Ryde Inshore Rescue Service

Ryde Inshore Rescue Service[1] is a voluntary run lifeboat station located in the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.[2] Ryde Inshore Rescue is an independent lifeboat station within the United Kingdom, is not part of the RNLI and does not receive funding from the RNLI or the government.

Ryde Inshore Rescue Service
General information
TypeRNLI Lifeboat Station
LocationAppley Lane, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO331ND.
CountryEngland
Coordinates50°43′42.2″N 1°08′38.4″W
Opened1956
OwnerThe Ryde Inshore Rescue Service, which is a registered charity
Ryde Inshore Rescue Service lifeboat station
Rescue craft on the beach next to the lifeboat station.

The station is on call to the Coast Guard 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.[1] The service operates an inshore lifeboat from its station at Appley Lane. The organisation training is to a high standard and the volunteers are expected to be able to give at least 1 day a week to ensure that they meet the exacting requirements of the organization.[1]

History

The first lifeboat service in the town started in 1858 and was run on a voluntary basis. On 8 May 1869 the town's rescue volunteers service was supplied with a new lifeboat called The Captain Hans Busk[3] which was kept and launched from a slipway on Ryde Pier. The cost of the new lifeboat was met by Hans Busk. The lifeboat was built by J. Samuel White at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. She was 30 ft (9.1 m) in length, 6 ft (1.8 m) across the beam and had a depth of 2.4 ft (0.73 m).[3] The lifeboat had 24 oars and she was fitted with two sailing masts. She was steered with a galvanised iron tiller. For transit the lifeboat had its own carriage and wheels and could be moved over land if the situation required.[3]

First Boathouse

The first station boathouse was constructed on the west side of the town’s pier in 1870.[4] In 1894 the running of the station passed into the hands of the RNLI.[4] The station operated pulling lifeboats from here until closed as an RNLI station in 1923.[4] The decision to close[5] the station was made following the placing of a motor lifeboat at nearby Bembridge Lifeboat Station.

Ryde Lifeboat Disaster

On Tuesday 1 January 1907[6][7] the Ryde Lifeboat Selina was launched on service. The lifeboat was a 30 ft (9.1 m) wooden non self-righting lifeboat with coxswain William John Bartlett at the Helm.[7] This lifeboat was a whaleboat design and had never been intended for use in the conditions she now faced. Augustus Jarrett,[7] master of the 56 ton barge Jane had earlier reported a small boat stolen from the barge and it was reported drifting out to sea with one man aboard. The lifeboat went to attend the drifting boat under sail heading eastwards towards the Sandhead buoy. The lifeboat searched the area but was unable to locate the small boat with the man, who turned out to be Augustus Jarrett himself.[7]

Sea conditions began to deteriorate and a sudden and unexpected heavy squall hit the lifeboat causing it to capsize. All the crew were thrown into the cold sea. They had nothing to hold on to and no way of signalling for help. The stricken lifeboat drifted across the Solent with the crew grasping at the keel and at the mercy of the wind and tide, and the lifeboat was washed on to the shore at Southsea. The surviving crew members were rescued there, all in an exhausted state and suffering from exposure. Two of lifeboat crew, Frank Haynes and Henry Heward,[7] had died after succumbing to exhaustion and exposure in the cold water and their fellow crewmen were unable to hold them. The lost crewmen’s bodies were eventually washed up later in the evening. In a cruel twist Augustus Jarrett had survived and had managed to row across the Solent, landing opposite Eastney Barracks at Southsea earlier the same evening. He had been in no danger at all.[7]

Formation of Ryde Inshore rescue

In 1956[8] a fatal double drowning at the end of Ryde Pier prompted the re-formation of a life saving organisation in the town. Local volunteers formed a lifeguard unit and operated from the old RNLI station on the pier along with the local St John Ambulance Brigade. The organisation was run by Vectis Fishing Club who ran a sea rescue service using small 12 ft (3.7 m) dinghies with Seagull outboard motors.[9]

See also

Neighbouring Station Locations

References
  1. "Ryde Inshore Rescue Service". The Ryde Inshore Rescue Service website home page. ©Ryde Inshore Rescue Service - 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  2. OS Explorer Map OL29 - Isle of Wight, Folded Map. Publisher:Ordnance Survey; B2 edition (17 Mar 2008). ISBN 978 0319240151
  3. "The Ryde lifeboat – Hans Busk". Description and details of the First named Ryde Lifeboat. © 2013. All content is copyrighted to the Historic Ryde Society. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  4. For Those In Peril – The Lifeboat Service of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, Station by Station. Author: Leach, Nicholas. Publisher: Silver Link Publishing Ltd, First Issue 1999. Work: Appendix 7: Closed lifeboat Stations, Page 252. Date references for the Ryde station. ISBN 1 85794 129 2
  5. Lifeboat Gallantry - RNLI Medals and how they were won. Author: Cox, Barry. Published by: Spink & Son Ltd. Work: Appendix III, Page 421, Reference to the closer of the station – Ryde, Isle of Wight. ISBN 0907605893
  6. "Ryde - Ryde Lifeboat Disaster, 1st/2nd January 1907". The story of the Ryde Lifeboat Disaster. Copyright © 2005 - 2014 Wootton Bridge Historical. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  7. "January 2007 - Ryde Lifeboat Disaster 1 January 1907". Description of the 1907 Lifeboat Disaster. © 2013.Ryde Social History Group. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  8. "Lifeboat Station History". Reference to the formation and date of the Ryde Inshore Lifeboat. © The Belmont Hotel 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  9. "British Seagull Outboard Motors". History of the British Seagull Outboard Motors. © British Seagull 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
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