RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832)
RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832)
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Owner | Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) |
Builder | Groves & Gutteridge, Cowes, Isle of Wight |
Official Number: | ON 832 |
Donor: | |
Station | Aldeburgh, Wells-next-the-Sea |
Laid down | 1939 |
Acquired | 1940 |
In service |
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Status | Undergoing restoration (2013) |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Liverpool Class |
Type | Motor lifeboat |
Displacement | 6 tons 10cwt |
Length | 35 ft 6 in (10.82 m) overall |
Beam | 10 ft 3 in (3.12 m) |
Draught | 2 ft 3.5 in (0.699 m) |
Depth | 4 ft 4 in (1.32 m) |
Installed power | 35hp Weyburn petrol engine |
Speed | 7.42 kn (13.74 km/h) |
Notes |
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RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832) was an
Description
Lucy Lavers is a Liverpool-class single engine lifeboat[2] which was also equipped with a sail, as was favoured by the RNLI for all single engine Liverpool class lifeboat. To stabiliser the lifeboat when under sail she was also fitted with a drop keel.[2] The installed engine was a 35 hp Weyburn petrol engine.[2] She was built for the RNLI by Groves and Gutteridge and was laid down in 1939.[2] The boat was finished in 1940 and was sent for service at the Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station. The lifeboat was 35 ft 6in long and has a beam of 10 ft 3in and a draft of only 2 ft 3.5in. She had a displacement of 6 tons.[2]
Service at No. 2 Station in Aldeburgh
The Dunkirk evacuation
The Lucy Lavers arrived in Aldeburgh in 1940 and was almost immediately commandeered,[5] along with Aldeburghs No:1 station lifeboat RNLB Abdy Beauclerk (ON 751)[6] by the Royal Navy. She was summoned to Dover and arrived at the port on 31 May. She was needed, along with 17 other RNLI lifeboats, to help in the Dunkirk evacuation, the removal of the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army from Dunkirk. At Dover small Royal Navy crews with a small number of RNLI coxswain towed the lifeboats to the French coast. They arrived just east of Dunkirk harbour where they began the evacuation. Lucy Lavers along with the other lifeboats was ordered to remain at Dunkirk until ordered to return home. She remained there and ferrying the evacuees out to larger ships. She stayed in the vicinity until late on the evening of 4 June. The Lucy Lavers, along with the other surviving lifeboats, returned overnight to Ramsgate in Kent.[6]
Wartime rescues
The Aldeburgh station records show that during the rest of the
Retirement and Restoration
The Lucy Lavers served at Aldeburgh for 19 years, during which she and her crew undertook 30 operations which saved 7 lives. During her service in the RNLI’s reserve fleet at
Restoration
Following some keen detective work by two Lifeboat enthusiasts from Norfolk, who had been looking for the Lucy Lavers for some time, she was found in 2006. Lucy Lavers underwent full restoration work at
Gallery
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Lucy Lavers on beach at Aldeburgh No:2 station. Alfred and Patience Gottwald being launched
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Lucy Lavers at Sea
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Undergoing restoration at Stiffkey, Norfolk (August 2013)
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Fully Restored operating from Wells-Next-The-Sea (Norfolk Coast)
References
- ISBN 9780319238059.
- ^ a b c d e f "Rescue Wooden Boats – Conserving maritime history". Lucy Lavers Background. RESCUE WOODEN BOATS (Registered Charity 1144180) 14 Norton Street, Burnham Norton, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE31 8DR. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
- ^ "Dunkirk boat Lucy Lavers given £100k restoration grant". BBC News webpage-3 November 2012. BBC © 2013. 2 November 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
- ^ a b "National Historic Ships Register". Lucy Lavers entry. National Historic Ships Register- National Historic Ships UK. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
- ^ a b "The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships". Lucy Lavers. Association of Dunkirk Little Ships. Archived from the original on 21 July 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ^ a b "The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships". Abdy Beauclerk. Association of Dunkirk Little Ships. Archived from the original on 21 July 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ISBN 0752438751
- ^ a b c "RNLB LUCY LAVERS/LUCY". Description and photographs of Lucy Lavers in the Channel Islands. Channel Islands Shipping. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
- ^ "Near £100.00 grant to restore the Lucy Lavers". Eastern Daily Press 24.co.uk, Dec 2012. Eastern Daily Press © 2013 Archant Community Media Ltd. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ^ "RNLI: The Lucy Lavers lives on". Retrieved 30 May 2023.