ON SHOW: Nearly three years ago. Harwich lifeboats Albert Brown (back), Sure and Steadfast (middle), and Albert Brown's inflatable (front)

Harwich is one of 230 Royal National Lifeboat Institution stations around Britain – and one of the busiest. STEVEN RUSSELL learns how things have developed since the 1800s

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A GLANCE at the log of maritime dramas shows what a debt we owe the brave and committed folk of the RNLI – the Royal National Lifeboat Institution – who have launched into the North Sea whenever the call came.

In the May of 1822 the Braybrooke was there, for instance, to help refloat a vessel. In the final year of the 19th Century the Springwell saved five people aboard the multi-masted sailing ship Pactolus. In the autumn of 1911, three folk – and a dog – were lifted to safety from the barge Antje. In 1986 the John Fison took a doctor to the dredger/sand carrier Arco Tyne and brought back a sick man, saving his life. In July this year, the lifeboat Albert Brown went to the aid of an injured man aboard a Belgian warship.

And so the list goes on. So many tales of courage; so many accounts of help freely given. Among them so many hazardous rescues recognised by the awarding of medals.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a time when the east coast – a busy expanse of water, with sandbanks ready to ensnare the unwary – didn’t have the guardian angel of the RNLI charity watching over it. But there was such a time.

A book by Nicholas Leach, assistant editor of Ships Monthly, tells in words and pictures the story of the Harwich lifeboat station at the mouth of the Stour and Orwell.

Serving one of the busiest sectors of the North Sea for vessel movements, the station today has two state-of-the-art lifeboats, a team of more than two-dozen volunteers, and two full-timers maintaining boats, equipment and operations. It’s on 24-hour call, seven days a week, and is kept alive by donations.

Its coverage runs from Walton-on-the-Naze up the coast and stretches to 50 miles out – though the 17m Severn has been as far as the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on active duty.

On its doorstep are the Port of Felixstowe, the largest container port in the UK, and Harwich International. Huge numbers of leisure craft sail up and down, and there are tricky sandbanks such as the Cork, Shipwash, Sunk and Galloper.

While it’s interesting to read about the modern set-up, what’s really fascinating is the genesis of the service.

The first lifeboats in Harwich – indeed Essex – were built at the start of the 1820s. Lifeboat stations had already been established along the east coast at places such as Cromer, Lowestoft, Hollesley Bay and Gorleston, “but their usefulness was varied and their fortunes mixed”, explains Nicholas Leach.

Surprisingly, none was provided for the waters around Harwich. The author points out that “although the entrance to the harbour was full of shoals, few ships were wrecked within its confines, possibly because lights and beacons marked the area, or within the range of oar-powered craft. A suitable place from which to launch a lifeboat, [and] where sufficient crew was available, was also lacking.

“Offshore, matters were somewhat different, as, almost every winter, gales caught out unwary vessels on the outlying sandbanks, which were both numerous and treacherous. A certain amount of rescue and salvage work was undertaken by the local smacks, although this was on an informal basis . . .”

The impetus for more concrete arrangements came after several fatal shipwrecks close to Harwich harbour. At the end of October, 1820, the Suffolk Chronicle newspaper ran a list of vessels lost or hitting serious trouble off the coast the previous week.

On Sunday, October 22, for instance, a gale of almost hurricane force hit the Ann near Landguard Fort, Felixstowe, en route from Newcastle to Maldon. “A detachment of the Sixth Royals . . . assisted by men from the Revenue Service stationed at Landguard Fort, managed to save seven men from the wreck,” writes Nicholas.

Then on November 9 the Woodbridge-based schooner Constant Trader disintegrated on Cork Sand. “Several smacks were in the vicinity, but in the shoal water were unable to offer any help and the vessel broke up with the loss of its entire crew of nine.”

It seems to have spawned a campaign in Harwich. A letter in the Chronicle argued that “a nation deriving a revenue of sixty millions of pounds per annum could surely spare a few hundreds out of it to station life boats around the coast, for the preservation of the brave men whose toils so materially contribute to that revenue”.

That December, mayor Anthony Cox called a meeting at the Moot Hall in Colchester to form an Essex Life Boat Association. The gathering agreed lifeboats should be established at Harwich and Brightlingsea. The committee of Lloyd’s – the marine insurance group – voted £50 towards each. Trinity House (concerned with the safety of shipping) gave the association 100 guineas.

An order was placed with Harwich shipbuilder George Graham to provide a lifeboat, based on Lowestoft’s Frances Ann.

Meanwhile – and independently – Ipswich was raising money for a lifeboat at Landguard Fort, on the Suffolk side of the entrance to Harwich harbour.

The town had also been influenced by the loss of Constant Trader. The brother of its master was in charge of another Woodbridge vessel, Sarah and Caroline. This had been wrecked off Lowestoft three weeks earlier, with the crew saved by the lifeboat Frances Ann.

It spurred the Suffolk campaigners, with more than £137 raised in a short time.

In the February of 1821, local boatbuilder Jabez Bayley was engaged to deliver a double-rigged, 31ft vessel.

