St Paul sits in the Lifeboat Museum with a rather battered dignity of something that has done its duty and would now rather like not to be poked by visitors with cameras. Built by the Beeching Brothers of Great Yarmouth in the clinker style associated with Norfolk and Suffolk beach boats, it is described on the panel as the oldest lifeboat in the RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection.
It served Kessingland from 1897 to 1931, powered by oars and sail, with a crew of sixteen and a shore party needed to haul it down to the water. Places such as Kessingland, Lowestoft, Caister and Gorleston lived with the sea because of their work and the RNLI and local lifeboat stations depended on courage and the willingness of people to turn out at awful hours in awful weather. During her service, the boat was launched 113 times and 22 lives were saved.
The lifeboat served in Kessingland for 34 years before being converted into a private yacht, Stormcock, for which it was used for over forty years. This has made later conservation work more challenging, as they wanted to retain what was original and not restore the more later additions. It has been on display at the museum in Chatham since April 1996 and I rather like its rawness.