After laying derelict for many years, Ryder was re-discovered and recovered in the 1980s, and restored to sailing condition by local enthusiasts during the 1990s.
With the closure of the lifeboat station, Ryder was sold for £65 to a Birmingham cabinet maker, Harold Taylor. He left his wife a year or so later and set up home with his secretary Edith May Hitchins. The boat was renamed Halmay 3 – presumably a combination of their names – and converted into a twin-engined houseboat, with a cabin added. She was then sold to Jack Houghton and in 1962 brought from Bristol on the back of a lorry to Weymouth harbour, before being towed to Ferrybridge. Here her bottom was sheathed in glass-fibre and a Craig’s diesel engine installed. Houghton and his family lived on board at weekends, until he finally sold his house in Bristol and moved to a bungalow in Weymouth.
Halmay had an open cockpit aft, over which a tarpaulin was stretched to give shelter. One Saturday, sparks from the boat’s coal stove set the tarpaulin alight, with Houghton, his wife and grandson trapped inside. Fortunately Houghton had installed a hatch at the front of the cabin, so were able to get onto the foredeck. From here they were rescued by a launch (their own dinghy being tied at the stern). Halmay was towed ashore and the fire put out, by a motor tender’s bilge pump, not by the Fire Brigade’s portable pump which they spent half an hour priming and then, having taken the outlet hose off, soaked everyone in the tender’s cockpit.
By the late 1980s Houghton was too infirm to look after Halmay so the family sold her to Steven Cox. Unfortunately she sank shortly afterwards. She was recovered so that she was no longer an obstruction, but abandoned on the beach on the Fleet side of Chesil Beach.
A close call
In September 1987, the Royal Engineers based at Wyke Regis Camp were helping with the clear-up of the beach and, as Cox could not be traced, considered burning her. Fortunately, the Honorary Secretary of the Weymouth RNLI, Barney Morris, recognised her as an old sailing and pulling lifeboat and contacted the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society. She was identified by Jeff Morris and Tony Denton as Ryder from her builder’s number. Lt. Col. Ron Overd, commandant at Wake Regis, and coincidentally a Looe man and relative of the former Coxswain William T. Toms, organised her recovery to the camp and then onto the premises of Devenish Breweries at Brewers Quay, Weymouth. The rudder was later recovered by Mike Boyce from Chesil Beach and reunited with the boat.
Devenish Breweries organised a cosmetic restoration over 18 months, to return the lifeboat to her original shape and put her on display in Hope Square. However, her condition soon deteriorated and she was moved behind the brewery buildings. By 1994 she was looking for a new home. Despite the best efforts of the local Lions Club, no suitable location could be found in Looe – even if the boathouse had been vacant, its size would not have accommodated both the boat and visitors.
On 5 April 1995, she was gifted by Brewers Quay to the Polperro Heritage Museum and transported that day back to Cornwall. She was brought from Weymouth by Portland Plant Hire (who charged a nominal fee, paid by Tony and Val Pagett of the Buccaneer Restaurant in Polperro) to the ECC jetties at Fowey, from where she was craned onto the Bodinnick Ferry and taken to C. Toms & Son’s boatyard for a full survey.
The inaugural meeting of Project Ryder was held on 13th April 1995, under the chairmanship of Captain Tony White. Its aim was to raise funds for the restoration of Ryder to a seaworthy condition.
A community united
The event was successful in securing funds for her restoration - 40 per cent (in excess of £26,000) from the Heritage Lottery Fund (one of whose trustees was Sir Richard Carew Pole), 50 per cent from the European Regeneration Development Fund and 10 per cent from other sources, including Westcountry Television, Caradon District Council, the Duchy of Cornwall, The Cornwall Heritage Trust, the Chamber of Commerce, S.E.C.T.A. and many private individuals. Fundraising events were also held, including a tea dance, whist drive, quiz evening and a dinner. Sue and Phil Smallridge, owners of The Variety Shop in East Looe gave the fundraisers use of their shop in the six weeks running up to Christmas, two years running, for the sale of Christmas cards and souvenirs. During a jazz evening at Pelynt House, a cheque for £5,000 was handed over by Henry Gallichan of the Siblyback water sports association, which had disbanded and was now handing over its club funds.
With funding now secure, the restoration began in March 1997 at Toms’ boatyard and was completed in July 1998. On 29th July 1998, she was relaunched at Polruan and towed to Polperro by the Lucy Brown with a crew of C. Curtis, D.A. White and H.W. Hall. Rowing trials in the harbour and local sea area were held the same day. The formal inauguration ceremony was performed by Tony Bullimore and she was rededicated by Dick Jolliff of Polperro on 1st August, and on the following day was towed to Falmouth to participate in the ‘Lifeboats through the Ages’ display.
In January of the following year the Project Ryder was formally constituted as a charity (number 1074520) with the following purpose:
For the public benefit to preserve and exhibit the vessel known as the Ryder with a view to educating the public in the historical significance of this vessel.
The trustees were Captain White, Henry Hall CBE and John Shearsmith. For nearly 20 years, the public not only had the chance to see a pulling and sailing lifeboat on the water but were offered an opportunity to go to sea in her. In addition As a rare example of a sea-worth lifeboat of the early 20th century, the Ryder was called on to take part in reconstructions of two famous shipping disasters. In 2007 she took part in the centenary commemoration of rescue by the lifeboats of Cadgwith, Coverack and Porthleven of everyone on board – all 456 people – the White Star liner Suevicwhich ran aground near the Lizard. To this day, it remains the largest rescue undertaken by the RNLI. Less celebratory, in 2015, Ryder played the part of the Courtmacsherry lifeboat Kezia Gwilt, which had spent six hours at sea recovering bodies from the torpedoed Lusitania.
She was last taken out on 3 October 2017 for her winter layup at Polruan.
In 2021 she was transferred to Charlestown Historic Harbour where she awaits further restoration.