About The RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection

"With Courage, anything is possible" Motto of Sir William Hillary, founder of the RNLI

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a registered charity, has provided the lifeboat service for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland since 1824. It is the oldest national lifeboat service in the world.

For nearly 180 years the volunteer crews of the RNLI have risked their lives when a call comes in from someone in distress around our coasts. In that time they have saved over 135,000 lives. Here is the story of some of these heroic rescues told through video and displays.

The RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection gallery was funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, together with money from a private trust fund and is managed in partnership between the RNLI and Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.

The national collection of lifeboats, housed in the historic No.4 covered slip in the centre of the maritime heritage site of  The Historic Dockyard, has been on display at Chatham since 1995. Many formed part of a collection at Bristol Maritime Museum and were offered to the RNLI when the museum closed. This unique collection of lifeboats was recognised as being a valuable part of the RNLI's heritage and, soon afterwards, an opportunity to put them on display to the public was proposed by The Historic Dockyard Chatham.

The collection includes pulling and sailing lifeboats of the 19th century, high speed inshore lifeboats, introduced in the 1960s, and a 16.5m (54ft) Arun class all-weather lifeboat. The last Arun was built in 1990.