James Stevens No.14
History of a lifeboat with a Proud Record

James Stevens No.14 (ON432) was the second station lifeboat at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. A 43-foot Norfolk & Suffolk type, she was built at Thames Ironworks in 1900 with the yard number TI35. The lifeboat house at East Terrace, Walton, was was enlarged to take her but she proved too heavy to pull off the beach at low water and with onshore winds. She was therefore put permanently afloat at moorings off the pier where all Walton lifeboats have been kept since.

Coxswain Henry Britton 1900 - 1914 Silver Medal 1904

She was primarily as a sailing lifeboat and an excellent sea boat In 1906 she was fitted with a 40 hp Blake petrol engine, thus becoming one of the first motor lifeboats in the RNLI fleet. Frank Halls was appointed the first mechanic to look after her engine which gave her a speed of seven to eight knots. The sails and oars were retained.

During her service career, she launched 126 times rescuing 227 lives. Her most famous rescue was on 29/30 December 1917 when she rescued 92 passengers and crew from the SS Peregrine of London which had run aground on the Longsand Head in a force nine gale Coxswain William Hammond was awarded a Silver Medal and Second Cox. John Byford a Bronze for this rescue.

Coxswain William Hammond 1914 - 1928 Silver Medal 1917

After her replacement in 1928 by the EMED, James Stevens No.14 is believed to have made her way to the Thames where she served as a fireboat in World War II. After decommissioning, she ultimately found her way to Maldon on the River Blackwater where she was used mainly as a houseboat.

She was discovered there by a member of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society who recognised her as a lifeboat, despite her rather ungainly superstructure. The wide fender so characteristic of her class was still there, as were other items such as the winch and stemhead fairleads. Unfortunately some modification to her stem meant that only the three `3` of her builder`s number could be seen, but the builder`s plate was still aboard. Identification was made easier by her large size: the only other similar TI Norfolk & Suffolk class boat is the James Leath and she is exhibited in Chatham Dockyard Lifeboat Museum.

Walton Maritime Museum was advised of the location of the vessel and the owners agreed to lend the Builder`s plate to the Museum for display. There the matter rested until the owners needed the plate back as they wanted to sell the boat. Frinton & Walton Heritage Trust purchased the vessel and in May 1998 she was towed back to Walton, being met off Walton Pier by the relief Tyne class lifeboat Sam & Joan Woods. The Trust`s aim is to restore the vessel to seagoing condition so that she can be used for educational trips and visit boat shows and regattas.

Fund-raising started soon afterwards and apart from local gifts and covenants, grants have been received from the PRISM Fund at the Science Museum, Essex Heritage Trust, The Augustine Courtyard Trust and the Mobil Centenary Fund and £2000 was raised when Griff Rhys Jones and John Peel entertained guests with `A Maritime Miscellany` in Walton in May 1999.

In August 1999 volunteers, under the supervision of David Baines, the project manager, dismantled the yacht/houseboat superstructure and during the autumn gradually removed all nonessential parts as well as erecting scaffold and tent covers to protect the vessel from the elements.

In November 1999, James Stevens No.14 was officially listed as one of the 150 Designated vessels on the National Register of Historic Vessels, establishing beyond all doubt her place in the maritime history and heritage of this country. The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich had by then also confirmed her status as the oldest surviving motor lifeboat in the world.

In agreement with the Heritage Lottery Fund, a Stabilisation Plan has been implemented involving the restoration of the beam shelf, stem and stern posts, deadwood and forefoot, using authentic materials whenever possible. Local fund-raising is continuing with a `Sponsor a Plank` campaign, which has already raised over £3500, with sponsorship coming from as far away as Canada, Australia, France and Norway.

The Lifeboat Journal of November 1905 has a leading article on the advent of the motor lifeboat. The article states that at a recent Committee of Management meeting "the matter of building motor lifeboats occupied a great deal of time as did the conversion of existing boats to motor."

The first lifeboat to be converted was the J. McConnel Hussey, 0N343, a 38ft self righter, originally stationed at Folkestone and built in 1893. After successful trials at Newhaven, she was sent to Tynemouth where some of the crew, suspicious of the engine, refused to sail in her, necessitating the recruitment of qualified engineers to man her.

In July 1904 the RNLI ordered three new motor lifeboats, but also decided to convert three existing pulling and sailing lifeboats to motor power.
These boats were:

All three were converted to motor power at Thames Ironworks, Canning Town, in 1907. In all three boats "reversing gear and not reversing propellers will be used." Apart from the suspicion of lifeboat crew members who were almost all fishermen, other problems concerned the RNLI, particularly waterproofing the installation as much as. Possible. The other important points to be considered were: safety, reliability, ease of management, handiness of control, cost of installation and general efficiency. The three converted boats were finished before the purpose-built motor lifeboats, and 0N407 and 0N432 served as motor lifeboats until 1919 and 1928 respectively. The advantages of motor soon became apparent and had it not been for World War I many more would have been serving around the coast by 1920.

The conversion of James Stevens No.14 to motor power added to her superb operational ability. A 43ft Norfolk & Suffolk class lifeboat designed to work much further out to sea than the smaller self righter, she was an excellent and stable seaboat with a full set of sails, like all her class. Many of her service launches involved lengthy services around the Longsand and Kentish Knock sandbanks, seldom under twelve hours duration, and usually involving round distances of fifty miles or more. This was much further than the distances usually covered by the smaller self righting lifeboats. The value of the 40 hp Blake engine was proved on 8 August 1907 when the James Stevens No.14 towed the large Hull steam trawler, Westward Ho!, off the Kentish Knock, a feat that would have been beyond a sailing lifeboat. James Stevens' outstanding rescue, that of 92 passengers from the SS Peregrine on 29 December 1917 in a Force 9 easterly gale "would not have been possible without the engine which ran faultlessly, even when the side of the boat was stove in" according to the official service report.

The James Stevens No.14 continued in service until July 1928 performing excellent service. Indeed just six months before she was replaced, she went almost forty miles out east of the Galloper Sands in a force 9 gale on 22 December 1927 to the assistance of the SS Cuthbert . Until the recent generation of fast afloat lifeboats, this was a rare occurrence and in 1927 would have been a considerable feat in what was still an open boat.

It is interesting to compare the service records of the four original
converted pulling and sailing lifeboats :

In all cases the number of launches and lives saved are for service after motorisation. From this it can clearly be seen that no only did James Stevens No14 serve longer than the other experimental and prototype motor lifeboats, but she also launched more often and saved more lives than the other four put together. Additionally she alone of the converted lifeboats retained her original engine. Evidence in the station return of service books continually state that the boat and engine "performed well" right up to the end of her career. Indeed on only three launches was there any problem with the engine: once when the crankshaft snapped, once when it would not start and once when they ran out of fuel and the boat returned home under sail. Therefore it is clearly legitimate to state that James Stevens No.14 was by far the most successful of the converted lifeboats, she is the only one to survive and is therefore the oldest surviving motor lifeboat in the world, as verified by the National Maritime Museum. She served longer and with greater distinction than the others. Therefore she is a direct link in the history of lifeboat development between the ' pulling and sailing era and the modern motor lifeboat. As such she forms a vital part of this nation's maritime heritage as well as that of Essex; being not only built in Essex but also having spent virtually all her ninety-eight years in the county, the exception being her three-and-a-half years war service on the Thames.Her restoration will enable further generations to experience and marvel at the skill, courage and endurance of those who built and crewed her in her operational life: