RNLI Chatham E class ILB Olive Deare 8360

Gravesend Lifeboat Station is situated on the

Royal Terrace Pier Royal Terrace Pier is owned and managed by the Port of London Authority (PLA) and is located adjacent to their headquarters at London River House in Gravesend. History The Grade II listed pier was built in 1844 by the Gravesend Freehold In ...

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

, Kent, on the lower reaches of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. It is one of the newest

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

stations operated by the

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

(RNLI), and one of the first to cover a river rather than the sea or estuarial waters.

Establishment

The inquiry set up after the 1989 collision on the Thames in London between the ''

Marchioness A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

'' and the dredger ''Bowbelle'', that resulted in the loss of 51 lives, recommended a dedicated

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

presence on the Thames. As a part of this, the government approached the RNLI, who agreed to provide a rescue service that covered the tidal Thames between Teddington and the

Channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

. Locations were approved for stations at

Teddington Teddington is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 2021, Teddington was named as the best place to live in London by ''The Sunday Times''. Historically in Middlesex, Teddington is situated on a long m ...

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

Tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and Gravesend. These all became operational at the beginning of 2002, with Gravesend covering the river from the

Thames Barrier The Thames Barrier is a retractable Flood barrier, barrier system built to protect the floodplain of most of Greater London from exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. It has been operational since 1982. When n ...

at Woolwich to the western end of

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

, a distance of 26 miles.

History

Gravesend Lifeboat Station commenced service on 2 January 2002, operating with an E-class Tiger Marine fast response boat named ''Olive Laura Deare''. In June 2007, the station moved to the end of the Royal Terrace Pier, adjacent to the pontoon where the lifeboat is moored. Previously housed in porta-cabins in a near-by car park, this move improved conditions and helped reduce launch times. Gravesend has one of the highest lifeboat call out rates in Kent, and is among the busiest stations in the British Isles. In the fifteen years to May 2017 its lifeboat launched 1,500 times, rescuing 797 people and saving 69 lives. In 2008 a new lifeboat, a B-class (Atlantic 85) named ''Olive Laura Deare II'', was put on service. The original ''Olive Laura Deare'' was transferred to the relief fleet until 2012, when she went on display at the RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection at the

Chatham Historic Dockyard The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former royal/naval dockyard at Chatham in Kent, South East England. Chatham Dockyard covered 400 acres (1.6 km²) and was one of the Royal Navy's main faciliti ...

. The boats were named after the donor who funded the boats through a legacy.

Crew

Since it was established in January 2002, the Gravesend station has been staffed 24 hours a day on a shift system, helping to meet the requirement to reach 90% of incidents within 15 minutes of receiving an alert. The crew is drawn from both full-time staff and a pool of volunteers.

Boats

Gravesend Lifeboat Station's boats have been:

References

{{reflist

External links