H F Bailey (ON. 670) was the first Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....

 (RNLI) lifeboat

Lifeboat (rescue)

A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...

 powered by a motor, that served from Cromer

Cromer lifeboat station

Cromer Lifeboat Station is an RNLI station located in the town of Cromer in the English county of Norfolk. The station operates two lifeboats - one for inshore work and the other for offshore work....

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Description

The lifeboat was built in 1923 by J. Samuel White

J. Samuel White

J. Samuel White was a British shipbuilding firm based in Cowes, taking its name from John Samuel White . It came to prominence during the Victorian era...

 at Cowes

Cowes

Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...

 on the Isle of White. The Lifeboat was powered by a 80 brakehorsepower Weyburn DE6 engine and was a ‘Norfolk & Suffolk’ type boat. She was 46 feet (14 m) and 6 inches (152.4 mm) long with a breadth of 12 in 9 in (3.89 m)

Doner

The Cromer station had four motor-powered lifeboats all called H F Bailey, after the donor, a Mr Henry Francis Bailey of Brockenhurst

Brockenhurst

Brockenhurst is a village situated in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. The New Forest is a national park and Brockenhurst is therefore surrounded by woodland that attracts thousands of visitors all year round. The nearby towns surrounding Brockenhurst are Lymington and Lyndhurst. Brockenhurst...

, a London merchant who was born in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 and had died in 1916.

New Boathouse

To accommodate this new motor lifeboat a new lifeboat house and slipway were built on the end of the Cromer Pier

Cromer Pier

Cromer Pier is a seaside pier in the civil parish of Cromer on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk, 40 km due north of the city of Norwich in the United Kingdom. The pier is the home of the Cromer Lifeboat Station and the Pavilion Theatre...

. The planning and building of this new boathouse was carried out three years before the arrival of H F Bailey and was ready on the day that the new lifeboat arrived in the town. The new house was 60 feet (18.3 m) long and 21 feet (6.4 m) wide. The house had a solid concrete floor. The placing of this house at the end of the towns pier allowed the new lifeboat to be launched at all states and conditions of the tide, and with the pier itself 500 feet (152.4 m) from the shore line plus the 60 feet (18.3 m) of the boathouse and a further 165 feet (50.3 m) of slipway meant that the lifeboat when launched would be well clear of the rocks and groynes along Cromer’s beach front. The new lifeboat house cost £32,000. This boathouse remained in constant use until 1995 finally being replaced with a new station in 1999. The 1923 station now resides at Southwold

Southwold

Southwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is around south of Lowestoft and north-east...

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Service and Rescues

H.F. Bailey ON 670 was the Cromer No 1 boat on station for just one year but due to problems with her launch and recovery, on the slipway, she was transferred to Great Yarmouth & Gorleston on May 5, 1924, where she served until 1939

H.F. Bailey ON 670, rescues at Cromer

Year	Date	Casualty	Lives saved
1923	July 19	Smack Hepatica of Lowestoft Lowestoft Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich... , assisted to save vessel
1924	January 1	Steamship Nephrite of Glasgow Glasgow Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands... , assisted to save vessel	12