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Falmouth Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations at Falmouth, Cornwall in the United Kingdom. The first lifeboat was stationed in the town in 1867 and the present station was opened in 1993. It operates a Severn Class all weather boat (AWB) and an Atlantic 75 inshore lifeboat (ILB). ==History== Falmouth is situated on the Carrick Roads, a large natural harbour on the south coast. It developed as a port for packet boats in the seventeenth century. These moved elsewhere in the 1850s but a new commercial dockyard was founded in 1860. A committee was set up in 1865 to request the RNLI to station a lifeboat at Falmouth. A wooden lifeboat house was sanctioned and constructed near the recently constructed docks, being opened on 28 August 1867. The building cost £158 and a 10-oared lifeboat was built in London at a cost of £280. This was paid for by money raised in Gloucester and so the boat had been named ''City of Gloucester'' in that city earlier that year, on 9 April. Another £98 10s paid for a carriage that enabled the boat to be transported to the best launch site for any particular rescue. In 1918 the RNLI's lease on the land at the docks was terminated and the lifeboat was moved to moorings in the main harbour. A boarding boat was provided to enable the crew to reach their boat.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), p.6〕 The first motor lifeboat at Falmouth was Watson Class ''The Brothers'', originally stationed at Penlee Lifeboat Station, it was transferred to Falmouth on 14 April 1931. It was powered by a Weyburn 80BHP petrol engine.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), p.7〕 The replacement Watson-class boat, ''B.A.S.P.'' (the initials of the donors, Blackburn, Armstrong, Smart and Price) which arrived in 1934, had been the first lifeboat at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and the second of three Watson-class built by J Samuel White of Cowes to be stationed at Falmouth, is now preserved in the RNLI historic lifeboat collection at the Dockyard, Chatham. The third Watson was ''Crawford and Constance Conybeare'' in 1940. The station’s last displacement hulled lifeboat, the prototype Thames class lifeboat ''Rotary Service'', left the station in August 1976 after four years' service.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), pp.17–18〕 It was replaced by the prototype Waveney, 44-001. This had been built in America in 1964 and was the first of the RNLI's 'fast' lifeboats, being capable of , twice the speed of earlier motor lifeboats. It operated from Falmouth until June the following year.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), pp.18–19〕 Unofficially called 'The Yank' after its American connection, 44-001 is now also preserved in the RNLI historic lifeboat collection at the Dockyard, Chatham. An experimental Hatch Type rigid inshore rescue boat (IRB), 18-01, was temporarily stationed at Falmouth from August to October 1967.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), p.14〕 Another early rigid ILB, an McLachlan, was used at Falmouth as the station's boarding boat. It proved useful for some inshore rescues so was formally designated an ILB from 27 March 1980. It was replaced by a more conventional Atlantic 21 rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIB) in 1987.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), pp.21–24〕 Work on a new lifeboat station to house the inshore lifeboat started near the docks in July 1993; six months later it was brought into use and the hut on North Quay was vacated. The boat was kept inside, and was launched from a carriage using a specially constructed slipway. Two years later, a mooring was dredged close by to allow the all-weather boat to be moored alongside.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), p.27〕 On station in 1997 was ''The Will'', the first production Severn Class. It had been built in 1995 for Stornoway Lifeboat Station but had to undergo several modifications before it was fit for service. In the meantime it had been shown to many lifeboat stations where the class was expected to be deployed. It so impressed the crew at Falmouth that they asked the RNLI to station it there until their own boat was built, and so it was there from January 1997 until December 2001.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), pp.30–40〕 Queen Elizabeth II, Patron of the RNLI, visited the station on 1 May 2002 to name the station's latest lifeboat ''Richard Scott Cox''.〔Morris, Jeff (2002), p.45〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Falmouth Lifeboat Station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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