RNLB Aguila Wren (ON 892)

Last updated

History
Flag of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.svg
NameAguila Wren
Owner RNLI
Operator RNLI
BuilderGroves & Guttridge, East Cowes, Isle of Wight
CostAbout £14,000
Yard number516
Launched1951
Christened28 June 1952
Out of service
  • Retired from RNLI on 22 November 1972
  • Retired from Sea Cadets in early 1990s
IdentificationON892
StatusUndergoing restoration
General characteristics
Class and type Liverpool-class
Tonnage8.6 tons
Length35 ft 6 in (10.82 m)
Beam10 ft 8 in (3.25 m)
Propulsion
  • Twin screws
  • Twin 20 h.p. Ferry diesel engines (before 1973)
  • Twin Perkins 4.108 diesels (after 1973)
Crew7
NotesOn 2 March 2009 National Historic Ships added Aguila Wren to the National Register of Historic Vessels (Certificate no 2242) [1]

RNLB Aguila Wren (ON 892) is a retired Liverpool-class lifeboat of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. She is currently being restored to her original RNLI condition, with work expected to be complete in 2017 or 2018. Aguila Wren was built as a memorial to 22 members of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) who were killed when their transport ship to Gibraltar, the Yeoward Line ship Aguila, was sunk by German submarine U-201 in the North Atlantic in 1941.

Contents

Aguila

Aguila Wren was named to commemorate the sinking of the Yeoward Line ship Aguila, and the loss of 22 members of the Women's Royal Naval Service. Aguila had been part of a convoy from Liverpool to Gibraltar when she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-201 in the early hours of 19 August 1941. 152 of the 168 people aboard Aguila were killed, including all 22 WRNS aboard.

Collections

A voluntary collection was made by the WRNS in 1941, with all serving Wrens donating a day’s pay. This collection raised over £4,000, which was put towards the building a new Black Swan-class sloop HMS Wren, that William Denny and Brothers was building at Dumbarton. Also, the cost of the Sick Bay equipment on HMS Wren was subscribed to by relatives and friends of the 22 Wrens who were killed on Aguila. The balance of the money raised was donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to pay for a new lifeboat to be a memorial to the 22 women who died, to be named Aguila Wren.

Aguila Wren

As a lifeboat

The new lifeboat Aguila Wren was built in 1951 by Messrs. Groves & Guttridge at East Cowes, Isle of Wight. She served at Aberystwyth Lifeboat Station, Wales between 1951 and 1964, where she saved 14 lives, and at Redcar, North Yorkshire between 1965 and 1972, where she saved another 28 lives. She is a Liverpool-class lifeboat, with her hull formed of double diagonal-skinned Honduras mahogany laid on English oak frames. She is 35ft 6in long, 10 ft 8in beam, weighing around 8.6 tons. She has twin screws, originally powered by twin 20h.p. Ferry diesel engines although these bespoke-made engines were replaced in 1973 with twin Perkins 4.108 diesels.

Aguila Wren was named at Aberystwyth on 28 June 1952. Among those present were Captain Arthur Frith of Aguila and Dame Vera Laughton Mathews, former Director of the WRNS who had selected the 22 Wrens for Gibraltar service. The Aguila Wren was transferred away from Aberystwyth in 1964 following that station’s re-designation to an inshore lifeboat station. After a refit she arrived at Redcar in February 1965. Following her final life-saving rescue on 16 November 1972, to a yacht which had lost her propeller, she was replaced at Redcar by a new boat on 22 November 1972.

Sale to Sea Cadets

Her status as a war memorial led to discussions about the possibility of preserving Aguila Wren in a museum at Portsmouth, but these talks came to nothing. In order to preserve Aguila Wren from being sold, potentially for use as a fishing boat, Commander Peter Sturdee, who was at the time working for the RNLI at Head Office, arranged for her to be sold to a branch of the Sea Cadets to train potential naval ratings and Wrens. She left Redcar at 6am on the morning of 23 November 1972, stopped overnight at Spurn Point, Humber, and then sailed up the Humber to Keadby, near Scunthorpe, where she was handed over to the Scunthorpe Sea Cadets to become their training ship. The formal handing-over ceremony took place in Keadby on 20 May 1973, with Peter Sturdee formally presenting her to the Sea Cadet Corps. Also present was Captain Arthur Frith from Aguila.

