Lifeboat

It’s widely known that the Society campaigned to save the SS Nomadic, but what a lot of people don’t know, is the society also saved her last remaining lifeboat. In fact – and as far as we can tell – this is the last remaining confirmed White Star Line lifeboat anywhere in the world.

History

The two lifeboats belonging to SS Nomadic were designed by Roderick Chisholm, Chief Draughtsman of Harland & Wolff, and built in the boat builders’ shed a short distance from the drawing offices where all the company’s ships were designed and the slipways where Titanic and Nomadic were under construction. The design is a traditional clinker-build, planks overlapping and secured by copper rivets, and built to a ‘cutter’ plan similar in style and construction to the 2 cutters on Titanic but smaller at just 20ft in length.

In May 1911, Nomadic was in her final stages of fitting out, ready to start service in June in her home port of Cherbourg, this included fitting her lifeboats on the flying bridge deck using Wellin Davits as used on the larger White Star Line ships including Titanic.

The lifeboats would constantly remain on-board SS Nomadic during her working life, including service in both World Wars where Nomadic served as a mine sweeper and troopship, until in 1974 they were removed to make space while Nomadic was being converted to a restaurant in Paris. At this stage many of their fittings including brass nameplates and load specification plates were removed or stolen.

In 1987 “Le Musée Maritime Chantereyne” in Cherbourg offered to take and conserve the lifeboats. Nomadic’s owner Yvon Vincent agreed and both lifeboats headed back to Cherbourg. Unfortunately the museum was unable to restore them and lifeboat No.1 was destroyed leaving No.2, sitting outside the museum, as the last confirmed White Star lifeboat.

In 2000 Nomadic’s trading licence was revoked and in 2003 she was seized by Paris port authorities and taken to Le Havre to be auctioned to pay debts. For this to happen she was partially dismantled to allow passage under Paris’s low bridges.

Recovery and Restoration

By 2005 the SaveNomadic.com campaign was in full swing to bring Nomadic’s plight to the notice of the general public and raise funds to possibly buy the ship. The existence of Lifeboat No.2 was brought to the campaign’s notice and with the Northern Ireland government stepping in to buy Nomadic in January 2006 allowing the last White Star ship a chance at having a future, attention was turned to the last White Star lifeboat to see if a similar rescue was possible.

Lifeboat No.2 at the Museum in Cherbourg

In 2007 Nomadic Preservation Society, formed from the SaveNomadic campaign, was able to purchase the lifeboat and returned it to Belfast where they started a campaign of their own to raise the funds to preserve and restore the lifeboat as it had degraded to a sorry state with the keel detached and in three pieces and the ribs broken causing the ‘clinker’ hull to collapse into itself. The first order of business was to get a conservation plan drawn up and create a cradle so the boat could be supported as the timbers were eased back into their original position.

A new keel was inserted as the original was no longer able to support the hull, along with new ribs to secure the planking. Anything that could be conserved was, and what couldn’t has been sympathetically replaced.

The lifeboat hanging in its cradle during restoration

What the future holds….

More than 100 years after leaving Belfast, 57 in service, 39 lying outside deteriorating and 6 being restored, the future looks good for No.2 Lifeboat. Restoration was financed solely by the Nomadic Preservation Society, in part by a loan from some generous benefactors but costs towards the conservation continue.

It is the Society’s wish that the Lifeboat’s permanent home will be with her, now fully restored and open to the public, parent vessel SS Nomadic in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast but it will need to be fully protected from the inclement Northern Ireland weather to prevent any further damage.

It is hoped that the lifeboat may be put on display where it can help raise much needed funds to pay for itself and possibly be used as a template to recreate accurate replicas to go back on Nomadic’s flying bridge deck so the ship will once again look as she did when she left Belfast on 31^st May 1911 for her long and distinguished career serving first the White Star Line and later Cunard and any other liners needing the services of a passenger tender vessel in Cherbourg.

In 2011 Bob Angel offered to recreate the missing brass plates for the Lifeboat and after some research was able to create Masters of the White Star burgee, SS Nomadic, Cherbourg, the Draft Plate and the missing Lifeboat number. The wooden Masters were then used to create bronze castings which where then painted. Most of the replicas were installed in time for the Lifeboat to go on display along side Nomadic as part of our 2016 convention during which Bob was award the Roy Snowden Award for his contributions.