Colin Archer (Lifeboat)

[shipstamps]

The second annual meeting of the Redningsseiskapet, the Norwegian Lifeboat Institution, which was formed in July 1891 was held on June 30, 1892, and advertisements were circulated offering prizes for the best plans submitted for a seagoing lifeboat. Mr. Colin Archer, who designed the Fram, although not a prizewinner, also submitted a design he had evolved from a pilot boat. A lifeboat the Colin Archer, was built to his design in 1893. The boat and its designer are depicted on the this stamp. In December 1893, the boat was sailed to the Lofoten Islands. Subsequently, all the Norwegian lifeboat fleet, was built to the Archer pattern. The Colin Archer remained in service until 1933. She was a sailing ketch, decked, with stem, stern and outer planking of oak. Her frames were double, of yellow pine grown to shape, with oak ribs between them. She had four watertight bulkheads, forming two cabins, and space aft, a watertight cockpit, and berths in the cabins for 10 men; in normal service she carried a crew of four. Her design was copied all over the world, and during her service she saved 237 people from the sea.
SG296

[aukepalmhof]

Built by Colin Archers shipyard in Tolderodden for the Norwegian Lifeboat Service.
1893 launched as the RS-1. (better known as COLIN ARCHER.) She was the prototype for many lifeboats built in Norway.
Displacement 27.00 cubic meter, dim. 13.95 x 4.65 x 2.21m. (draught)
Ballast inside 4.5 ton outside 5.5 ton.
Double hull, two masts. Iron keel. Hull planking oak.
Ketch rigged.
Crew four men.
Building cost $ 10.900.
After delivery stationed at Henningsvaer, Lofoten, a year later stationed in Vardo, Finnmark

In the mid nineteenth century travel overland in Norway was beset with difficulty and most towns and villages were coastal.
In consequence when members of the population were obliged to travel they did so primarily by water and due to the severe winter conditions encountered such journeys were often hazardous.

Lifeboat stations began to appear on the southern parts of the Norwegian coast in 1854. These were managed on a voluntary basis by station committees but their activities grossly uncoordinated and far too few for efficient sea rescue cover. It does not appear that any efforts were made to record the activity of these existing boats used for rescue, or if records were kept they can be no longer traced.

After years of effort to establish a Norwegian Lifeboat Service, Dr. Oscar Tybring, with the assistance of the Norwegian Merchants Society of Christiania finally achieved his ambition when Norks Selskab till Skibbrudnes Redning (N.S.S.R) was founded on 07 June 1891.

Under the new organization lifeboat cover was extended and expanded and it was clear that shore stations alone were inadequate for sea rescue requirements. A decision was made that lifeboat suitable for sea voyages to escort the fishing fleets as safety vessels were an essential requirement.

A naval architect name Colon Archer who built the famous FRAM in 1892, and had also built a lifeboat/mission vessel for the Salvation Army in Norway was commissioned to design a suitable vessel for extended rescue patrol duties. His first design for the NSSR was a 42 ft ketch rigged sailing vessel, handled by a crew of four, which became operational in 1893 and which was named COLIN ARCHER.

1933 COLIN ARCHER was sold out of service after she had rescued 237 persons and she assisted around 1,500 fishing vessels with 4,500 crew,
1933 Bought by Hans Borge of Tonsberg, Norway. He installed an auxiliary engine in her and used her as a pleasure boat.
1938 Sold to Anna Foyn Bjønnes at Vestfold, and with a crew of four she sailed across the North Atlantic in 54 days to New York where her fiancé Charles Crownshield was waiting.
The plan was to use her after she was married for a world circumnavigation but the war put an end to this plans, she was then used as a houseboat at New York and along the USA East Coast.
Due to lack of maintenance and an explosion of a stove she became a derelict.
When Mr Olaf Bjørnstad Secretary of the N.S.S.R found her in a derelict state in the Potomac River he bought her for US$1,000 and she was shipped free of charge on deck of the Wilh. Wilhelmsen ship TASCO back to Norway, where she was put ashore at Lindøya on 30 December 1961for her refit and repairs.
Some small repairs took place but not till the Norwegian Maritime Museum took her over in 1972 which is still the owner that restoration work commenced on the COLIN ARCHER.
She is from 1972 managed by the Seilkoytelubben Colin Archer (SSCR) (Sailingcutter Club) who restored her, and used her, also she is regular loaned to the NSSR for fund raising activities.
She is a regular entry in the Tall Ships Races.
2013 Still in use same name and owners.

Norway 1941 10 + 10 and 15 + 10 ore sg296/97 scottB20/21, 1991 27k sg1095 scott994.

Source: Partly taken over by a article written by Mr D,J,Horgan in Logbook Vol. 22 No5 Zeilvaart a Dutch magazine and some internet sites.