RNLB Foresters Centenary (ON 786) is a retired Liverpool-class lifeboat of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), stationed in the English coastal town of Sheringham in the county of Norfolk in the United Kingdom.OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East. . The lifeboat was on station for 25 years between 1936 and 1961Sheringham Lifeboats: By Leach, Nicholas and Russell, Paul :Published by landmark Pub Ltd, 2009: when she was sold. She has been restored to her original condition and is exhibited in Sheringham Museum.Ground Floor Plan of Museum Retrieved 19 February 2013
Design and construction Foresters Centenary was the first motor lifeboat to be stationed at Sheringham. She was built with the money provided as a gift of The Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society. She cost £3,568 10s 5d and was laid down in the boat yard of Groves & Guttridge, East Cowes, Isle of Wight and was given the yard designation of No:G&G210. She was a single screw Liverpool type and although she was not a self-righting construction. She was a very stable design and was popular with lifeboat crews of this time. She was 35 ft 6in in length and had a beam of 10 ft 3in.
Propulsion Foresters Centenary was fitted with a single 35 horsepower Weyburn AE6 six cylinder petrol engine which was housed in its own watertight compartment. The design enabled the engine to continue to run even if the engine room became flooded. During the lifeboat's sea trials the engine was found to give the lifeboat a top speed of 7.3 Knots and fuel consumption gave the boat a radius of fifty nautical miles with a fuel consumption of 3.5 gallons used each hour of operation. Her comfortable cruising speed was found to be 6.5 knots, which at this speed and fuel consumption extended her range to sixty nautical miles.
Buoyancy The lifeboat's hull was constructed to form six water-tight divisions. These compartments are fitted with 115 mahogany air cases, all individually made to fit into their allocated positions in the hull. Her equipment included the latest innovations of the time: a line-throwing gun and an electrically-powered searchlight. The boat was designed to be operated by a crew of seven and could carry up to thirty people in foul weather, although there was little protection for the crew or passengers.
Deployment
Foresters Centenary arrived on station in Sheringham on 27 June 1936. She had been sailed around the south east coast from Cowes by the Sheringham crew of Coxswain James Dumble, second Coxswain J. Hardingham, and "Old" Bennett Middleton and mechanic Kitchener Pegg. To house this new lifeboat and the carriage required to launch her, the RNLI had to invest in a new boathouse for . This new station was built at the cost of £7,616 and stood at a right angle to the sea due to the tightness of the new site. It had a specially-constructed slipway over the shingle beach. The new boathouse had not been completed by the time Foresters Centenary arrived in the town, and for a time she was kept at Old Hythe House.
Christening The Foresters Centenary was christened on 18 July 1936 by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes. The ceremony was attended by a large crowd of people including 2000 members of the Order of Foresters.
Service Foresters Centenary was on station at Sheringham for twenty five years from 1936 until she was sold to R. C. Baker of Wells-next-the-Sea on 18 September 1961. During that time she was launched a total of 129 times and she is accredited with saving the lives of 82 people.
First service The lifeboat was first called into action on 7 August 1936 when she was launched and stood by two local fishing boats called Liberty II and Edna. Her first accredited lifesaving launch took place on 19 August when an exhausted local fisherman was towed to safety after he had struggled to control his boat in rough seas. The lifeboat was called out a total of six times before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Second World War service Given the location of the Sheringham station on the North Norfolk coast, the lifeboat and her crew found themselves in considerable demand during the Second World War. The station lay on the flight path of several RAF stations in that part of the country. Many of the lifeboat's launches during the period were to search for crashed aircraft and their pilots and crews. During the War the lifeboat was launched fifty six times, of which thirty four involved aircraft and their crews, of which sixteen have been accredited as life saves. Because of this service, Foresters Centenary became known as the "Airmen's lifeboat".
East Dudgeon Lightship
One of the lifeboat's wartime activities was used in a short film produced by the Crown Film Unit for the British Ministry of Information in 1940."Men of the Lightship (1940)." Screenonline via British Film Institute. Retrieved: 24 February 2013. The incident occurred on 29 January 1940 when Foresters Centenary was launched at 9:15 am into rough seas in an easterly gale. She was sent to assist the East Dudgeon Lightship which had reportedly been bombed by German planes. When the lifeboat arrived alongside the lightship the crew found no one aboard. The crew found the ship's light had been destroyed, as had the wheelhouse windows which had been shot out. One of the lightship's lifeboats was missing and following a long search for the lifeboat the Sheringham crew assumed that the lifeboat and its possible survivors had been picked up by a passing vessel. The lifeboat returned to Sheringham to find that the missing lifeboat had still not been found. The lifeboat was launched the following day to search westward for signs of the missing boat. The Sheringham boat was recalled by the coastguard who now had conformation that the lifeboat had been swept across to the Lincolnshire coast where it had been driven ashore, drowning all but one of the crew.
