The "Queen Victoria" an oar and sail powered lifeboat will join the ex-Hastings lifeboat "Fairlight" in a spectacular display of historic boats in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the RNLI in Hastings |
The Queen had been asked to choose a place for a new boat to be stationed and she selected Bembridge. After sixteen years service she was sold in 1902 to one of the lifeboat crew, and renamed "The Ark" eventually becoming a houseboat in Bembridge Harbour. Abandoned and in a derelict condition, she was purchased in 1989 by Martin Woodward, the ex-Coxswain of the Bembridge Lifeboat.
After nine years of fund raising and almost a year of hard work the "Queen Victoria" emerged in 1998 looking absolutely superb, lovingly restored to her original condition and preserved in the Bembridge Maritime Museum.
RNLI lifeboats had already been operating for nearly thirty years in Hastings by the time the "Queen Victoria" was built. The boat in Hastings at that time was the first "Charles Arkcoll" which arrived in 1881, at a cost of £363, and looking exactly like the "Queen Victoria" does today. The "Charles Arkcoll" served at Hatings for twenty years between 1881 and 1901.
Commenting on the eagerly anticipated arrival of the "Queen Victoria", the present Hastings Lifeboat Coxswain Martin Phillips said: "It's absolutely fantastic to have this unique piece of lifeboat history in Hastings for our 150th. The boat reminds us of the generations of volunteers who have put to sea to save the lives of others, and I hope the public will take the opportunity to come and see her." |
