NORTH DEAL-WALMER AND KINGSDOWN
LIFEBOATS
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
HAULING UP NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
WALMER LIFEBOAT
WALMER LIFEBOAT
WALMER LIFEBOAT
WALMER LIFEBOAT
WALMER LIFEBOAT
WALMER LIFEBOAT
ON THE LOOKOUT 1907
KINGSDOWN LIFEBOAT
Skardon's World
SALE OF THE WALMER LIFEBOAT BARBARA FLEMING AUGUST 1933
WALMER LIFEBOAT SOLD
Surrounded by a crowd of people opposite the boathouse on the Walmer beach, the Walmer lifeboat, "Barbara Fleming” was sold by Mr. F H Hinds, of Messer’s. S Hinds & Son, for £100, to Mr. H Gasped of the City Arms, West Ferry Road, Millwall. The 23 other lots comprising the gear, etc. which was also instructed by the RNLI to be sold, went for £11:3:0 altogether. The highest bid being 35/- for a compass, box and binnacle light, complete. Bidding was desultory, and the prices were not good. Mr. Gasped came especially to Walmer from London to buy the boat, and said he will sail it with friends on the Thames. His present cabin cruiser not being large enough for his requirements. Mr. Harry Pearson, the coxswain - who, with other members of the crew, was standing on the deck of the vessel, the sails of which were full set - bought the twelve 16ft ash oars for £3. Mr. McDonald gave 12/- for 48 fathoms of bow and stern heaving line. Mr. Bailey paid 11/- for 30 fathoms of veering line, and Mr. Groves gave 10/- for a similar lot. The old lifeboat stood next to the new one, and the auctioneer recalled that he had sold the Deal and Kingsdown lifeboats, the Deal lifeboat practically a shell compared to the old Walmer one. Having gone for £87.
July 30th 1933
THE LIFEBOAT SERVICE AND THE
GOODWIN SANDS
For centuries past the boatmen of Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown, have been celebrated for their daring and hardihood, and for their unrivalled knowledge if the Downs and Goodwin Sands – a knowledge that, so to speak, comes as a heritage of each succeeding generation of those noble-hearted “storm warriors”. Long before the first lifeboat was placed on the Deal station by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1865, innumerable lives have been already saved, and many valuable ships and cargoes rescued from an otherwise inevitable destruction, by the efforts of the local boatmen, who were certainly richly deserving of any small pecuniary reward that might accrue to them in the shape of salvage money, at the imminent risk of their lives, a successful “hovel” had been effected. But, to their everlasting credit be it spoken, the saving of life was then, as it is now, the first consideration with these brave men; and we have ourselves often watched the stout luggers and their fearless crews putting off on their noble mission in face of a tempest that might well give pause to the staunchest heart and when no monetary benefit whatever was to be gained by the perilous adventure.
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NORTH DEAL LIFEBOAT
The death-roll of the dreaded quicksands would reach an appalling total were it not for the assistance of such men as Richard Roberts, John Mackins, and James Laming, the well known coxswains of the North Deal, the Walmer and the Kingsdown lifeboats. “Though their firm hearts their pageant honours boast,” and personal gain has never been an incentive to any of their noble deeds, these intrepid seamen and their loyal crews, to whom the roaring of the storm and the giant breakers on the Goodwins would seem to present no terror, stop at nothing short of the impossible, and have literally “set the fashion to the world” where the saving of life at sea is concerned.
James Laming; R. Roberts; John Mackins
Often, in the middle of a bleak winter’s night, when the alarm-bell at the lifeboat-house has rung out its sudden summons, have these men rushed hurriedly from their warm beds, scarce waiting, in their eagerness to secure their place as one of the crew, to fully clothe themselves, and there are those in Deal who have seen wives and mothers running down to the beach bearing the clothes of their husbands or sons, who, regardless of their own comforts are perhaps already in the boat awaiting that mad plunge into the ice-cold surf which is the prelude to many a terrible night on the Goodwins. As most of you reading this are probably aware, the three lifeboats on the Downs station have to sail out to the sands, and then,
trusting to the generally unerring accuracy of the coxswain, the crew drop anchor to the windward of the wreck allowing their boat to gradually drift down within a safe distance of it before commencing operations. This is most dangerous work, and, unlike their Ramsgate friends, the Deal, Walmer, and Kingsdown men have no “mother” (or steam-tug) to take them by the hand, but in reaching a wreck must rely entirely upon their own skill.
Of the numerous rescues affected by the “Mary Somerville” (North Deal), the “Civil Service No.2 “ (Walmer) and the “Sabrina” (Kingsdown) life-boats a whole volume might be, and indeed has been, written. Refering to the Rev. T. S. Treanor’s
WALMER LIFEBOAT
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KINGSDOWN LIFEBOAT
Heroes of the Goodwin Sands, a chronicle of thrilling events which no Englishman can read without feeling justifiably proud of his race, and of Kentish men in particular. Mr. Treanor was the local Honorary Secretary of the Lifeboat Institution, and also chaplain to the Mission to Seamen in the Downs, and is a universal favourite amongst the large-hearted, honourable, but extremely modest race of men, many of whose daring deeds adorn the pages of his wonderfully interesting and instructive book. To those who would know more of the Goodwins and its Heroes, of old Jarvest Arnold and his sons, of Wilds Marsh, and many other “old hands” and of their hair-breadth “ scapes" and exciting adventures whilst
pursuing their noble mission of rescue “on the sands” A perusal is recommended of Mr. Treanor’s work. Full many a life and many gallant vessel owe their safety to the lifeboats and luggers of Deal, Walmer, and Kingsdown; but still, alas! There are wrecks innumerably that lie in the oceans wide domain, half buried in the sand.
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A Wreck on the Goodwin Sands
Walmer Lifeboat 1886
