ZETLAND – Lifeboat The
THE ZETLAND LIFEBOAT
The Zetland Lifeboat is the oldest preserved lifeboat in the world, and plays a great part of Redcar’s’ history.
Zetland was built at South Shields in the early 1800’s by Henry Greathead. As a result of being bought by fishermen at Redcar for £100, she was brought from the Humber Estuary to be stationed at Redcar on 7th October, 1802. She has remained in the town since.
The present premises where the ‘Zetland’ is now station, is the site of the old boathouse given to the fishermen by Lord Zetland. The lifeboat men were ‘called out’ originally by the continual beating of a drum, and later rocket maroons were launched which caused a noisy explosion. The lifeboat was launched with the help of horse, lifeboat men and others. When the lifeboat was withdrawn from service in 1880, over 78 years she had saved over 500 lives, truly a remarkable record in those days.
Please refer to http://www.redcarlifeboat.org.uk/Pages/history/history.html for further information regarding this lifeboat and today’s present RNLI
dean February 5, 2010 Lifeboat