As a training ship Aguila Wren sailed extensively around Britain and in Europe, including what was described as a "memorable trip" along the Rhine. She was sold after some 20 years of service with the Sea Cadets, and became a diving boat at Donnelly's Quay, South Shields . She was in a poor condition when she was found in mid-August 2004, bought by the son of one of her former shore crew members at Redcar, and put in storage.

Restoration

In January 2006 she was moved with the sponsorship of P&O Ferries to a specialist firm of expert, timber-built lifeboat restorers, where she is currently being restored to her original RNLI condition, with completion expected in 2014. She will then become a memorial to the 22 WRNS killed on Aguila in 1941, and will attend regattas and exhibitions to raise funds for the RNLI. Aguila Wren has been registered with National Historic Ships, who have provided a grant of £2,000 towards the restoration project.

Restoration has included replanking of parts of the hull on the starboard side, new hull frames, replacement of all decking, restoration of the original steering and the making and fitting of new deck steps and seating port and starboard. Aguila Wren's original port and starboard navigation lights and her steaming light were tracked down to an owner in New Zealand who had bought them when he lived near Keadby; they were subsequently reacquired by Aguila Wren's present owner and have been refitted to the boat after a round trip of around 23,000 miles to New Zealand and back. The provisions and radio locker, the wheel and Kelvin-Hughes binnacle compass fitted to Aguila Wren as part of her restoration came from ON.881 City of Leeds, the lifeboat that Aguila Wren replaced at Redcar in 1965, with these parts being acquired in 2012.

Related Research Articles

<i>Zetland</i> (lifeboat) Oldest surviving lifeboat in the world

The Zetland is the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world. It is currently in a free museum in Redcar, England. The name Zetland comes from the local Lord of Manor, the Marquess of Zetland. The Zetland is on the National Register of Historic Ships, as part of the National Historic Fleet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Greathead</span>

Henry Francis Greathead (1757–1818) was an English pioneering rescue lifeboat builder from South Shields. Although Lionel Lukin had patented a lifeboat in 1785, Greathead successfully petitioned parliament in 1802 with the claim that he had invented a lifeboat in 1790, and he was awarded £1,200 for his trouble. Although his claims have been contested, he did build 31 boats, which saved very many lives, and succeeded in making the concept of a shore-based rescue lifeboat widely accepted.

RNLB <i>Manchester Unity of Oddfellows</i> (ON 960)

The Manchester Unity of Oddfellows was an Oakley-class lifeboat of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) stationed at Sheringham in the English county of Norfolk from 10 July 1961 until 1990 when she was replaced after 29 years service by an Atlantic 75 second generation Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) in May 1992. During the time that The Manchester Unity of Oddfellows was on station at Sheringham, she performed 127 service launches, rescuing 134 lives.

RNLB <i>J C Madge</i> (ON 536) British lifeboat

RNLB J C Madge was a Liverpool-class, Pulling and Sailing non-self righting lifeboat stationed at Sheringham in the English county of Norfolk from December 1904 until June 1936 during which time she was launched on service 34 times and saved 58 lives. J C Madge was replaced by Forester’s Centenary.

RNLB <i>Cecil Paine</i> (ON 850)

RNLB Cecil Paine is a retired Liverpool-class non-self-righting lifeboat of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It was the second motor lifeboat to be stationed in the English coastal town of Wells-next-the-Sea in the county of Norfolk in the United Kingdom, and was on station at Wells from 25 July 1945 until she was sold in June 1965.

