Page Two of Three

The lifeboat was launched three times in 1875;  in each case a service was rendered.   On April 13th the lifeboat helped to save an abandoned Flemish barque, the "Lucy" of Antwerp.  On October 24th the lifeboat was launched and saved 8 crew from the Finnish brig "Cuba" of Abo, afterwards she helped to save the abandoned vessel.  The third launch that year, on the 2nd November, was to assist a large barque, the "Morma" of Grimstad, where assistance was rendered to the abandoned vessel.  In December of that year the RNLI approved the erection of a look-out in Brancaster Staithe as the life-boat crew were having difficulty spotting wrecked ships behind Scolt Head.  The look-out was built by Dye & Clark the following year for £40 and was erected near the spot where the signal gun was placed.   (The look-out was built where Hamilton Cottage now stands and the signal gun was sited on what is now the grounds at the rear of the White Horse Public House).  The signal gun was used for calling out the crew in an emergency;  this system was sometime later changed to the firing of maroons by the coastguard until the coastguard station was closed and was then performed by the lifeboat coxswain.

The Coastguard Station

In 1879 the RNLI decided to rename the lifeboat "Lily Bird", having received £600 from Samuel Bird of London and to have the name Joseph and Mary transferred to the Poole (Dorset) lifeboat.  The new name plates were sent later that year and fixed to the lifeboat.  In 1880, the local committee was having deifficulties with sand scouring from around the boathouse;  thorns were planted and the sand thrown back, but this continued to be a problem right up until 1933.  In October of 1880 the Wells lifeboat "Eliza Adams" while going out to a wrecked ship, was tragically capsized and 11 of the 13 crew drowned. 

On October 23rd a large barque was seen running before a strong easterly gale past Wells;  the water was getting very low and as she was not very far from the shore it was remarked at the time that if she did not alter course she would soon be on the Burnham Flats.  This indeed proved to be the case;  the vessel was the barque "Lidia" of Grimstad (Norway) bound from Arundel to Cardiff with a cargo of pit props.  Signals of distress were seen from the shore, the newly named lifeboat "Lily Bird" launched and proceeded to the "Lidia".  After coming alongside, it was found that as she struck the sands she lost her main top mast and damaged her rudder and there was eight feet of water in her hold.  After remaining with the "Lidia" for some time with the water in her increasing, the lifeboat rescued the entire crew of fourteen.  The following day the lifeboat launched and rendered assistance to the vessel but she was to become a total wreck.

returning to the boathouse, drawn by eight horses lent by a  local farmer

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