'Proud day' as new £2.45m lifeboat enters service

A charity which saves lives at sea has described the "proud day" a new £2.45m lifeboat entered service.

Hartlepool RNLI officially started using the all-weather Shannon class lifeboat on Sunday after several weeks of training for the volunteer crew members.

It is called "John Sharp" after the man who created one of the earliest lifeboat and coastguard stations in the 1700s at Northumberland's Bamburgh Castle, the RNLI says.

Malcolm Cook, Hartlepool RNLI chairman, said the volunteer crew members had shown "amazing dedication whilst training on the new boat over recent months and are always ready to respond to anyone in trouble at sea".

The Shannon is 45ft (13.6m) long and needs to operated by six crew members.

It could carry 18 casualties and would still be able to self-right if it capsized, the RNLI said.

Mr Cook said: "This was a very proud day in the history of the Hartlepool RNLI."

The new vessel was named in recognition of Dr John Sharp (1722-1792), who also commissioned one of Lionel Lukin's so-called unsinkable boats in 1786 which helped the North East community to be better equipped when trying to save sailors.

It was funded by his descendant, also called John Sharp, a mathematician and investor who died in 2019.

The final training exercise before the boat officially entered service was an extended navigational exercise to Bamburgh on Sunday.

Owner of Bamburgh Castle Francis Watson-Armstrong, who is also a former RNLI crew member, said it was a "full circle" moment.

"Dr John Sharp was a remarkably dedicated man who was steadfast in his work to make the treacherous waters off Bamburgh safer," he said.

The lifeboat was placed in service in Hartlepool later that day.

An RNLI spokesperson said it would allow volunteer crew members to continue "saving lives at sea 24/7 365 days a year whenever required".

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