New lifeboat enters service in Hartlepool following tribute visit to Bamburgh
A new lifeboat has entered service following an extended exercise to Bamburgh to pay tribute to the family who funded it.
Hartlepool’s new £2.45m RNLI lifeboat 'John Sharp' headed north on crew members’ final day of training before it officially entered service.
The funding of the Shannon class lifeboat is thanks to the generous gift left to the Charities Aid Foundation by mathematician John Sharp, a shrewd investor who died in 2019.
His ancestor, Dr John Sharp, was Archdeacon of Northumberland and a trustee of Lord Crewe’s Charity in the mid-18th century.
This charity had been established in 1721 on the death of Nataniel Crewe, the Bishop of Durham. The Bishop’s Estate included Bamburgh Castle which was in a poor state of repair but which John Sharp then restored.
His many initiatives at Bamburgh over the following years included the establishment of both a boys school and a girls schools, a free surgery for the poor and a dispensary. He also set up a system for subsidising local corn prices and standardising the method of weighing it.
Under John Sharp’s direction, Lord Crewe's Charity built Seahouses harbour at a cost of £25,000 to enable the transport of lime and grain. This opened in 1789.
At Bamburgh Castle, John Sharp created what was probably the first lifeboat and coastguard station, some 40 years before the RNLI was established. He installed a cannon on the castle to be fired in fog and organised beach horseback patrols after a storm. He bought chains, pumps and grapples to help recover shipwrecks. He had cork jackets for survivors and a room in the castle for them to recover.
Most importantly in 1788 he commissioned the conversion of a local fishing boat into a boat which would not sink, the first time a boat had been maintained purely for saving lives at sea.
John Sharp’s brother Anthony said: “We are very touched that the RNLI have taken the new lifeboat to visit Bamburgh Castle as a tribute to Dr John Sharp.”
Francis Watson-Armstrong, owner of Bamburgh Castle, added: “What a privilege it was to welcome the 'John Sharp' to Bamburgh waters. Her arrival marked the full circle of an extraordinary journey of saving lives at sea and making our waters safer places for everyone.
"Dr John Sharp was a remarkably dedicated man who was steadfast in his work to make the treacherous waters off Bamburgh safer, with the castle playing its part in his doing so.
“It was a wonderful tribute to him to see the Hartlepool lifeboat here bearing his name.”
The wheelhouse plate reads: ‘This Shannon class lifeboat was funded by the vert generous legacy of John Sharp in recognition of Dr John Sharp (1722-1792).
Hartlepool RNLI chairman Malcolm Cook said: “This a very proud day in the history of the Hartlepool RNLI with the arrival of the new water jet powered Shannon class lifeboat.
"The volunteer crewmembers have shown amazing dedication whilst training on the new boat over recent months and are always ready to respond to anyone in trouble at sea. Our thanks go to the Sharp family for their contribution to the RNLI.”