Margate Lifeboat Station

Margate Lifeboat Station
RNLI Lifeboat station
Margate Lifeboat Station.
Flag
Country	England
County	Kent
District	Thanet
Town	Margate
Location	Margate Lifeboat Station, The Rendezvous, Margate, Kent,CT9 1HG
- coordinates	51°23′29″N 1°22′57″E / 51.39139°N 1.38250°E / 51.39139; 1.38250
Material	Fabricated steelwork clad with timber, and concrete
Founded	1857 The first lifeboat Hannah and Angela was given to the town by Miss Burdett Coutts.
Owner	Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Margate Lifeboat Station is an RNLI station located in the Margate in the English county of Kent.^[1] The station is over 150 years old and has launched to many notable services. Over the years its crews have won over 10 awards for gallantry. The station has also had the sadness of losing the lives of ten members of its crews, saving others at sea.

History

The first lifeboat station in Margate was served by a lifeboat called Hannah and Angela which had been given to the town in 1857 by Miss Burdett Coutts.^[2] The organization at that time was controlled by a committee of boatmen and town councillors. In the early months of 1860 the committee approached the RNLI who were asked to take over responsibility for the lifeboat and station. The RNLI agreed to the proposed takeover, but wished to carry out repairs and alterations to bring the “ Angela & Hannah “ up to the required RNLI standard. On the 3 January 1861^[3] the Margate committee instructed an Architect to design a new boathouse which was to be located on land which was leased from the South Eastern and Chatham Railway company.^[3] This proposal was rejected by the RNLI inspector who suggested that the existing lifeboat house be altered and improved to suite the requirements of the service. This house was located on the stone pier.^[3] The work was carried out by a Mr Bushell for the sum of £75 and the boathouse was ready for use and opened on the 31 August 1861.^[3] The New lifeboat was called Quiver No.1 so named after The Quiver magazine,^[4] a periodical of the time which had donated towards the cost of the new boat. The new lifeboat was delivered, along with a launch carriage, on the 4 August 1866 and was launched from the new boathouse station on the 7 August when a public demonstration took place.^[3] In the preceding year it became apparent that the current launch system and location of the station on the stone peir had a few shortfalls. One problem was that on several occasions the horses used to launch the boat had refused to face the water, causing the launch to be delayed.

New Location

On the 9 December 1896 The RNLI’s District Inspector, Engineer and Architect, during a visit to the station, suggested that the lifeboat should be moved on to the towns iron jetty and be launched from slipways which should be constructed on either side if the jetty. An agreement between the Margate Pier and Harbour Company was reached and plans were agreed for two slipways and that the station would operate two lifeboats. Following tenders the estimate of £3045 from Thomas Gibson of Westminster for the erection of the slipways. During the construction of the slipways a storm which hit the town showed some short falls in the design and the architect and engineers inspected the damaged works and decided that some revisions were required to the designs. The upper decks of the slipways were raised 18 inches more than the original specifications. These problems and wrangling between the RNLI, the local committee and the harbour company delayed the completion of works. The slipways were finally operational on the 14 May 1898. The two slipways, designated Stations 1 and 2, were declared open by Rt. Hon. James Lowther the MP for Thanet. Early on the same day the two new lifeboats were handed over to the station and they were christened Civil Service No.1 (ON 415)^[5] on station No.2, and Eliza Harriet (ON 411) on station No.1.^[3]

Developments and Improvements

In 1911 each slipway was provided with gas powered lamps. In 1923 the RNLI informed the station that they would be supplied with a new Watson class motor lifeboat.^[3] A new boathouse and staging slipway was built to house the new lifeboat. The boathouse was fitted with a petrol driven hauling winch along with a dynamo to provide lighting for the station. The new boathouse was 61 ft long and 22 feet wide.^[3] The new lifeboat slipways and boathouse were completed by 21 March 1925^[3] and the new lifeboat arrived on station directly from London were she had been on exhibition at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.^[6] The new lifeboat was called Lord Southborough (ON 688) and her arrival at Margate was marred by the fact that she had been involved in a collision at Gravesend with a Shrimping boat which sank.^[3] This episode turned out to be the first service the new lifeboat performed when she rescued the shrimpers two crewman.

No. 1 Station closed down

In 1927 the No. 1 station was closed down. The sailing and pulling lifeboat Eliza Harriet was retired from the station after 30 years service. In May 1928 the demolition of the western slipway was commenced and was completed later in the year.

