Thomas Kirk Wright

Current boat name

Thomas Kirk Wright

Boat class

7551

Number

811

Function

Service

Type

Length (m / ft)

9.75 / 32ft

Beam (m / ft)

2.82 / 9ft 3in

Leeward

Keel

Propulsion

Engine

Designer

Barnett J

Design date

1934

Date of build

1939

Place of build

Cowes, Isle of Wight

Present use

Display

Built by Groves and Guttridge at Cowes, IoW as the Surf Motor Lifeboat THOMAS KIRK WRIGHT, this innovative design was fitted with twin Weyburn 12hp engines driving Hotchkiss internal cone propellers.. Specially designed for working amongst sandbanks and shallow water she had a top speed of seven knots and was considered well suited for duty at Poole.. THOMAS KIRK WRIGHT replaced the pulling and sailing lifeboat HARMAR. Based at Poole from 1939 to 1962. She was launched 64 times and saved 15 lives. In May 1940 THOMAS KIRK WRIGHT was the first of the lifeboats to reach the beaches at Dunkirk having been given a R N crew. She was seriously damaged. Picked up waterlogged and abandoned off the beaches she was towed back to Dover. Quickly repaired, she returned to Dunkirk on 2nd June, towed by the tug FOREMOST 87, where her ability to work in very shallow water was invaluable. Sold out of service in 1963 she was eventually acquired by the National Maritime Museum Greenwich. THOMAS KIRK WRIGHT is displayed in her old boathouse at Poole and is a first class example of a lifeboat of her class. Significance : THOMAS KIRK WRIGHT is one of the few remaining RNLI lifeboats which retain their original of engines. She is rare as an unaltered survivor of the evacuation at Dunkirk and is the sole remaining example of her class accessible to the public in the UK. GH Nov 2010