Name Charles Cooper Henderson

Built in 1933 by Groves & Gutteridge at Cowes, Isle of Wight, CHARLES COOPER HENDERSON is a Watson Beach Class lifeboat.  She was the first of the 'beach motor lifeboats' which took over from the pulling and sailing ones.  During her 43 years on active service, mostly at Dungeness in Kent, she took part in 171 rescues, saving 63 lives. 

In 1940, CHARLES COOPER HENDERSON was one of 19 RNLI lifeboats which helped evacuate British forces from the beaches of Dunkirk.  On 1st June she was found damaged and drifting off Margate with her four naval ratings aboard, and was herself rescued and towed back to the English coast by Margate lifeboat.

1n 1956, her coxswain, George Tart, won the RNLI bronze medal for gallantry in the rescue of nine men from the collier TEESWOOD in a force 12 storm

She served as a lifeboat until she was sold out of service in 1974. She was the longest serving RNLI motor lifeboat. Her hull is double diagonal mahogany on oak and her current engines are twin 50 bhp Ford Perkins diesels.  Her mast and sails are those that were installed in the 1930s. 

After being sold out of service she was renamed ELIZABETH SPENCER.  She was used by the Coastguard at Aldeburgh in Suffolk for a while and then sold to a fisherman out of Southwold.  In 1977, her new owners Peter and Eileen Larkin rebuilt her as a motor yacht, including a 20ft. wheelhouse and deck saloon with fore and aft cabins - enough space for eight people.  Under this ownership she was renamed CARESANA. 

In 1984, she was sold to new owners and moved to St Peter Port, Guernsey, and then in 1990 to France where she became a floating classroom for a language school.  In 1996, still in France, she was refurbished by a boatbuilder on the River Rance and re-rigged as a gaff ketch (as she had been originally).  She retained her Porbeagle Diesel engines.  She returned to Guernsey in 1996 and was repainted before taking part in the traditional music and boat festival in Paimpol, Brittany that same year.

In 2011, CARESANA was acquired by the Dunkirk Little Ship Restoration Trust after spending five years on a beach mooring at Leigh on Sea.  She was moved to Smallgains Marina on Canvey Island and hauled out and blocked off ashore.  Here a small team of volunteers carried out some work on the hull to make her seaworthy and in late October 2011 she was towed up to Shepperton for restoration by a dedicated team of volunteers. Her wheelhouse / saloon was completely rebuilt, and a lot of hours were spent carrying out further internal work.  

Under current ownership since 2018, the vessel has reverted to her original name of CHARLES COOPER HENDERSON.  She is out of the water awaiting structural repairs.

Update, August 2026: Vessel for sale.