Bayley was the leading east coast specialist north of the Thames and built the vessel at his Stoke Bridge yard. Buoyancy was provided by 11 cubic feet of cork and 14 copper tanks along the side.

The boat – given the rather prosaic name of Ipswich Life Boat, though later also known as Orwell – was launched in the spring.

The Harwich boat followed in September. It was called Braybrooke, in honour of the lord lieutenant of Essex.

Sadly, the lives of these much-anticipated boats were short and ineffectual. They saw little action.

“Three launches in four years by two lifeboats based at a busy harbour could hardly justify having two such craft in Harwich . . .” reflects Nicholas.

“As with many early lifeboats, lack of funds, poor organisation and difficulties with crewing all contributed to the Harwich boats’ lack of success and ultimate demise, while their inability to get to the outlying sandbanks was also a factor.”

Braybrooke was in a sorry state of repair by the end of 1825 – “lack of a sufficiently able and devoted local committee was the likely cause of her demise”.

The Landguard boat, meanwhile, which had already been broadened to improve stability, was deemed “totally inefficient”. By the spring of 1827 she’d been converted to a yacht and put up for sale.

For decades, then, there was no “official” lifeboat – though fishing smacks and other vessels were involved in notable rescues.

Improvements in the national economy and the revitalisation of the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, reborn as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1854, could in theory have seen Harwich operating a lifeboat station.

“However, local support was not forthcoming, and no lifeboat was supplied despite ships getting into difficulty in the seas off the port, with the Suffolk and Ipswich-based newspapers often reporting shipwrecks off the Essex coast during the 1850s and 1860s.”

In fact, until well into the 1870s there were no stations on the Essex coast. Part of the reasoning was that the sandbanks were too far from land for oar-powered “pulling boats” to reach; and that private boats and salvaging smacks could mount rescues.

It was the tragic end of the 3,000-ton German emigrant steamship Deutschland on the Kentish Knock, 24 miles off Harwich, that spurred the RNLI to act.

The steamer was bound for New York when caught by heavy seas and gale-force winds that drove her onto the sands at about 5.30am.

It happened in December, 1875, and claimed 57 lives – as well as sparking unfounded allegations in the German media that England in general, and Harwich in particular, had done too little to try to save those in peril.

Within a little over a month the RNLI had established a Harwich presence.

A new carriage-launched boat, named Springwell in line with the wishes of a donor, was a 35ft self-righter that cost £433 and arrived in the January.

A boathouse was built, too – on War Office land east of the town. When it was finished, an inauguration took place on a rainy September day, drawing spectators from far and wide and with special late train services to Manningtree and Colchester laid on.

Springwell was at Harwich for just over five years, saving 61 lives.

Early in 1881 an order was placed for a larger lifeboat, also christened Springwell.

“Often the lifeboats were towed to a casualty by steam tugs, while at other times they were sailed, but in all instances the crew showed incredible endurance and bravery, and suffered hardships almost unimaginable by twenty-first century standards as they undertook their rescue duties,” says Nicholas.

“Harwich’s sailing lifeboats, which served from 1876, were often at sea for more than twelve hours and undertook many fine services.”

And so the story continued. Harwich became home to the first steam lifeboat, Duke of Northumberland, in 1890. In 1996, the first Severn class lifeboat to be stationed in England came to the Essex town.

Today, two lifeboats are stationed there – that £1.5million offshore Severn class boat Albert Brown and the inshore Atlantic 75 Sure and Steadfast. They cover an area from Walton-on-the-Naze northwards, and 50 miles off-shore, including rivers such as the Deben and Ore, and the Walton backwaters.

There were 109 call-outs in 2005 – and a record 125 in 2009: a dozen people saved and 71 others brought back to the safety of land, including kite-surfers, yachtsmen, swimmers and fishermen.

The picture this year has been similar, with more than 90 alerts – sometimes in atrocious weather conditions.

The offshore lifeboat was called to incidents well off the coast, with one rescue lasting more than eight hours. The inshore boat has been busy, too, with many yachts in trouble on sandbanks.

There have been unusual moments: two cabin cruisers on the Stour coming under attack from a swarm of bees, and that medical evacuation from the Belgian warship.

n Harwich Lifeboats: An Illustrated History is from Amberley Publishing at £14.99

Glad they were there

Previous lifeboats based at Harwich include

• Springwell I: 1876-1881. Launches: 26. Lives saved: 61

• Springwell II: 1881-1902. Launches: 94. Lives saved: 82

• Duke of Northumberland: 1890-1892. Launches: 15. Lives saved: 33

• City of Glasgow I: 1894-1897. Launches: nine. Lives saved: four

• City of Glasgow II: 1901-1917. Launches: 99. Lives saved: 87

(The last steam lifeboat built by the RNLI. Sold late in 1917 to the Admiralty for use as a patrol vessel, renamed Patrick and sent to the Nile)

• Ann Fawcett: 1904-1912. Launches: 16. Lives saved: 15

• Margaret Graham: 1967-1980. Launches: 173. Lives saved: 77

• John Fison: 1980-1996. Launches: 244. Lives saved: 99