Oldest intact lifeboat

The oldest intact lifeboat is the Zetland, built in 1802 by Henry Francis Greathead (UK) at the South Shields boatyard in Tyne and Wear, and now housed at the Zetland Lifeboat Museum in Redcar, North Yorkshire, UK.

Delivered to the town of Redcar on 7 October 1802, the timber Zetland (No.11 of 31 built) was in service for 78 years, during which it helped to rescue at least 502 people in distress at sea off the Yorkshire coast.

The vessel has been kept at its current boathouse since 1907, only having been moved twice in that time: once in 1963 to feature at the International Lifeboat Conference in Edinburgh and then in 2018, when it was taken to Middlesbrough for urgent restoration work.

The Zetland was based on the same design as the very first purpose-built lifeboat, also built by Greathead: the Original, made in 1790. It measured 9 m (29 ft 6 in) long, 3 m (9 ft 10 in) wide, had an interior lined with cork and copper, and could accommodate 20 people (inclusive of a crew of 12). The Original first saw action on 30 January 1790, rescuing the survivors of a shipwreck marooned on Herd Sand in South Tyneside.

Greathead drew on the ideas of Lionel Lukin (UK), a coach-builder based in Long Acre, London, UK, who patented the concept of an "unimmergible boat" on 2 November 1785; the design was then adapted in 1786 for a coble fishing boat, under commission by Dr John Sharp of Bamburgh, Northumberland, UK. But the Original-class vessels (including Zetland) were the first boats designed and built from the get-go expressly for saving lives at sea.