RNLB ''Abdy Beauclerk'' (ON 751) was a 41ft 'Aldeburgh' Type Beach Motor which was stationed in the town of Aldeburgh in the English county of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

.''OS Explorer Map 231 – Southwold & Bungay''. . She was on the No: 1 station at Aldeburgh from 1931 until she was sold out of the RNLI fleet in 1959,''The Story of The Aldeburgh Lifeboats'' (28 page Paperback): Author: Morris Jeff: Publisher Lifeboat enthusiasts' Society (1994) :ASIN B0018TW60Y a total of 28 years service.

Description

The ''Abdy Beauclerk'' was the first of five 'Aldeburgh' type motor beach lifeboats built.''Rescue at Sea'', An International History of Lifesaving, Coastal Rescue Craft and Organisations. Page: 129 Early Motor Lifeboats. Author:Clayton Evans. Published by: Conway Maritime Press (Chrysalis Books) 2003. She was built in 1931 by J. Samuel White in

Cowes Cowes () is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floa ...

on the Isle of Wight. Some stations around the coast such as Aldeburgh required a larger heavier boat than other motor life boats such as the Liverpool class. The flat nature of the foreshore at some stations precluded the use of slipways and with no suitable harbour facilities to hand it was not possible for stations such as Aldeburgh to keep a heavy Watson or

Barnett-class lifeboat The Barnett-class lifeboat consists of three types of non self-righting displacement hull lifeboats operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) from its stations around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland Irel ...

on station. The beach design was 41 feet long and 12 foot 3 inches wide and weighed just under 16 tons. The wide beam of the lifeboat made up for her shallow draught. She was fitted with twin screws, with the propellers housed in tunnels to protected them when being launched or hauled back up the beach. The lifeboat was powered by two 35 horse power Weyburn petrol engines which produced a top speed of 7.5 KT and gave her a range of 122 miles. Although this class of twin engine lifeboats no longer carried sails, the Aldeburgh crew requested that this lifeboat be fitted with a mizzen mast and sail as they preferred to have this arrangement. The ''Abdy Beauclerk'' was paid for by a private legacy from the estate of William Abdy Beauclerk of Tower Court, Ascot,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, England; he was the grandson of William Beauclerk, 8th Duke of St Albans.

Service history

The ''Abdy Beauclerk'' arrived in Aldeburgh in December 1931 and was officially launched in May 1932 by

Prince Albert, Duke of York George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

. At 8:00 am on 23 November 1938, the lifeboat was launched to assist three barges in distress during heavy seas and a northerly gale.''Lifeboat Gallantry'' RNLI medals and how they were won. Edited by:Barry Cox. Published:Spink, London, 1998. Page 273 – George Chatten. The barges were two and a half miles east of the station. The first of the barges, ''Grecian'', refused help when the ''Abdy Beauclerk'' reached her. The second, the ''Astriid'', had lost her topsail had damage to her spar and rigging. Two crewman were taken off her. The unnamed third barge also refused help. The ''Abdy Beauclerk'' returned to the ''Grecian'', and this time took two crewman to safety. For his part in the rescue the coxswain of the ''Abdy Beauclerk'', George Chatten, received an RNLI Bronze Medal. The artist

Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landsca ...

painted the ''Abdy Beauclerk'' in 1938; the painting is now in the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne.

Wartime service

During the Second World War the lifeboats along the coast of

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

contributed to many wartime rescues and services. The ''Abdy Beauclerk'' was the first English lifeboat to perform a wartime rescue, which occurred on 10 September 1939, just seven days after the declaration of war. The 8,641-ton merchantman was en route from to Southampton when she either struck a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

or was torpedoed. The ''Magdapur'' began to sink by the bow. The ''Abdy Beauclerk'' assisted in the rescue of seventy survivors and the retrieval of one of six crewman who had been killed. On 30 May 1940, the ''Abdy Beauclerk'' and the '' Lucy Lavers'', which served Aldeburgh's No: 2 Station, were commandeered by the Royal Navy to assist in the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...

. They remained there until 4 June 1940.''''

Retirement from service

The ''Abdy Beauclerk'' remained on the No:1 station at Aldeburgh until 1959 when she was replaced with a 42 ft Watson-class lifeboat called ''Alfred and Patience Gottwald'' (ON 946). At the same time the No: 2 station was closed. ''Abdy Beauclerk'' was sold by the RNLI out of the service. She was renamed '' Saint Íte'' and she spent time working as a pilot vessel for Cork Harbour Commissioners, in the Republic of Ireland. She is believed to still be in Ireland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdy Beauclerk Lifeboats of Suffolk 1931 ships Little Ships of Dunkirk Watson-class lifeboats Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats by name

751 __NOTOC__ Year 751 ( DCCLI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 751 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

Aldeburgh lifeboats Ships built on the Isle of Wight