LIFEBOAT - LOUIS MARCHESI OF ROUND TABLE No. 44 019

Although long time resident of Newhaven (though not born here), I am still ignorant as to the exact meaning of the numbers which adorn the side and or stern of Lifeboats. For instance in the case of Louis Marchesi of Round Table, what does 44 - 019 refer to please?

The Louis Marchesi of Round Table lifeboat was built by Bideford Shipyard Ltd. in 1975, she had 506 service call-outs and saved a total of 264 lives. Then cira 1999 was sold on to the New Zealand coastguard service.
My understanding of the numbers are they refer to the length and number in the class of lifeboat. The first number ( in this case 44 ) refers to her length 44 feet ( the newer boats this number refers to length in metres) and  in this case the number 019 she was the 19th Waveney class boat built.

You are correct John, there were 4 built at the same time at Bideford Shipyard, 016 went to Ramsgate, 017 went initially to Donaghadee in Ireland before joining the relief fleet, and 018 went to Hartlepool, although a little quirk was that 44-001 was the original boat from the States so the first boat built in England was numbered 002.

The 0 in the 019 meant that the hull was built of steel. If you look at most other boat numbers, they have 4 digits, example 52-32, 52 foot long, 32nd built & 17-21, 17 metre's long, 21st built. The Tyne's are numbered with extra zero's as their hulls are also steel. These numbers are known as the operational numbers, but lifeboats also have another number called the official number. Louis Marchesi's was 1045, and Keith Anderson's was 1106. These numbers show how many boats the RNLI have built, e.g. Keith Anderson was the 1106th boat that the RNLI have had built.

This particular lifeboat also had a unique feature in that it was wallpapered in the aft cabin. From new it had a painted insulated rubber surface covering the walls and ceiling of the small after cabin which was supposed to provide a degree of insulation as well as protection to anyone sitting inside what was in effect the survivors cabin. However over time the rubber dried out and cracked, which to my father Len's eye made it look extremely ugly. The solution - wallpaper. Caused quite a few comments from visiting crews, dignitaries, supporters and rescued survivors but did the job. Paddy Boyle the second coxswain, always chuckled and raised an eyebrow whenever it was mentioned. We also were well supplied with an Amways product for cleaning the brass on the boat, apparently there was a local rep who would pass off the cream cleaner to the boat when she received new stock. Worked pretty well too.! The roundels on the side of the after cabin came from the Round Table association who had funded the boat and were added on by the crew. Head office didnt think much of it but we had a constant stream of visiting Round Table people who were very proud of 'their' boat and continued to donate to the RNLI which was the whole point really. We also had a pair of spare brass propellers given to the station by one of the Round Table groups which were kept in the boathouse for quite a while before Head office depot remembered them and sent a truck to take them back. They resurfaced years later when after 'dinging' the props of the Arun class Keith Anderson (by clipping the underwater stanchion of the old Volks railway line) during a shout off Brighton, head office made a fuss about the cost of replacing them only to be reminded that in fact; we already had a 'credit' of two propellers sitting in a depot somewhere.

Its lovely to see the Louis Marchesi in Picture, has special relevance to me as the boat was named after my Great Uncle, one of the founder members of the Round Table organisation.

Being born and bred in Newhaven, Gibbon Road, but having moved to Manchester to serve my time as an aero apprentice at Avros I was highly chuffed when as a member of my local Round Table I was informed that the RNLI was our year's charity and the resulting boat was to be stationed at my home town.  Yes Louis Marchesi was the founder of Round Table having become disaffected by the inertia within his Rotary Club which as today was mainly men well over 50, so Round Tablers had to leave at 40.  Just to keep the connection my great grandfather was coxswain of the Newhaven boat and my uncle, Dick Lower, was the motor mechanic on the Lillian and Cecil Philpot.  I am currently Secretary and Press Officer of the Middleton, Greater Manchester, branch.

My father Harold Hills served aboard the "Lillian and Cecil Philpot" as radio operator. I still have some tape recordings of him from the early 1960's mother made when he was out on service.

John -- Editor 

Interesting comment about the radio recordings John. I have a couple (somewhere) of this boat the Louis Marchesi out on service recorded from the scanner which pretty much all lifeboat families had in their home. One is of the service to a capsized fishing vessel, the Orlando, which also involved Edgar Moore and the reserve lifeboat Tynesider, the other is of the service to the Athena B, when she went up on Brighton Beach. This recording was a bit notorious because the coastguard land rover was following the Newhaven Lifeboat on the cliff top heading towards Brighton when the coastguard can be heard to say "I've lost sight of the lifeboat, she's capsized...." without realising that the whole world was listening. As it turned out all was well as the lifeboat self-righted and carried on towards Brighton before being re-called, the Shoreham lifeboat having rescued the Athena B's crew. 2nd Coxswain Paddy Boyle received a cut to his head as it connected with the wheelhouse roof, and crewman Derek Payne went overboard but stayed connected to the boat because of his safety harness, so was pulled back aboard as the boat righted. To this day he still maintains he didn't get his feet wet.

The recordings Mother made were from a old "Marconi" valve radio, so dad could fill his log book in accurately when he got back from the call, think they span about 5 years of" shouts". 

I had to first repair the old Phillips reel to reel recorder (c1961) before they could be played.  

John -- Editor

As a member of Crowborough Round Table No 980 we were invited to Newhaven when the boat was received. We were fortunate to have a conducted tour and I was one of the lucky ones invited aboard and taken to sea on a " trial run " Exhilarating!