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Ramsgate-Class

Specifications:
Dimensions ON697 48ft, ON704-705 38 ft 6 in Speed 8.33 kts
Displacement 21/23t Range 70nm
Construction Standard wooden Endurance ???
Engines See below Crew 9

 

Designed at a time when the RNLI was almost happy to build lifeboats  for individual station needs the Ramsgate-class was constructed for the first station to operate the class. It was speciffically built for operation in the shallow waters of the Thames Estuary It was a cross betweenn the. Norfolk and Suffolk-class and the Watson design principles. The first boat RNLB Prudential was powered by a single 80 bhp Weyburn petrol engine driving a single-screw while the two later boats were powered by twin Weyburn 40 bhp CE 4 4-cylinder units driving twin-screws.The first boat was built by S. E. Saunders at Cowes while the other two were constructed by J. Samuel White, also at Cowes.

 

FLEETBldr DETAILS

 
ON Name Year Bldr Base/Comments
697 Prudential 1925 Saunders (S41) Ramsgate, Kent. On station 30/12/25. Sold 29/05/53 as Trimilia/Prudential. still extant and beautiful based at Ipswich Haven, Marina, Suffolk.
704 Greater London 1928 JSW (W1648) Southend-on-Sea 24/05/28. To Relief 02/12/41. Southend-on-Sea 02/41 Relief 03/04/55. Sold 09/1957. To ADES Uruguay as ADES 1 as Captain Fransisco Alvarez. Continued in  service until 1991. Preserved in drydock in Colonia, Montevideo.
705 E.M.E.D 1928 JSW (W1649) Walton_on-the-Naze  04/07/28. To Relief 02/11/53. Sold to Uruguay as Capitan Christiansen as ADES-2,n 16/02/56. Retired 2001 and preserved at Valparaiso.

ON697 The former RNLB Prudential seen at Ramsgate during the Dunkirk anniversary celebrations in June 2015 (Photo credit N. Leach)

ON705 Capitan Christiansen pictured preserved in Uruguay at  Valparaiso in 2011 (Photo Kptain)

 

 
 
 
 

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