The Shields Gazette on
Saturday 20 April 2013 wrote:
THE
last surviving lifeboat built in South Shields by Henry Greathead himself is to
be examined by experts to see how she’s faring.
The Zetland, which is kept at a museum in Redcar, is the oldest lifeboat
in the world, built more than 200 years ago.
Our own historic lifeboat, Tyne, built in 1833 by Edward Oliver at the
Lawe, is the second oldest.
The Zetland, which is on the National Register of Historic Ships, was
delivered to Redcar in October, 1802, just a few months, as a matter of
interest, before Greathead lost his father, who had been controller of salt
duties here in Shields.
She went on to take part in a number of rescues, saving more than 500
lives, until, in 1864, she was damaged while rescuing a crew of seven from the
brig Brothers.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) took her out of service
and she was replaced. Local
feeling went on to prevent the boat being broken up and she was
repaired.
She has been preserved as a museum exhibit at Redcar since 1907, where
she continues to raise money for the RNLI through donations.
Now the Friends of Zetland Lifeboat want to carry on that conservation
and she is being examined to see what work may be required. It includes
exploring original timbers and fittings that have not been disturbed for more
than two centuries.
The lifeboat was commissioned from Greathead with the assistance of the
then Marquis of Zetland, and there you have another Shields connection that I
think I’m right in saying survived until not so many years ago.
To find it, you have to go back into the history of the Burdon family
who settled here in the 17th century and were owners of the old Lay Farm.
Nicholas Burdon was prominent in local life as a magistrate and
churchwarden of St Hilda’s.
His great-grandaughter went on to marry Lord Dundas, for whose family
the baronetcy was created.
Now I may be wrong, but I am sure that in my early days here at the
Gazette – oh, all those years ago! – a feature of the paper, from time to time,
was an advertisement for staff placed by the Zetland estate, as if the old
associations hadn’t quite been forgotten.
Meanwhile, the museum at Redcar, where you can see the lifeboat, will
open for the season on May 1. Admission is free.
