Collapsible lifeboat

Current boat name

Collapsible lifeboat

Boat class

7330

Function

Service

Type

Length (m / ft)

6.58 / 21ft 7in

Beam (m / ft)

1.76 / 5ft 9in

Present use

Museum/CBM

Built by Salter's at Oxford in the late 1890s, this boat is not for restoration. She remained in a folded state until loaned to this Museum in 2007, having narrowly escaped the boatyard bonfire! She was carefully opened up and the swing frames placed correctly. Fully erected she could carry almost 60 people (as shown in a photograph we have on file). But being very heavy these boats are not easy to assemble from flat, especially on a heaving deck in an emergency! Despite this, four similar 27ft lifeboats built by the Danish firm, Engelhardt, were used on the Titanic. The Olympic and the Lusitania as well as the Royal Navy also used collapsible boats as supplemetary life boats. The hinged frame principle is used on many types of collapsible boats to extend their canvas skins in cluding Goatley's designs. GH Aug 2014. Images taken at Cowes in 2009 GH