came in first, wining first prize of eight pounds. At 1 o’clock she set off for home and was back in Looe at 7.
Eleven years later, on 21st June 1878, the boat was asked to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony for the new (the fourth) Eddystone Lighthouse along with the Plymouth lifeboat Clemency, just in case any of the attending boats – which included the Royal Yacht Osborne ran into difficulties. In the event, the weather was so bad that the ceremony was postponed, and both boats returned to their stations. The ceremony was reconvened on 19th August, again with Oxfordshire and Clemency in attendance. It passed without incident and was commemorated in The Illustrated London News, the Duke of Edinburgh, as Master of the Trinity House Corporation performing the ceremony accompanied by the Prince of Wales. The engraving by William Heysham Overend (1851–1898) shows a lifeboat on the left, which could possibly be the Oxfordshire.
Boy's Own No. 1
Lineage
Image: Boy's own No.1 with crew in 1882.
- Type
- Self-righting lifeboat
- Length
- 34ft
- Beam
- 8 ft
- Draft
- 3 ft 6 in
- Shipwright
- Thomas William Woolfe & Sons
- Service
- 20 years
- Rescues
- 7
The Boy’s Own Paper was a popular weekly founded in 1879 aimed at boys and published at the time by the Religious Tract Society. It raised money from its readers for two lifeboats – Boy’s Own No. 1, which was stationed in Looe from 1882 to 1902 and Boy’s Own No. 2, which was stationed in Poole from 1880 to 1896.
Like the Oxfordshire, Boy’s Own No. 1 was built by Woolfe of Shadwell. She was slightly longer, at 34 ft in length by 8 ft and cost £328 18s. 0d. A new launching carriage was also provided, costing £129. She was brought by rail as far as Menheniot, three miles east of Liskeard. From there she was brought on her carriage to Looe by six powerful horses, where she arrived after dusk to a reception of hundreds of locals. She had her first trial in rough seas on 21st July and would save 23 people during her career.
On 24th December 1886 the boat’s self-righting capability was tested. She was capsized in the harbour in 12 feet of water, where she remained on her side until two men stood on her keel and righted her. The exercise was repeated twice, with the same result. A temporary replacement boat was immediately sent to Looe. Boy's Own No. 1 was fitted with water ballast tanks and was back in service the following August.
Early in 1901 the Local Committee were concerned about the condition of the boat and the coxswain and crew considered a more modern, drop-keel boat would be more appropriate, a view endorsed by the District Inspector.
Ryder
Lineage
Image: The Ryder in Looe Harbour.
- Type
- Self-righting lifeboat
- Length
- 35 ft
- Beam
- 8 ft 6 in
- Draft
- 3 ft 6 in
- Shipwright
- Thames Ironworks
- Service
- 28 years
- Rescues
- 14
Looe’s third lifeboat, Ryder, Official Number 489, was, like her predecessors, a self-righting sailing and pulling boat. She was funded by a donation from the late William Ryder of Brixton Road, southwest London, who had no known association with Looe. Like those two she was built in London, but by the Thames Ironworks in Blackwall. She was slightly larger than Boy’s Own No. 1 at 35 ft (10.7m), with a beam of 8 ft 6 in. (2.6m) and a draft of 3ft 6in, but with a drop keel. Ryder was presumably rigged in the same way as her predecessors – a dipping lug, a jib and mizzen at the second thwart from aft. A carriage was also supplied, along with a steering pole. It had been made for the Nairn lifeboat station but adapted for Looe by the Bristol Wagon Works at a cost of £46. It was transported to Menheniot by rail and then by road. In contrast the Ryder took the train as far a Plymouth, then brought round to Looe by sea.
The launch of Ryder was scheduled for 26th June 1902 – which was also earmarked for the coronation for Edward VII, but two days before he was diagnosed with appendicitis, and the coronation was postponed to August. Festivities were cancelled, but it was decided that the launch of new lifeboat could not be delayed, so the launch went ahead as planned. She was named by Lady Salusbury-Trewlany, who, as Harriet Buller Kitson, had witnessed the launch of the Oxfordshire.
It was reported in the local press:
The new boat presented a very gay appearance, its new bright colours being enhanced by bouquets of red, white and blue flowers … Lady Trelawney named the boat, at the same time breaking a bottle of champagne wreathed with flowers and garlanded with red, white and blue ribbons. The red-capped crew then took their places on the boat which was run down the beach and took the water beautifully amid local cheers. The crew pulled out to sea for some distance and set sail, the movement of the boat being watched with the greatest interest by crowds of spectators on the pier, churchyard and the surrounding cliffs.
Ryder would go on to rescue 43 lives.
With motorised lifeboats – always afloat – supplied to Plymouth and Fowey, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution decided, despite strong local opposition, to close the lifeboat station. Her last practice was on 26th June 1930 – the exact day and time of her first launch. A large crowd of residents and visitors gathered. At 5.30 pm the signal rocket was fired, and the Ryder was brought out of the boathouse one last time. As well as the usual crew, with Thomas Toms the Coxswain, also climbing on board were R.A. Peter, the local Royal National Lifeboat Institution president, John Childs, the local chairman and W.F. Phillips, the Honorary Secretary. Mr Peter spoke to the crowd expressing the sorrow of losing a lifeboat and making it clear that her removal was against the wishes of the people of Looe. Ryder was then quickly and efficiently launched for one last time as a serving lifeboat.