Lifeboat bearing city’s name heads ‘home’

IT SAVED 650 lives from maritime disasters in a career dating back to 1989.

And now the lifeboat is to be unveiled in a museum in the Yorkshire city with which it shares its name.

The vessel is set to be the newest exhibit at Sheffield’s National Emergency Services Museum which has teamed up with the RNLI to ensure the city that helped launch the lifeboat gets to share its history. Still in complete working order, visitors will be able to board the vessel from next month and get an appreciation of its career.

The Duchess of Kent officially named the lifeboat on July 28, 1989, while it was stationed in Whitby.

The vessel has also served at Ramsgate, Hartlepool and Sennen Cove in Cornwall before finding a permanent home at Poole in Dorset in 2001.

The Tyne class lifeboat remained at Poole until last year, when she was withdrawn from service and replaced by a new D class vessel. The lifeboat will be officially unveiled by dignatories – including the Lord Mayor of Sheffield Anne Murphy – at the museum from July 23.

Matt Wakefield, the CEO of the museum, said: “The Emergency Services Museum has a proud history of caring for historic emergency vehicles and we are delighted to be receiving a modern RNLI lifeboat to display – especially one with such a connection to the city.

“We’re looking forward to inviting the public to the exhibition and running sessions on the lifeboat’s remarkable stories and the inspiring people who served on her.”

Residents raised £435,000 towards the vessel’s £560,000 costs in the late 1980s.

At 47ft long and weighing 26 tonnes, the state-of-the-art vessel was designed to sail straight through towering waves and could reach a maximum speed of 17.6 knots.