Diamond Jubilee at Ramsgate Lifeboat Station, UK

44-016 Ralph and Joy Swann (During Broadstairs Water Gala)

Built: 1976 at Bideford Ship Yard N. Devon

Engines: 2 x 250hp Ford Mermaid 595T

1981 - 2 x 250hp Caterpillar D3208T

Ramsgate 14.7.1976-4.1990, Launches 292, Lives saved 199

Tobermory 6.8.1990-2.1991, Launches 14, Lives saved 2

Portree 2.5.1991-6.6.1996, Launches 60, Lives saved 4

Relief 6.1996-1998, Launches 13, Lives saved 1

Donor: Legacy Mrs A G Cranthorne, and RNLI funds

Cost: £130,000

Now owned by a private owner in the Falkland Islands

See the note at the end for an update.

The Capitán Christiansen was built in 1928 as the EMED by J Samuel White of the Isle of Wight. She served as the Walton and Frinton lifeboat from 1930 until 1953. She cost £8,700 and was of length 48ft 6 in and beam 13 ft. She had two 40hp, petrol engines and was capable of a speed of 8 knots.

During the World War II she was launched 57 times and saved 20 lives. Like many boats in the southeast she took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. She as crewed by naval ratings and made two trips to Dunkirk.

In 1955 she was purchased by Captain Olaf Christiansen Lund, a Dane who had served in sail and steam prior to joining the Chilean Merchant Marine in 1922. He organized the Chilean Corps of Volunteer Lifeboatmen.

Captain Christiansen took her to Valparaiso, an important Chilean seaport not far from the capital, Santiago. On 27 April 1957 she was renamed 'Capitán Christiansen' in a ceremony conducted by Mrs. Karen Christiansen Christofersen. From that date she became the Valparaíso lifeboat, operated by the 'Cuerpo de Voluntarios de los Botes Salvavidas de Valparaiso' (the voluntary body of the Valparaiso Lifeboats)

In 1962 she saved 5 crew-members of the merchant ship 'San Patricio', a British-built vessel which was by then flying under the Chilean flag.

During the ensuing 37 years she saved many more lives until in 1999, her working life at an end, she was placed in this prominent position near the Muelle Barón, Valparaiso's main quay.

It's not known when Oluf Christiansen died, but his wife, Karen, died aged 91 in 1988.

As the company's Wikipedia entry says, the Capitán Christiansen was not the only vessel built by J Samuel White to have ended up in Chile. In the early 20th century, the company built six destroyers for the Chilean Navy. One of them, the Almirante Lynch was built in 1911 and was one of (at least) four ships named after Patricio Lynch (1825-1886) who, before he served in the War of the Pacific, had served as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. He was a great grandson of Patrick Lynch, an Irish emigrant to Buenos Aires in the 1740s. The Almirante Lynch served briefly in Chile before returning to Britain as the HMS Botha* in 1914. She survived the war and was returned to Chile in 1920.

If you have Spanish, you can read more about the Capitán Christiansen here. It's the photo I took of the plaque that you can see against her side in this photo. Do not, as I was the several years, be misled by the word Ramsgate in the description. She was never the Ramsgate lifeboat but she was possibly classed as being of the Ramsgate type. My thanks go to Clive Lawford of the Ramsgate Lifeboat Website for putting me right.

Robert Cutts

Sources:

The Walton and Frinton Lifeboat Station

Mayday! Mayday!: The History of Sea Rescue Around Britain’s Coastal Waters by Karen Farrington and Nick Constable

Capitán Oluf Christiansen: una vida de leyenda

The life-boat service: a history of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, 1824-1974.

* This needs checking as the Wikimedia entry states that the HMS Botha was the Almirante Williams Rebolledo whilst in Chile.

A sad note

I revisited Valparaíso on 13 February 2015 and was disappointed to see that, although the Capitán Christiansen was still at the shore end of Muelle Baron, she was no longer prominently displayed and the placard had gone. See the comment below for a photograph of her on in February 2015.