Other notable wartime rescues On 19 February 1940 the coaster Boston Trader of Great Yarmouth was attacked and set on fire by German aircraft. Following a difficult launch of the lifeboat she managed to rescue seven men from the coaster. The Boston Trader eventually drifted ashore along the coast at Cley next the Sea. The rough seas had extinguished the fire aboard and she was eventually salvaged.
The lifeboat was launched on 21 OctoberThe Sheringham Lifeboats - 1838 to 1981. Author: Malster R. W. Publisher: Poppyland Publishing, Cromer, Norfolk. First Edition 1981. Work: Page 11 reference to the rescue of Aircrew on the 21 October 1040. to assist a ditched British bomber close to Blakeney Point. The lifeboat came upon a rubber dinghy with all five of the crew, very tired and wet but all unharmed. The aircrew were given chocolate and brandy from the lifeboat's emergency rations and were taken back to the safety of Sheringham where they were given warm clothes following warm baths.
On 29 October 1941 the lifeboat was launched under very difficult conditions to a steamship in difficulty five miles west of Sheringham. The Canadian ship Eaglescliffe HallSpecifications of Eaglescliffe Hall Retrieved 24 February 2013 appeared to be drifting and the Foresters Centenary rescued 15 men from her. The lifeboat's Coxswain James Dumble, was awarded the RNLI's Bronze MedalLifeboat Gallantry RNLI medals and how they were won. Edited by:Barry Cox. Published:Spink, London, 1998. Page 291. for the rescue.Records of the Sheringham lifeboat Retrieved 24 February 2013
The lifeboat spent the rest of the war mainly being called out to casualties of the conflict. On 30 October 1941 the lifeboat launched to search for a Wellington bomber (no. W5720) Retrieved 24 February 2013 of No. 304 Polish Bomber Squadron which had ditched in the sea two miles north-east of the town after being damaged by flak during a raid over Hamburg. The lifeboat saved the lives of five Polish airman who had been found all in one dinghy, a sixth airman had drowned whilst escaping the ditched aircraft. The airmen had been in the dinghy for seventeen hours when rescued. During this time they had had no food and the lifeboatmen had given them rum, chocolate and biscuits from the emergency rations aboard the lifeboat. They were landed safely in town and were soon on their way back to their station at RAF Lindholme in Yorkshire.Newspaper report of rescue Retrieved 24 February 2013
1942 On 30 October 1942 the lifeboat was again involved in rescuing Polish airmen from their ditched aircraft. A Halifax bomber of No. 138 Squadron RAF was returning to RAF Tempsford following a Special Duty Operation. The plane was on its return journey of what had been called Operation Wrench, an arms supply drop over Poland. The Halifax was being piloted by Stanislaw KlosowskiBackground information on Stanislaw Klosowski Retrieved 24 February 2013 of the Polish Air Force. The crew of the Halifax reported they had been badly damaged by Bf 110 night-fighters, sustaining damage to control surfaces, engines and fuel tanks. The distressed plane had been spotted in the water by the coast guard north-east of Sheringham. Foresters Centenary was launched with some difficulty and soon was at the crash site. She rescued all six members of the Polish crew from a dinghy and returned them to Sheringham.reference to Incident on page 45 Retrieved 24 February 2013
1945 The Foresters Centenarys last wartime service took place on 16 August 1945,The Sheringham Lifeboats - 1838 to 1981. Author: Malster R. W. Publisher: Poppyland Publishing, Cromer, Norfolk. First Edition 1981. Work: Page 13 reference to the rescue of the Henry Ramey Upcher. to go to the assistance of one of the town's former lifeboats Henry Ramey Upcher. The former private lifeboat had gone to sea with sixty passengers to take part in the town's regatta to celebrate Victory over Japan Day. The old lifeboat was about two miles offshore when she encountered problems. The boat was unable to make headway against a very strong westerly breeze. The Foresters Centenary was launched and took the Henry Ramey Upcher in tow, beaching her back in Sheringham.
Post war period Following the war the Foresters Centenarys first peacetime service was on 9 December 1945 when she went to the assistance of the steamship Lady Sophia. The steamship was six miles north west of Cromer and had engine failure. The lifeboat took the ship in tow until a tug from Great Yarmouth took over. In December 1946 James Edward Dumble retired after 22 years as the coxswain and John Henry 'Sparrow' Hardingham became coxswain. In September the Foresters Centenary was called out twice in one week. On 14 September she launched to assist the United States Type T2 oil tanker SS El MorroTanker El Morro History Retrieved 24 February 2013 which had run aground on Sheringham Shoal. On 21 September she attended the ketch Livre which was towed with difficulties to Wells next the Sea.
1950s The decade of the 1950s kept the Foresters Centenary busy as coastal maritime traffic began to return to pre-war levels. On average the lifeboat was launched three time a year. On 31 December 1950 the lifeboat was launched to the Dutch motor vessel Johanne TeVelde which had been showing distress signals following engine trouble and had become lost in fog. Second Coxswain Henry 'Downtide' West went aboard and showed the captain where he was on his charts and following the repair of the engines she set of on her way. This was to be the last service of Coxswain John Henry 'Sparrow' Hardingham who retired after forty two years in the service.
1955