Registration number 2206
Status Registered
a12admin

Previous names

  • L'Esperance

Details

Function Service Vessel
Subfunction Lifeboat
Location Stiffkey
Vessel type Liverpool Class Lifeboat
Current use Commercial Activity
Available to hire No
Available for excursions Yes

Construction

Builder Groves & Gutteridge Ltd, Cowes
Built in 1940
Rig None
Number of decks 1
Propulsion Motor
Number of engines 1
Primary engine type Petrol
Boiler type None
Boilermaker None

Dimensions

Breadth: Beam
10.23 feet (3.12m)
Length: Overall
35.48 feet (10.82m)

History

LUCY LAVERS served at Aldeburgh from 1940 and went into reserve from 1959 to 1968. She was launched 82 times in total and saved 44 lives. She was later sold out of service and re-named L'ESPERANCE. In 1997 she was stripped in Jersey to restore another lifeboat and was then taken on by the Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust. She was never restored by them, but stored (as little more than a hull) in various boatyards on the South Coast before being tracked down by the Rescue Wooden Boats Charity to whom she was donated.

Restoration work was started on her in December 2011. Lucy Lavers restoration was completed as planned in time to return to Dunkirk for the 75th anniversary of Operation Dynamo in May 2015, in company with about 50 other Dunkirk Little Ships.

Since July 2015 she has been moored in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk (where she twice served during the 1960s as relief lifeboat) and gives trips afloat.

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Grants

  • 2012-2013

    The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £99,300 for restoration and interpretation

Sources

ADLS News: Fleet news, Spring 2015
Classic Boat: The Little Ships Prepare to Revisit Dunkirk, May 2015  

Own this vessel?

If you are the owner of this vessel and would like to provide more details or updated information, please contact info@nationalhistoricships.org.uk

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