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The "Sir Fitzroy Clayton" replaced the "Micheal Henry" lifeboat here at Newhaven towards the end of 1912. Also built by Thames Ironworks she was 38ft long, with a beam of 9ft 9ins, powered by a 35 horse powered Taylor engine, she was self righting, and had a build cost of £3081. Before leaving Newhaven in 1930 she had been launched 66 times, saving 108 lives. My father Bob Holden joined the lifeboat team in 1921 as a knocker up boy,(no maroons back then), when she left here, she had gone, but because of some rescues she had been involved with, never left his mind. In 1984 dad was told that she had now been converted into a houseboat, and she was somewhere in the lake district. So he and I with my wife Heather left on a search to find her. After many enquiries around the area we found her on Lake Windermere at Bowness. Dad on seeing her cried, the first time I had seen him be moved by anything, she to him held so many memories. About 2 years later we heard that she had sunk.
P S; For got to say that the "Sir Fitzroy Clayton" was always launched stern first.
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