Longhope Lifeboat Museum

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Longhope lifeboat museum Photo - Longhope Lifeboat Museum, Hoy, Orkney Islands

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Longhope Lifeboat Museum

by Drever

Ayr, Scotland, United Kingdom

September 8, 2009

Best of IgoUgo In our whiz around Hoy we came to the lifeboat museum and stopped for a look around. The people of Hoy have a long and proud association with the Longhope lifeboat, having supplied the crew since 1874. The current boat is mooring at Longhope pier ...Read more In our whiz around Hoy we came to the lifeboat museum and stopped for a look around. The people of Hoy have a long and proud association with the Longhope lifeboat, having supplied the crew since 1874. The current boat is mooring at Longhope pier however a shed at Brims on the south coast housed previous ones. From it they launched down a slipway. On the September 11, 1999 the 'Lord Saltoun' the last serving lifeboat housed in the shed launched for the last time. A special ceremony marked the end of an era spanning 125 years of lifeboats launching from Brims into Aith Hope.

This shed now houses a museum covering the story of lifeboats here. It is record of heroic deeds by modest people covered by many medals marking many rescues in treacherous seas. The island folk have come to have a special bond with "their" lifeboat. Public donations; all restoration works, collections and displays keep the museum going.

The central display of the museum is the lifeboat Thomas McCunn, which saw service from 1933-62. She is the only launchable slipway lifeboat left in the UK. This 45.6-foot Watson Class lifeboat launched 101 times and saved 308 lives. The coxswains and crew of the boat received many honours for their rescues.

Visitors can go aboard the lifeboat to see how technology has moved on and how hardy and skilled the men who crewed these lifeboats must have been. The wheelhouse is open, and scuppers let the water in and out of the area where the coxswain and crew would stand often fastened on with harness to keep waves from sweeping them overboard. In 1944 the lifeboat rescued the total of 76 people from the SS Charles D McIver, which was in a collision in fog – a case of standing room only? The 'Thomas McCunn' is still a working vessel and was out at sea twice last year - in better conditions than in the past!

The museum includes a collection of memorabilia about the Longhope lifeboats and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Hand-painted boards hanging on the walls with narrative detail the rescues of hundreds of people. Each tell a remarkable story of true-life drama. In the future the Museum will also explain the history of the Longhope Lifeboat since it's beginning in 1874.

A special room details the Longhope Lifeboat Disaster, a tragic incident from Orkney's recent history, which will live long in the community’s memory. On 17 March 1969 the Longhope lifeboat launched into a force 9 south-eastern gale to aid the drifting Greek owned SS ‘Irene’. The T.G.B. capsized in mountainous seas - her eight of a crew perishing. The crew of the ‘Irene’ survived, rescued by breeches buoy from the land. Self-righting craft have now made lifeboats safer.

This ill-fated lifeboat is now on display in the maritime museum in Irvine, Scotland. Longhope didn’t want her back ever! They, despite this tragedy, promptly sought a replacement lifeboat for the community to crew. Close

From journal A Week Spent in Orkney

Longhope Lifeboat Museum

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Longhope Lifeboat Museum