It is a pleasure to welcome a new speaker, Steve Landells, from South Shields, to share his research about the Tyne lifeboats.
He will explain how the Tyne was unique as nowhere else in the country had both RNLI and independent lifeboats operating in the same harbour.
This will include the story behind the first lifeboats on the Tyne, in 1790, and in outlining the boats, boathouses and rescues, how this developed into a highly successful local lifeboat service.
He will also describe why the RNLI decided to establish their own lifeboat station at Tynemouth in 1862 and also, how by the end of the 19th century, when relations between the Tyne Lifeboat Institution and RNLI were so strained, that the decisions taken by both lifeboat organisations set off a chain of events that changed the course of lifesaving provision on the Tyne.
Steve, who has a great interest in maritime history, has extensively researched the Tyne lifeboats and published a book ‘Rescues in the Surf: The Story of the Shields Lifeboats’ in 2010.
A retired town planner, he worked around the country until the 1980s when he returned home. He was a member of the South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade for 19 years.
Caption:
The picture believed to be by Tyneside marine artist John Wilson Carmichael, probably painted around the early 1800s. The lifeboat, seen off Tynemouth Priory, is one of the Henry Greathead built boats and is either the South Shields lifeboat, Original, built in 1790, or the North Shields lifeboat, Northumberland, built in 1798.
