RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832)

RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832) was an RNLI lifeboat which was on No. 2 station at Aldeburgh[1] from 1940 until 1959 when she was placed in the reserve fleet until 1968 when she was retired. The Rescue Wooden Boats Charity is currently undertaking restoration of the vessel.[2][3] The Lucy Lavers is entered in the National Historic Ships register and has the Certificate No 2206.[4]

RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832)
History
United Kingdom
Owner: Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)
Builder: Groves & Gutteridge, Cowes, Isle of Wight
Official Number:ON 832
Donor:
StationAldeburgh, Wells-next-the-Sea
Laid down: 1939
Acquired: 1940
In service:
  • 1940 to 1968
  • (Re-named L'Esperance), became a pilot boat in the Channel Island port of St. Helier, Jersey.
Status: Undergoing restoration (2013)
General characteristics
Class and type: Liverpool Class
Type: Motor lifeboat
Tonnage: Displacement of 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:
  • Fitted with single mast
  • and carried two oars

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 Second World War, Lucy Lavers along with Abdy Beauclerk were called out on many occasions. Most of these 'shouts' (calls for help) were in response to reports of aircraft crashed into the sea. Both Lifeboats spent long hours searching exhaustively for survivors but on most occasions all they found was wreckage or patches of oil. The lifeboats at Aldeburgh were responsible for saving a total of 107 lives during the war period.

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 Wells-next-the-Sea, Sheringham, and Rhyl, she undertook a further 52 missions, saving 37 lives.[7] In 1968 she was finally sold out of the fleet by the RNLI and began a career as a pilot boat[8] in the port of Saint Helier, Jersey. She was also renamed L’esperance[8] and eventually became a private fishing boat. In 1986 the lifeboat was given a new role when she was bought by a Dive and Ski Club of St. Helier. During this period she spend most of her time around the island of Sark.[8] In 1997 she was finally retired and her engine canopy and some of her remaining fixtures and fittings were stripped out and used in the restoration of Howard D (ON 797), an ex-Saint Helier lifeboat. Following the removal of these parts her diagonal mahogany hull, which was still in good condition, and she was sent to Simon Evans Boat Yard on the River Yonne, in Sens, France. She was then joined the Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust.[5]

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 is now undergoing full restoration work at Stiffkey, Norfolk (2013). Having been stripped back to little more than a bare hull, the majority of her original mahogany hull remains. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels by National Historic Ships. Her certificate number is 2206.[4] In 2012 the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded a grant to Rescue Wooden Boats £99.300[9] towards the restoration of the Lucy Lavers. It was planned that the restoration would be completed in time for the lifeboat to return to Dunkirk under her own steam to join the 75th anniversary celebrations of Dunkirk evacuation, which was due to take place in May 2015. The restoration has now been completed and she may be seen moored at Wells Next The Sea in Norfolk (see last photograph below).

  • RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832)
  • Lucy Lavers on beach at Aldeburgh No:2 station. Alfred and Patience Gottwald being launched
  • Lucy Lavers at Sea
  • Undergoing restoration at Stiffkey, Norfolk (August 2013)
  • Fully Restored operating from Wells-Next-The-Sea (Norfolk Coast)
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References
  1. OS Explorer Map 231 – Southwold & Bungay. ISBN 9780319238059.
  2. "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.
  3. "Dunkirk boat Lucy Lavers given £100k restoration grant". BBC News webpage-3 November 2012. BBC © 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  4. "National Historic Ships Register". Lucy Lavers entry. National Historic Ships Register- National Historic Ships UK. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  5. "The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships". Lucy Lavers. Association of Dunkirk Little Ships. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  6. "The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships". Abdy Beauclerk. Association of Dunkirk Little Ships. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  7. Wells-next-the-Sea Lifeboats. Author: Nicholas Leach & Paul Russell. Published by:Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2006. Pages 52–54. ISBN 0752438751
  8. "RNLB LUCY LAVERS/LUCY". Description and photographs of Lucy Lavers in the Channel Islands. Channel Islands Shipping. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  9. "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.
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