Lifeboat is either of two types of boats for saving lives at sea. One type consists of unpowered boats that ships carry on board to accommodate passengers and crew in the event of a disaster. The other type is made up of motorized active-rescue craft that go out to sea to aid boats in distress.
Lionel Lukin, a London coach builder, invented the active-rescue lifeboat in 1786. Lukin converted a fishing coble (a small flat-bottomed boat) into a life-saving boat. John Sharp, chief administrator of the Crewe Trust, asked Lukin to send his boat to Bamburgh, Northumberland. The first boat designed as a lifeboat was built by Henry Greathead, a Tyneside boatbuilder, and named the Original. It was launched in 1790, and it served near the mouth of the River Tyne for 40 years. Oars powered these early lifeboats. The earliest mechanically powered lifeboats, which had steam engines, appeared in the 1890’s.
