By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist
This year The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) celebrates 200 years, during which time they have saved more than 140,000 lives at sea around the British coast.
This photograph shows the crew of the lifeboat Louisa being launched from the beach at Lynmouth. The details of the occasion aren’t entirely clear, and neither is its inclusion in a set of photographs which mostly shows details of the Cathedral’s interior and exterior in the early years of the 20th century. The image is a bit grainy, but it appears to show the crew of lifeboat volunteers wearing kapok (a cotton-like material) lifejackets. This would place the date at 1904, or shortly after, when kapok jackets replaced the earlier bulky cork type which had been introduced in 1854.
Louisa was the second of three lifeboats which operated from Lynmouth: the first was Henry (1869-1887) and the last was Pritchard Frederick Gainer (1906-1944). It was Louisa who was used in the famous Porlock Weir rescue which took place 125 years ago – and is still regarded as one of the most astonishing feats of rescue undertaken by a lifeboat crew. The three-masted sailing ship The Forrest Hall got into trouble in a fierce storm off the north Somerset coast in the early evening of 12 January 1899 and was in danger of being blown on-shore, endangering the lives of the 18 people on board. The storm was so severe that the lifeboat was unable to launch from Lynmouth, and the bold decision was made to transport the 10 metre long, 10 ton vessel 15 miles overland to launch from Porlock Weir instead. Around 100 local people were involved in the endeavour, which involved widening sections of the road and removing part of a cottage wall. The journey took nearly 11 hours – overnight and in terrible weather – after which the lifeboat crew immediately rowed out to the stricken vessel. Aided by tugboats which arrived that morning, The Forrest Hall was freed and towed to Barry, South Wales. The lifeboat crew went with them. The rescue mission came to an end when the lifeboat crew were towed back home to Lynmouth by a steam ship in the early morning of 14th January.