44-016 Ralph and Joy Swann

Built: 1976 at Bideford Ship Yard N. Devon

Engines: 2 x 250hp Ford Mermaid 595T

1981 - 2 x 250hp Caterpillar D3208T

Ramsgate 14.7.1976-4.1990, Launches 292, Lives saved 199

Tobermory 6.8.1990-2.1991, Launches 14, Lives saved 2

Portree 2.5.1991-6.6.1996, Launches 60, Lives saved 4

Relief 6.1996-1998, Launches 13, Lives saved 1

Donor: Legacy Mrs A G Cranthorne, and RNLI funds

Cost: £130,000

Now owned by a private owner in the Falkland Islands

44-016 Ralph and Joy Swann

Built: 1976 at Bideford Ship Yard N. Devon

Engines: 2 x 250hp Ford Mermaid 595T

1981 - 2 x 250hp Caterpillar D3208T

Ramsgate 14.7.1976-4.1990, Launches 292, Lives saved 199

Tobermory 6.8.1990-2.1991, Launches 14, Lives saved 2

Portree 2.5.1991-6.6.1996, Launches 60, Lives saved 4

Relief 6.1996-1998, Launches 13, Lives saved 1

Donor: Legacy Mrs A G Cranthorne, and RNLI funds

Cost: £130,000

Now owned by a private owner in the Falkland Islands

44-016 Ralph and Joy Swann

Built: 1976 at Bideford Ship Yard N. Devon

Engines: 2 x 250hp Ford Mermaid 595T

1981 - 2 x 250hp Caterpillar D3208T

Ramsgate 14.7.1976-4.1990, Launches 292, Lives saved 199

Tobermory 6.8.1990-2.1991, Launches 14, Lives saved 2

Portree 2.5.1991-6.6.1996, Launches 60, Lives saved 4

Relief 6.1996-1998, Launches 13, Lives saved 1

Donor: Legacy Mrs A G Cranthorne, and RNLI funds

Cost: £130,000

Now owned by a private owner in the Falkland Islands

44-016 Ralph and Joy Swann (During Broadstairs Water Gala)

Built: 1976 at Bideford Ship Yard N. Devon

Engines: 2 x 250hp Ford Mermaid 595T

1981 - 2 x 250hp Caterpillar D3208T

Ramsgate 14.7.1976-4.1990, Launches 292, Lives saved 199

Tobermory 6.8.1990-2.1991, Launches 14, Lives saved 2

Portree 2.5.1991-6.6.1996, Launches 60, Lives saved 4

Relief 6.1996-1998, Launches 13, Lives saved 1

Donor: Legacy Mrs A G Cranthorne, and RNLI funds

Cost: £130,000

Now owned by a private owner in the Falkland Islands

Ramsgate Lifeboat, Trent Class 14-02 Esme Anderson

Relief Mersey Class 12-001 Peggy and Alex Caird

Relief Trent Class, 14-15 Henry Heys Duckworth

All alongside at Ramsgate Lifeboat Station

The yacht had gone aground off Dumpton Gap.

44-016 Ralph and Joy Swann (During Broadstairs Water Gala)

Built: 1976 at Bideford Ship Yard N. Devon

Engines: 2 x 250hp Ford Mermaid 595T

1981 - 2 x 250hp Caterpillar D3208T

Ramsgate 14.7.1976-4.1990, Launches 292, Lives saved 199

Tobermory 6.8.1990-2.1991, Launches 14, Lives saved 2

Portree 2.5.1991-6.6.1996, Launches 60, Lives saved 4

Relief 6.1996-1998, Launches 13, Lives saved 1

Donor: Legacy Mrs A G Cranthorne, and RNLI funds

Cost: £130,000

Now owned by a private owner in the Falkland Islands

Ramsgate Lifeboat, Trent Class 14-02 Esme Anderson

Relief Mersey Class 12-001 Peggy and Alex Caird

Relief Trant Class, 14-15 Henry Heys Duckworth

All alongside at Ramsgate Lifeboat Station

Sunday 25 July 2010. - Ramsgate Carnival, Starting and finishing at Royal Esplanade, Westcliff via the Harbour - Ramsgate, Thanet Kent, UK. - Ramsgate Lifeboat Rib.

Broadstairs, August 2013.

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Sunday 25 July 2010. - Ramsgate Carnival, Starting and finishing at Royal Esplanade, Westcliff via the Harbour - Ramsgate, Thanet Kent, UK. - Ramsgate Lifeboat Rib.

Sunday 25 July 2010. - Ramsgate Carnival, Starting and finishing at Royal Esplanade, Westcliff via the Harbour - Ramsgate, Thanet Kent, UK. -Thanet Gazette and Ramsgate Lifeboat Staff with RNLI Flag. - Reporter Saul Lesse, administrator Kylie Petitt, Editor Rebecca Smith, Reporters Richard Spillett and Andrew Woodman.

Outgoing Atlantic 75 B765 "Bob Turnbull" on her penultimate day as Ramsgate;s Inshore Lifeboat, alongside the stations' Trent class All Weather lifeboat "Esme Anderson"

Sunday 25 July 2010. - Ramsgate Carnival, Starting and finishing at Royal Esplanade, Westcliff via the Harbour - Ramsgate, Thanet Kent, UK. -Thanet Gazette and Ramsgate Lifeboat Staff with RNLI Flag. - Reporter Saul Lesse, administrator Kylie Petitt, Editor Rebecca Smith, Reporters Richard Spillett and Andrew Woodman.

Sunday 25 July 2010. - Ramsgate Carnival, Starting and finishing at Royal Esplanade, Westcliff via the Harbour - Ramsgate, Thanet Kent, UK. - Thanet Gazette and Ramsgate Lifeboat Staff with RNLI Flag. - Reporter Saul Lesse, administrator Kylie Petitt, Editor Rebecca Smith, Reporters Richard Spillett and Andrew Woodman.

Outgoing Atlantic 75 B765 "Bob Turnbull" on her penultimate day as Ramsgate's Inshore Lifeboat alongside her replacement, the Atlantic 85 B878 "Claire and David Delves"

Ramsgate Lifeboat 14-02 Esme Anderson & Relief Trent Class Boat 14-32 Corinne Whitely