Mary Stanford Lifeboat - Previous Service

Previous Service

About every 10 – 15 years the RNLI Lifeboats around the coast of Britain and Ireland are replaced with new boats as a matter of course. Some Stations stay with the same class of boat and others are upgraded to the new improved versions of what they have had, or downgraded to a more suitable class to carry out the work that they have been doing with the old boat. It is traditional for crews to be asked for their input on what type of boat is to be supplied.

In May 1914 a new Lifeboat was offered to Rye Harbour to replace the John William Dudly a self-righting 10 oar Pulling and Sailing Liverpool class in service since 1900. At the invitation of the Institution the then Coxswain, William Southerden and two of the crew were invited to visit three Lifeboat Stations and inspect the different types of boats, doing similar work to that of the Rye Harbour boat. The one that was chosen was a 38 ft (11.7 m) Liverpool non self-righting pulling and sailing boat with 14 oars. This was thought to be the ideal craft to operate in the surf conditions of Rye Bay. Also, according to the brother of one of those lost, the crew rejected a self-righting boat as it would have been too heavy to drag across the shingle and launch.

J.E. Saunders of East Cowes was the builders and on 13 April 1916 she was tested for draught and stability and found to be ‘perfectly satisfactory’. The cost of the Lifeboat was met by a legacy in Memory of Mary Stanford after whom the boat was named. After the loss, John Frederick Stanford, widower of Mary Stanford, paid for another lifeboat to be named Mary Stanford, also built by Saunders Roe Ltd. RNLB Mary Stanford had an illustrious career saving 122 lives.

The Lifeboat was sailed from East Cowes and was placed on Station at Rye Harbour on 19 October 1916. On 25 November of that year she was launched on exercise in weather conditions that ‘fairly tested her’. The Coxswain, crew and Officers of the Institution were satisfied with the result of the exercise. In 1920 the RNLI sent out a circular to all Lifeboat crews around the Country asking what type of Lifebelt was preferred. The crew at Rye expressed a preference for the No 3 Lifebelt – the KAPOK. Exhaustive experiments had been made up to September 1917 by the Institution, with co-operation with the Board of Trade and their officers, to ensure that Jackets of No 3 pattern fulfilled the purposes for which they were designed. The belts had fulfilled the purposes under the conditions of the experiment.