View source for RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832)

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=-2019-08-29 Historic lifeboat Lucy Lavers in Wells-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk.jpg
|Ship image size=250px
|Ship caption='''RNLB ''Lucy Lavers'' (ON 832)'''
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=[[United Kingdom]]
|Ship flag= [[File:Flag of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.svg|60px|British RNLI Flag]]
|Ship name=
|Ship namesake=
|Ship owner= [[Royal National Lifeboat Institution]] (RNLI)
|Ship ordered=
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder= Groves & Gutteridge, [[Cowes]], [[Isle of Wight]]
{{Infobox|child=yes
| label1 = Official Number
| data1 = ON 832
| label2 = Donor
| data2 = 
| label3 = Station
| data3 = [[Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station|Aldeburgh]],  [[Wells-next-the-Sea Lifeboat Station|Wells-next-the-Sea]]
}}
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header= yes
|Ship original cost= 
|Ship yard number=
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|Ship laid down=1939
|Ship launched= 
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|Ship christened=
|Ship completed=
|Ship acquired=1940
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship in service=*1940 to 1968
*(Re-named L'Esperance), became a pilot boat in the [[Channel Island]] port of [[St. Helier]], [[Jersey]].
|Ship out of service=
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|Ship status=Undergoing restoration (2013)
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}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship class=Liverpool Class
|Ship type=Motor lifeboat
|Ship displacement=6 tons 10cwt
|Ship length= {{convert|35|ft|6|in|abbr=on}} overall
|Ship beam= {{convert|10|ft|3|in|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught= {{convert|2|ft|3.5|in|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth={{convert|4|ft|4|in|abbr=on}}
|Ship power= 35hp Weyburn petrol engine
|Ship propulsion=
|Ship speed={{convert|7.42|kn|km/h|abbr=on}}
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|Ship notes=*Fitted with single mast
*and carried two oars
}}
|}
'''RNLB ''Lucy Lavers'' (ON 832)''' was an [[RNLI]] lifeboat which was on No. 2 station at [[Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station|Aldeburgh]]<ref>''OS Explorer Map 231 – Southwold & Bungay''. {{ISBN|9780319238059}}.</ref> from 1940 until 1959 when she was placed in the reserve fleet until 1968 when she was retired. The Rescue Wooden Boats Charity is currently undertaking restoration of the vessel.<ref name=RWBs>{{cite web|title=Rescue Wooden Boats – Conserving maritime history |url=http://www.rescuewoodenboats.com/Lucy_Lavers|work= Lucy Lavers Background|publisher= RESCUE WOODEN BOATS (Registered Charity 1144180) 14 Norton Street, Burnham Norton, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE31 8DR| access-date=25 August 2013}}</ref><ref name=BBCNEWS>{{cite news|title=Dunkirk boat Lucy Lavers given £100k restoration grant|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-20188863|work=BBC News webpage-3 November 2012|date=2 November 2012 |publisher= BBC © 2013|access-date=25 August 2013}}</ref> The ''Lucy Lavers'' is entered in the [[National Historic Ships]] register and has the Certificate No 2206.<ref name=NHSR>{{cite web|title=National Historic Ships Register|url=http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/2206/lucy-lavers|work=Lucy Lavers entry|publisher= National Historic Ships Register- National Historic Ships UK |access-date=22 August 2013}}</ref>

==Description==
''Lucy Lavers'' is a {{Lbc|Liverpool}} single engine lifeboat<ref name=RWBs/> which was also equipped with a sail, as was favoured by the RNLI for all single engine Liverpool class lifeboat. To stabiliser the lifeboat when under sail she was also fitted with a drop keel.<ref name=RWBs/>  The installed engine was a 35&nbsp;hp Weyburn petrol engine.<ref name=RWBs/>  She was built for the RNLI by Groves and Gutteridge and was laid down in 1939.<ref name=RWBs/>  The boat was finished in 1940 and was sent for service at the Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station. The lifeboat was 35&nbsp;ft 6in long and has a beam of 10&nbsp;ft 3in and a draft of only 2&nbsp;ft 3.5in. She had a displacement of 6 tons.<ref name=RWBs/>

==Service at No. 2 Station in Aldeburgh==

=== The Dunkirk evacuation ===
The ''Lucy Lavers'' arrived in Aldeburgh in 1940 and was almost immediately commandeered,<ref name=DunkirkLS2>{{cite web|title= The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships|url= http://www.adls.org.uk/t1/node/565|work= Lucy Lavers|publisher= Association of Dunkirk Little Ships|access-date= 27 August 2013|archive-date= 21 July 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170721131127/http://www.adls.org.uk/t1/node/565|url-status= dead}}</ref> along with Aldeburghs No:1 station lifeboat {{RNLB|Abdy Beauclerk|ON 751}}<ref name=DunkirkLS1>{{cite web|title= The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships|url= http://www.adls.org.uk/t1/node/508|work= Abdy Beauclerk|publisher= Association of Dunkirk Little Ships|access-date= 27 August 2013|archive-date= 21 July 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170721090434/http://www.adls.org.uk/t1/node/508|url-status= dead}}</ref> by the [[Royal Navy]]. She was summoned to [[Dover]] and arrived at the port on 31 May. She was needed, along with 17 other RNLI lifeboats, to help in the [[Dunkirk evacuation]], the removal of the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)#Evacuation|British Expeditionary Force]] and the French Army from Dunkirk. At Dover small Royal Navy crews with a small number of RNLI coxswain towed the lifeboats to the French coast. They arrived just east of Dunkirk harbour where they began the evacuation. ''Lucy Lavers'' along with the other lifeboats was ordered to remain at Dunkirk until ordered to return home. She remained there and ferrying the evacuees out to larger ships. She stayed in the vicinity until late on the evening of 4 June. The ''Lucy Lavers'', along with the other surviving lifeboats, returned overnight to [[Ramsgate]] in [[Kent]].<ref name=DunkirkLS1 />

=== Wartime rescues ===
The Aldeburgh station records show that during the rest of the [[Second World War]], ''Lucy Lavers'' along with ''Abdy Beauclerk'' were called out on many occasions. Most of these 'shouts' (calls for help) were in response to reports of aircraft crashed into the sea. Both Lifeboats spent long hours searching exhaustively for survivors but on most occasions all they found was wreckage or patches of oil. The lifeboats at Aldeburgh were responsible for saving a total of 107 lives during the war period.

