Henry Greathead
Encyclopedia
Henry Francis Greathead (1757–1818) was a pioneering rescue lifeboat
builder from South Shields
. Although Lionel Lukin
had patented a lifeboat in 1785, Greathead successfully petitioned parliament in 1802 with the claim that he had invented a lifeboat in 1790, and he was awarded £1,200 for his trouble. Although his claims have been contested, he did build 31 boats, which saved very many lives, and succeeded in making the concept of a shore-based rescue lifeboat widely accepted.
, but the family moved to South Shields in 1763. His father was well off, having been in public service for 46 years, as an officer of salt duties and later as supervisor and comptroller
of the district. Henry received the best education available in the area, then served an apprenticeship in boat building. In 1778 he took a position as a ship's carpenter. The next year he was shipwrecked near Calais
and on his return to England narrowly avoided being press-ganged
into naval service. During a voyage to the Grenadas his ship was taken by American privateers, and was then sent to New York where he was impressed aboard a British sloop. He remained in service till the end of the American Revolutionary War
in 1783.
He returned to South Shields where he set up his own boat building business in 1785, and married in the following year. He had six children, though all but two of them died at a young age.
, was to be built of copper, made buoyant by the use of cork, and was incapable of being capsized. The committee however disapproved of the idea of a copper boat, but Wouldhave was awarded one guinea
for his trouble. Greathead also made a submission, built of wood, but which floated bottom up when upset. He was however rewarded by being employed to build a boat as directed by the committee. Sometime after, two members of the committee presented a model which Greathead was instructed to build. At his suggestion it was agreed that a curved keel should be used. They decided that something akin to a Norway Yawl should be built.
The lifeboat constructed had a curved keel and rose more fore and aft than a Norway Yawl. When full of water amidships
, one third at each end would be out of water, and it could continue underway without foundering. It could be rowed in either direction and was steered by an oar rather than a rudder. It was rowed with ten short oars, these being more manageable in heavy seas than a full-length oar. The boat was thirty feet long and ten feet broad. The sides were cased with cork, four inches thick, weighing nearly 7 hundredweight
and secured with copper plates. It added considerably to the buoyancy of the boat, helping it recover quickly from any upset. The curvature of the keel made her very easy to steer about her centre. She was able to carry twenty people, and went out on her first trial on 30 January 1790.
, purchased a lifeboat for North Shields
, and then another for Oporto in 1800. In 1802 Greathead's work was "deemed a fit subject for national munificence" and a petition was submitted to the House of Commons. A committee ascertained the utility of the lifeboat, the originality of the invention, and the remuneration that he had already received. They interviewed numerous witnesses and after some debate the House unanimously granted him £1,200. Trinity House
awarded 100 guineas, as did Lloyd's of London
. The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and Sciences gave him 50 guineas and a gold medallion.
Greathead never took out a patent on his invention, and was always willing to share his plans with others for the public good.
By 1806 his lifeboats were in use at Whitby, North Shields, South Shields, Exmouth, Penzance, Plymouth, Newhaven
, Ramsgate, Dover, Liverpool, Lowestoft
, St Andrews
, Montrose, Aberdeen
, Ayr, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. In 1811 the list included Guernsey, Arbroath, Pillau, Cronstadt, Rye, Whitehaven, Stettin, Riga, Danzig
, Cromer
, Leith, Bridlington, Charleston, Fraserburgh, Gothenburg
, San Lucar, Dunbar, Blyth, Spurn
and Heligoland
. The Admiralty
had also purchased five smaller craft.
In total, Henry Greathead built 31 lifeboats. His eleventh boat, the Zetland
built in 1802, saw 78 years of service in Redcar
and saved over 500 lives with the loss of only one crew member. She normally had a crew of 13, but up to 20 could be needed in rough weather. Her cork fenders were replaced at some point by internal buoyancy tanks. This boat is the only one of Greathead's to survive, and is preserved at the RNLI
Zetland Museum.
Lifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
builder from South Shields
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
. Although Lionel Lukin
Lionel Lukin
Lionel Lukin Lionel Lukin Lionel Lukin (18 May 1742 (Great Dunmow, Essex, England) - 16 February 1834 (Hythe, Kent, England) is considered by some to have been the inventor of the lifeboat (although see William Wouldhave for the competing claim)....
had patented a lifeboat in 1785, Greathead successfully petitioned parliament in 1802 with the claim that he had invented a lifeboat in 1790, and he was awarded £1,200 for his trouble. Although his claims have been contested, he did build 31 boats, which saved very many lives, and succeeded in making the concept of a shore-based rescue lifeboat widely accepted.
Early life
He was born on 27 January 1757 in Richmond, North YorkshireRichmond, North Yorkshire
Richmond is a market town and civil parish on the River Swale in North Yorkshire, England and is the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. It is situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and serves as the Park's main tourist centre...