RNLB <i>Lucy Lavers</i> (ON 832)

RNLB Lucy Lavers was an RNLI lifeboat which was on No. 2 station at Aldeburgh 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. The Lucy Lavers is entered in the National Historic Ships register and has the Certificate No 2206.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skegness Lifeboat Station</span> Lifeboat station in Lincolnshire, England

Skegness Lifeboat Station is located at Tower Esplanade, in the town of Skegness, on the east coast of England, south of the Humber Estuary and north of The Wash, in the county of Lincolnshire.

Convoy OG 71 was a trade convoy of merchant ships during the second World War. It was the 71st of the numbered OG convoys Outbound from the British Isles to Gibraltar. The convoy departed Liverpool on 13 August 1941 and was found on 17 August by a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor of Kampfgeschwader 40. Starting on August 19, it became the first convoy of the war to be attacked by a German submarine wolfpack, when reached by eight U-boats from 1st U-boat Flotilla, operating out of Brest. Ten ships comprising a total tonnage of 15,185 tons were sunk before the U-boats lost contact on 23 August.

SS Aguila was a British steam passenger liner. She was built in Dundee in 1917 and was sunk by enemy action in the North Atlantic in 1941. She belonged to Yeoward Line, which carried passengers and fruit between Liverpool, Lisbon, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

SS <i>Avoceta</i> British steam passenger liner sunk during World War II

SS Avoceta was a British steam passenger liner. She was built in Dundee in 1923 and was sunk by enemy action in the North Atlantic in 1941. She belonged to Yeoward Line, which carried passengers and fruit between Liverpool, Lisbon, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

Alondra was an English steamer owned by Yeoward Bros. Ltd. out of Liverpool. She sank on 29 December 1916, in the North Atlantic after running aground at Kedge Rock in Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland. Seventeen men of the crew died while the remaining 23 were rescued.

SS <i>Avila Star</i> British turbine steamship

SS Avila Star, originally SS Avila, was a British turbine steamship of the Blue Star Line. She was both an ocean liner and a refrigerated cargo ship, providing a passenger service between London and South America and carrying refrigerated beef from South America to London. She was built in 1927, renamed Avila Star in 1929 and lengthened in 1935. She was sunk by a German submarine in 1942 with the loss of 84 lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aberystwyth Lifeboat Station</span> RNLI lifeboat station in Ceredigion, Wales

Aberystwyth Lifeboat Station is located at South Marine Terrace, in the coastal resort of Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, which sits on Cardigan Bay, on the west coast of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humber Lifeboat Station</span> Lifeboat station in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England

Humber Lifeboat Station is an All-weather lifeboat station based at the mouth of the River Humber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redcar Lifeboat Station</span> Lifeboat station in North Yorkshire, England

Redcar Lifeboat Station is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat station based in the town of Redcar in North Yorkshire, England. The station is the furthest north in Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runswick Lifeboat Station</span> Lifeboat station in North Yorkshire, England

Runswick Lifeboat Station was located in the village of Runswick Bay, approximately 7 mi (11 km) north-west of Whitby, in the county of North Yorkshire, England.

SS Aguila was a British merchant steamship that was built in Scotland in 1909. She was one of a small fleet of ships that Yeoward Brothers ran between Liverpool and the Canary Islands, importing fruit to Britain, and carrying passengers in both directions. A U-boat sank her in 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saltburn Lifeboat Station</span> Former lifeboat station in North Yorkshire, England

Saltburn Lifeboat Station was located at Marine Terrace, on Saltburn Road, just to the east side of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, adjacent to the Ship Inn, on the coast of North Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlesbrough Lifeboat Station</span> Former lifeboat station in North Yorkshire, England

Middlesbrough Lifeboat Station was located on the North Wharf side of the Middlesbrough Dock Cut from the River Tees, in the town of Middlesbrough, in North Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hornsea Lifeboat Station</span> Former lifeboat station in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England

Hornsea Lifeboat Station was located at the junction of Burton Road and Eastbourne Road, in the town of Hornsea, in the county of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

References

  1. "Aguila Wren". NRRHV. National Historic Ships. 12 July 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2013.