LIFEBOAT – Burton-on-Trent for the Zetland.

Accreditation Redcar & Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 06/10/1871

REDCAR LIFEBOAT BURTON-ON-TRENT
FOR THE ZETLAND

      On Saturday afternoon 30/09/1871, the crew of the lifeboat “Burton-on-Trent” – the property of the National Lifeboat Institution – went out for a quarterly practice, and from the opinions which we heard we learnt that the prejudice which was rife against her at first has to some extent died out, and great things are expected of her whenever she is needed. So high did the partisan ship run when the old boat was presented to the fishermen, that one old man asserted that he “would rather go out in the old boat if he knew he was to be drowned, than go in the new one to be saved.” The general verdict on Saturday was that the “Burton-on-Trent” acquitted herself well, “floated like a duck” over the heavy breakers, and would be of great use in keeping down the number of black dots on the Wreck Chart, which each mark the position of a casualty.

     We may state in conclusion that the old boat – “The Zetland” – is entirely under the control of the fishermen, and this being the case she deserves to be liberally supported by the inhabitants of the town, not only for the fact, but because she is a curiosity, being the oldest lifeboat in the kingdom, having being built in 1802 by Greathead, of Sunderland. She has been the means of rescuing upwards of 350 lives, and is now stated to be as sound as when she was built.