, but the family moved to South Shields in 1763. His father was well off, having been in public service for 46 years, as an officer of salt duties and later as supervisor and comptroller
Comptroller
A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...
of the district. Henry received the best education available in the area, then served an apprenticeship in boat building. In 1778 he took a position as a ship's carpenter. The next year he was shipwrecked near Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
and on his return to England narrowly avoided being press-ganged
Impressment
Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...
into naval service. During a voyage to the Grenadas his ship was taken by American privateers, and was then sent to New York where he was impressed aboard a British sloop. He remained in service till the end of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
in 1783.
He returned to South Shields where he set up his own boat building business in 1785, and married in the following year. He had six children, though all but two of them died at a young age.
Lifeboat design
In 1789 a ship was stranded on a sandbank and the crew could not be rescued because of storm conditions. A committee was formed to build a boat capable of effecting a rescue in such conditions. Two models were submitted. One, modelled in tin by William WouldhaveWilliam Wouldhave
William Wouldhave is a rival of Lionel Lukin for recognition as inventor of the lifeboat. His tombstone, erected thirteen years before Lukin’s, describes William Wouldhave as;-Personal History:...
, was to be built of copper, made buoyant by the use of cork, and was incapable of being capsized. The committee however disapproved of the idea of a copper boat, but Wouldhave was awarded one guinea
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
for his trouble. Greathead also made a submission, built of wood, but which floated bottom up when upset. He was however rewarded by being employed to build a boat as directed by the committee. Sometime after, two members of the committee presented a model which Greathead was instructed to build. At his suggestion it was agreed that a curved keel should be used. They decided that something akin to a Norway Yawl should be built.
The lifeboat constructed had a curved keel and rose more fore and aft than a Norway Yawl. When full of water amidships
Glossary of nautical terms
This is a glossary of nautical terms; some remain current, many date from the 17th-19th century. See also Wiktionary's nautical terms, :Category:Nautical terms, and Nautical metaphors in English.- A :...
, one third at each end would be out of water, and it could continue underway without foundering. It could be rowed in either direction and was steered by an oar rather than a rudder. It was rowed with ten short oars, these being more manageable in heavy seas than a full-length oar. The boat was thirty feet long and ten feet broad. The sides were cased with cork, four inches thick, weighing nearly 7 hundredweight
Hundredweight
The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...
and secured with copper plates. It added considerably to the buoyancy of the boat, helping it recover quickly from any upset. The curvature of the keel made her very easy to steer about her centre. She was able to carry twenty people, and went out on her first trial on 30 January 1790.
Recognition
It took some years before this lifeboat become well known to the public, and it was not until 1798 that Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of NorthumberlandHugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland
Lieutenant-General Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland, FRS was an officer in the British army and later a British peer...
, purchased a lifeboat for North Shields
North Shields
North Shields is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne, in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in North East England...
, and then another for Oporto in 1800. In 1802 Greathead's work was "deemed a fit subject for national munificence" and a petition was submitted to the House of Commons. A committee ascertained the utility of the lifeboat, the originality of the invention, and the remuneration that he had already received. They interviewed numerous witnesses and after some debate the House unanimously granted him £1,200. Trinity House
Trinity House
The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...
awarded 100 guineas, as did Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's, also known as Lloyd's of London, is a British insurance and reinsurance market. It serves as a partially mutualised marketplace where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members, whether individuals or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk...
. The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and Sciences gave him 50 guineas and a gold medallion.
Greathead never took out a patent on his invention, and was always willing to share his plans with others for the public good.
By 1806 his lifeboats were in use at Whitby, North Shields, South Shields, Exmouth, Penzance, Plymouth, Newhaven
Newhaven, East Sussex
Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the English Channel coast, and is a ferry port for services to France.-Origins:...
, Ramsgate, Dover, Liverpool, Lowestoft
Lowestoft
Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich...
, St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
, Montrose, Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
, Ayr, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. In 1811 the list included Guernsey, Arbroath, Pillau, Cronstadt, Rye, Whitehaven, Stettin, Riga, Danzig
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Cromer
Cromer
Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...
, Leith, Bridlington, Charleston, Fraserburgh, Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, San Lucar, Dunbar, Blyth, Spurn
Spurn
Spurn Point is a narrow sand spit on the tip of the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England that reaches into the North Sea and forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber estuary. It is over long, almost half the width of the estuary at that point, and as little as wide in places...
and Heligoland
Heligoland
Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...
. The Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
had also purchased five smaller craft.
In total, Henry Greathead built 31 lifeboats. His eleventh boat, the Zetland
Zetland Lifeboat
The Zetland is the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world. It is currently in a free museum in Redcar. The name Zetland comes from the local Lord of Manor, the Marquess of Zetland. The Zetland is on the National Register of Historic Ships....
built in 1802, saw 78 years of service in Redcar
Redcar
Redcar is a seaside resort in the north east of England, and a major town in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. It lies east-northeast of Middlesbrough by the North Sea coast...
and saved over 500 lives with the loss of only one crew member. She normally had a crew of 13, but up to 20 could be needed in rough weather. Her cork fenders were replaced at some point by internal buoyancy tanks. This boat is the only one of Greathead's to survive, and is preserved at the RNLI
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....
Zetland Museum.