==Retirement and Restoration==
The ''Lucy Lavers'' served at Aldeburgh for 19 years, during which she and her crew undertook 30 operations which saved 7 lives. During her service in the RNLI’s reserve fleet at [[Wells-next-the-Sea Lifeboat Station|Wells-next-the-Sea]], [[Sheringham Lifeboat Station|Sheringham]], and [[Rhyl Lifeboat Station|Rhyl]], she undertook a further 52 missions, saving 37 lives.<ref name="WLB">''Wells-next-the-Sea Lifeboats''. Author: Nicholas Leach & Paul Russell. Published by:Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2006. Pages 52–54. {{ISBN|0752438751}}</ref> In 1968 she was finally sold out of the fleet by the RNLI and began a career as a pilot boat<ref name=CHANSHIP>{{cite web|title=RNLB LUCY LAVERS/LUCY|url=http://channelislandsshipping.je/page98.html|work=Description and photographs of Lucy Lavers in the Channel Islands| publisher=Channel Islands Shipping|access-date=3 August 2013}}</ref> in the port of  [[Saint Helier]], [[Jersey]]. She was also renamed L’esperance<ref name=CHANSHIP/> and eventually became a private fishing boat. In 1986 the lifeboat was given a new role when she was bought by a Dive and Ski Club of St. Helier. During this period she spend most of her time around the island of [[Sark]].<ref name=CHANSHIP/> In 1997 she was finally retired and her engine canopy and some of her remaining fixtures and fittings were stripped out and used in the restoration of {{RNLB|Howard D|ON 797|3}}, an ex-Saint Helier lifeboat. Following the removal of these parts her diagonal mahogany hull, which was still in good condition, and she was sent to Simon Evans Boat Yard on the [[Yonne (river)|River Yonne]], in [[Sens]], [[France]]. She then joined the Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust.<ref name=DunkirkLS2/>

===Restoration===
Following some keen detective work by two Lifeboat enthusiasts from Norfolk, who had been looking for the ''Lucy Lavers'' for some time, she was found in 2006. ''Lucy Lavers'' underwent full restoration work at [[Stiffkey]], [[Norfolk]] from 2013. Having been stripped back to little more than a bare hull, the majority of her original mahogany hull remains. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels by [[National Historic Ships]]. Her certificate number is 2206.<ref name=NHSR/> In 2012 the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded a grant to Rescue Wooden Boats £99.300<ref name=EDP24>{{cite web|title=Near £100.00 grant to restore the Lucy Lavers|url= http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/near_100_000_grant_to_restore_lucy_the_lifeboat_1_1703189 |work= Eastern Daily Press 24.co.uk, Dec 2012.|publisher= Eastern Daily Press © 2013 Archant Community Media Ltd |access-date=3 September 2013}}</ref> towards the restoration of the ''Lucy Lavers''. The restoration was completed in time for the lifeboat to return to Dunkirk under her own steam to join the 75th anniversary celebrations of Dunkirk evacuation in May 2015. She is moored at [[Wells-next-the-Sea]] in Norfolk (see last photograph below) and is currently used for boat trips out of the harbour.<ref>{{cite web|title=RNLI: The Lucy Lavers lives on|url=https://rnli.org/about-us/our-history/dunkirk-relied-upon-then-relied-upon-now/the-lucy-lavers-lives-on|access-date=30 May 2023}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery widths=180 caption="RNLB Lucy Lavers (ON 832)">
File:Launching Lucy Lavers Lifeboat Aldeburgh .JPG|Lucy Lavers on beach at Aldeburgh No:2 station. Alfred and Patience Gottwald being launched
File:Lucy Lavers ON832 31 August 2013.JPG|''Lucy Lavers'' at Sea
File:Lifeboat Lucy Lavers ON832 31 August 2013 (1).JPG|Undergoing restoration at Stiffkey, Norfolk (August 2013)
File:Lifeboat Lucy Lavers ON832 31 August 2013 (2).JPG
File:Lifeboat Lucy Lavers ON832 31 August 2013 (3).JPG
File:Lifeboat Lucy Lavers ON832 31 August 2013.JPG
File:Lucy Lavers 2018.jpg|Fully Restored operating from Wells-Next-The-Sea (Norfolk Coast)
</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Lifeboat Stations in Suffolk}}
{{National Historic Ships}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucy Lavers}}
[[Category:Lifeboats of Suffolk]]
[[Category:Lifeboats of Norfolk]]
[[Category:Liverpool-class lifeboats]]
[[Category:1940 ships]]
[[Category:Little Ships of Dunkirk]]
[[Category:Ships and vessels on the National Register of Historic Vessels]]
[[Category:Aldeburgh lifeboats]]
[[Category:Wells-next-the-Sea lifeboats]]
[[Category:Museum ships in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats by name|Lucy Lavers]]
[[Category:Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats by number|832]]