A Rare Find Indeed
>As the old paint was removed along with many
years of grime Tim Hicking recognised a distinct shape. He knew instinctively
that the shape was left over from where an old RNLI bronze standard
was once located. Tim knew that the location of the oval would be lost
forever once the resin, matting and paintwork was completed. Since resigning
my trustee position I have not been in a position to carry on a photographic
record, had I been still involved it would have been something I would
have made an important feature of.
>Thankfully Tim had the presence of mind to
use his camera phone to take a photograph, in order to capture a record
of the plaques location. Limited as they are his camera phone was more
than up the task of being able to capture a good photograph.
>I have added it here but I have encentuated
the fixings with a dab of white from a virtual paint brush so that it
stands out more.
>During its time as a lifeboat the William
Riley was fitted with the large bronze plaque bearing the "National
Lifeboat Institution", it would indeed be a rare find if ever the
original oval plaque where ever located! The second photograph to the
left is a partial one I have of the William Riley and her crew at its
Upgang station, it serves to identify the accurate location of the bronze
oval plaque.
Hull Painting
>Satisfied that the matting had been sanded
back to a very clean, smooth surface the volunteers were able to begin
turning their attention to get the first of many coats of paint on the
boat. As it was scheduled to be taken out of Whitby to Northumberland
for a significant part of the restoration to be completed the hull was
given a waterline white undercoat coat before its first full undercoat.
In the early days of the RNLI, lifeboats were painted in a pale blue
colour, this was later changed to the darker Royal Blue seen on today's
lifeboats.
>When the William Riley was in service it was
at a time when the colours were changing over to the darker blue. The
trust made a number of enquiries with the RNLI headquarters to try and
ascertain which colour scheme the lifeboat had and to my knowledge no
definitive answer was found, this obviously presented the trust with
a bit of a predicament. Had the trust had a definitive answer as to
the lifeboats service colour, this would have been the colour used for
the final colours.
>Quite early on in the restoration the chairman
called me to discuss the colour option and I made it clear that if we
did indeed have a choice that I preferred the paler blue. My reasoning
being that the darker blue is common place whereas not many existing
original lifeboats are painted in the paler colours, I felt that the
William Riley would be more noticeable with these colours. I cannot
speak for the other trustees but in the end it was largely academic
as the chairman had allegedly been able to secure a good discount with
the paint suppliers if he obtained the same darker blue used in the
Whitby Museum lifeboat.
>The photograph above shows the lifeboat on
trailer purchased to allow the trust to display the lifeboat. By sheer
coincidence the small photograph to the right appears to show the lifeboat
in a paler blue, although this is the first of the coats applied. Having
left Whitby in November the lifeboat has now returned to its temporary
base at the barn and with its new deck and thwarts completed there is
now only small jobs left in completing the restoration process.
Copyright © Colin Brittain 1999 - 2022
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