Who invented lifeboats

She was stationed at South Shields and remained in service until Her first service took place on 30 January when she rescued a shipwrecked crew on Herd Sand. Henry Greathead went on to build 31 Original type lifeboats over the next 2 decades for communities around our coasts and abroad. He never took out a patent on his invention and was always willing to share his plans for the good of others and lifesaving at sea. Home About us Our history Timeline The first lifeboats. Model of the first purpose-built lifeboat, the Original , built by Henry Francis Greathead.

Measuring 9m long and 3m wide, she could carry 20 people including a crew of The oldest surviving lifeboat, the Zetland , at Redcar in Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets CSS if you are able to do so. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving. Home Explore Programmes Topics About.

Hide image caption Show image caption. Comments 1 comment 1. At on 25 April , Mike wrote: I am currently researching for a proposed book on William Wouldhave, who I have been researching for over 3 years now with lots of new information and I am more and more sure 'he was the inventor' of what we now call a lifeboat.

Mike Complain about this comment. About this object. Find out more Museum. Today, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution has a fleet of over lifeboats. Most of the boat crews are voluntary, rushing from their everyday lives, when alerted, to put out to sea and risk their lives to save others.

Since , lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved as many as , lives. This painting shows William Wouldhave developing his model lifeboat for the competition. His idea was for a self-righting boat, constructed from copper, with cork for buoyancy. Henry Greathead never took out a patent on his design, preferring to share his ideas for the good of others and lifesaving at sea. This object description and its related educational resources were researched and written by our team of historians and education specialists.

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