World War II

The Second World War saw the station fall under the control of the Royal Navy. The day today running of the station was still carried out by the Honorary Secretaries of the branch Mr A C Robinson followed by Mr L C Arnold. Coxswain Edward Parker was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for his work, taking the Lord Southborough^[7] to the beaches during the Dunkirk evacuation.^[8] Following the Dunkirk evacuation the Margate Station found itself very busy. From August 1940 the conflict known as the Battle of Britain raged in the skies above the south coast of England. One of the busiest lifeboat stations during the Battle of Britain was Margate along with the nearby Ramsgate station.

1950’s

In 1951 the Lord Southborough was retired from the station. Over the 26 year period she was stationed at Margate she had been launched 278 times and had saved the lives of 869 people.^[3] This figure doesn’t include the 600 troops she delivered to safety during the Dunkirk evacuations.^[9] On the 17 May 1951 the station took delivery of a new lifeboat. She was called North Foreland (Civil Service No. 11) (ON 888)^[10] and she was a 46 foot Watson class motor lifeboat. In 1953 the boathouse sustained damage following a severe storm. The floor of the boathouse had to be completely replaced.

1960’s

On the 20 May 1960 the Margate Station celebrated its centenary under the control of the RNLI. Records show that during the last one hundred years the station had saved more than 1800 people. The boathouse was once again the subject of considerable damage following a sever two day storm which hit the North Kent coast on the 16 and 17 of October 1967. In 1966 the station also began to operate an Inshore Lifeboat. This lifeboat was an inflatable D class lifeboat with the designation No.99. and was first called in to use to assist a yacht aground on Nayland Rocks on the 19 January 1966.

1970’s

In late 1973 the AWL North Foreland returned from a massive overhaul and refit to bring her up to the standards of the day. These improvements included new Radar equipment, echo sounder, radio equipment, air conditioning, improved internal lighting and a once only self-righting capability. In 1974 the station was installed with new winching equipment. The boathouse itself underwent some repairs also with repairs and maintenances carried out to the slipway and also to the slipway pilings. In September 1974 the Margate Pier and Harbour Company closed the iron jetty to the public as it had become unsafe but provision was made for the lifeboat and crew to carry on using the jetty for the lifeboat station. Negotiations between the Branch and the RNLI went on for the next few years about the precarious health and safety issues arising from the state of the steel jetty. In 1977 a decision was made that a new carriaged launched Rother class lifeboat would be sent to Margate and that a new station would be built on shore. In December 1977 the Branch informed the Margate Pier and Harbour Company that the RNLI was now in a position to move the station to the shore location and that contracts were about to be signed and building work would begin very soon.

The Great Storm of 1978

On Wednesday 11 January 1978^[11] a violent storm with gale force wind and waves hit the North Kent coast which brought the stations connection to the steel jetty to a fast conclusion. In the storm most of the iron jetty was washed away leaving just the boathouse and slipway left and leaving no access to the severely-damaged Lifeboat House from the shore.^[12] The next day an RAF Helicopter airlifted an RNLI inspector to the lifeboat house to asses the damage and see if it would be possible to launch the lifeboat stranded inside.^[3] It was decided that a launch would be risked and members of the crew were lowered down by the helicopter.^[13] After some persuasion the doors were forced open and at great risk the boat was launched. This was the last launch of North Foreland and she was taken into Margate Harbour where she remained until she was transferred to Ramsgate were she operated from until the new lifeboat was ready to take over at Margate.^[3] The inshore station had also sustained damage and that was temporarily housed at Margate Police Station.^[3]

New Lifeboat Station

RNLB Leonard Kent (ON1177)

Work began on what is now the present lifeboat station in March 1978 and was carried out by the Canterbury division of Wiltshire Construction Company Ltd with the work to be completed in 20 weeks. The New Rother class lifeboat Silver Jubilee (ON 1046)^[14] was handed over to the station in November 1978 and she performed her first service from the new station on October 27.^[3] In the mid-1980s the Margate Station Committee split in to two organizations. These two committee who now be come the Margate RNLI Fund raising Branch and the Margate Lifeboat Operational Committee with the latter solely concerened with the day to day running of the lifeboat station. In 1991 the Silver Jubilee was replaced by the Mersey Class lifeboat Leonard Kent (ON 1177).^[15] In 1996 the RNLI submitted plans for the station boathouse to be enlarged and upgraded. The work which included improved crew facilities was completed by September 1998.

The Lifeboats

No. 1 Station Lifeboats

No. 2 Station Lifeboats

Neighbouring Stations to Margate

	Thames Estuary	North Sea	English Channel
	Whitstable Lifeboat Station		Strait of Dover
	Margate Lifeboat Station''
			Ramsgate Lifeboat Station

References