‘Peggy’, also known as ‘Chapman’

Peggy the Pilot boat: From the collection of Rosemary Lawn

Here is a nostalgic photograph of Peggy who served as the Sunderland Point pilot boat for 35 years until the retirement of Harold and Tom Gardner in the early 1990s. During this time, thousands of ‘big boats’ were escorted in and out of Glasson Dock and occasionally up to Lancaster. 

For residents of a slightly older generation and to the many visitors, seeing Peggy lying at anchor or chugging up and down the river was as iconic to Sunderland Point as the Cotton Tree or the Grave.

For as long as we can find in the records, Sunderland Point fishermen have been piloting boats on the estuary. Harold Gardner was the last qualified pilot, and Peggy the last pilot boat working from the Point.

Now we know Peggy is a vessel of national importance. At the tender age of 123 years, she is drawing admiring looks in the museum at the Old Lifeboat House, in Lytham St Annes, magnificently transformed into her original Royal National Lifeboat Institution livery.

She’s reverted to her original name of Chapman, her life story includes rescuing scores of lives, war service - and her reincarnation as a pilot boat by the Gardner family, whose illustrious history on the river at Sunderland Point stretches back more than a century. 

So, this is the story of Peggy’s life, and how she came to get her name. 

Postcard of Peggy c1960s: From the collection of Rosemary Lawn

It all starts in 1900, with Queen Victoria still on the throne and Great Britain boasting the largest naval force in world history. Peggy was built at the Thames Ironworks at Blackwall in London, with the original name of Chapman.

She was a lifeboat with sails but no engine, designed to be crewed by 15 men, consisting of 12 oarsmen, a coxswain and bowman. She was 35ft long and 10ft in the beam and weighed 4.5 tons. 

Why Chapman? Well, the RNLI was given a legacy by a Mrs Chapman for a new lifeboat - so Chapman she was.

For her first job, she crosses the Irish Sea to take up duties in Groomsport, where the Irish Sea flows in to Belfast.

The Chapman c1918: Courtesy John Parr/Steve Williams

On February 27, 1903, she saves 13 lives - in a remarkable and heroic rescue by the Groomsport lifeboat crew - all without any engines to power her.

‘The vessel in distress was a Danish ship bound from New Zealand to Glasgow laden with timber. One of her anchor cables had failed and there was a risk, in the strong west-north-west gale, that the other might also be lost. The ‘Chapman’ manoeuvred beneath the stern of the troubled barque and 12 crew members and a pilot were all lowered by rope into the safety of the lifeboat. The ship’s dog – Amon – was also rescued’. 

In 1920, Chapman - later to become Peggy - was transferred to Cromer in Norfolk where she was briefly ‘cox’d’ by Henry Blogg, perhaps the most famous of all lifeboatmen (awarded three RNLI gold medals, four silver medals, the George Medal, and a British Empire Medal during his 53 years of RNLI service). 

Henry Blogg (centre) and the Cromer lifeboat crew in 1937: Courtesy RNLI

In 1924 Chapman was redeployed to Hoylake (on the Wirral) lifeboat crew and was stationed on the nearby Hilbre Island.

The ‘Chapman’ At Hoylake before deployment at Hilbre Island: Courtesy John Parr/Steve Williams

As motor powered boats were replacing the ‘pulling and sailing’ lifeboats, the Hilbre Island station was closed in 1939.

‘In what proved to be the final call to be answered by the Hilbre island lifeboat station came at 6:00 PM on July 23rd, 1937, news was received that a yacht was in distress on the Salisbury bank, the ‘Chapman’ rescued the crew of two and the lifeboatmen took their yacht to safe moorings in Hilbre pool’.

The boat did her war service at Point of Ayr colliery, on Deeside near Prestatyn. It’s not certain what happened to Chapman after 1945. There’s a gap until she re-appears in the early fifties, now re-named the Harbinger. The ex-lifeboat had been fitted with an engine and was taking day-trippers out for jaunts around Morecambe Bay.

Peggy at Sunderland Point

In early 1956 she was spotted and purchased by Harold’s uncle, James Gardner, for use as a pilot boat. James was by then Harbourmaster at Glasson Dock, having been a fisherman and pilot at Sunderland Point most of his life. In his jottings he writes:

 ‘Then I saw what was a sailing lifeboat which had been…used for passenger sailing in Morecambe. I put a fore-deck and hand rails on her so that we could use them when dropping off ships and she was a great saving of time’.

Together with Harold - also a qualified pilot – they had her re-fitted for duty on the Lune by James Nicholson Ltd of Glasson Dock and renamed her Peggy. She was ready for service in May 1956.

Peggy on her moorings at Sunderland Point: From the collection of Rosemary Lawn

So why was she re-named Peggy?  Rosemary, Harold’s daughter, didn’t know why they chose the name. Stephen Loxam, a direct relative, had the idea there was an earlier boat called Peggy, so after some research, he confirmed that, in 1908, Richard Gardner (Harold and Tom’s grandfather) bought a sailing trawler called Peggy from Baxters the Fishermen and Fish Merchants in Morecambe.

Robert Gardner (their uncle) recalls using this Peggy for shrimping and ‘sprawning’ – trawling for prawns - which they sold in Fleetwood and Blackpool in the 1920s.

Stephen dug out this old photograph.

‘Old’ Peggy c1920s: From the collection of Stephen Loxam

Does this sound right, and did the name get carried forward?

 We rang Margaret Gardner (Tom’s wife) who said ‘Tom and Harold told me and Betty [Harold’s wife] that Peggy’ was taken to mean our two names together. I know it’s used as short for Margaret but, well, that’s what they told us.’

Harold’s brother Tom gained his boatsman’s certificate in 1955 and for much of the next 35 years the two brothers and Peggy undertook almost all piloting duties for shipping up and down the river. On one occasion she resumed her role as a lifeboat, being summoned by Lancashire Police to save two men from a capsized dinghy in Glasson Dock.

In 1991 the Gardner family celebrated 100 years of piloting on the Lune. This centenary was picked up by the Morecambe Visitor, who published this wonderful photograph with a short article.

Harold (66) and Tom (62) from the Morecambe Visitor of January 1991: Courtesy Guardian Newspapers.

Harold qualified as pilot in 1952, his father Thomas in 1938, his uncle James in 1926 and his grandfather Richard Gardner qualified in 1890. All were fishermen and piloted from Sunderland Point.

The sad part of the story

Early in 1992, Tom Gardner suffered a major stroke, which led to the brothers retiring from piloting service. In October 1992, Peggy was sold to Hoylake RNLI mechanic Alan Tolley, who had the intention of restoring her into the original RNLI livery for use on sea trips for visitors.

Unhappily, Alan was unable to complete the project and the boat was donated to the Burbo Caravan Park on the Wirral, where she became a plaything for children. The boat was neglected and finally sold and transported to the Douglas Boatyard at Tarleton, on the Ribble estuary. It gets worse for Peggy. She was left deserted and uncovered, standing outside in all weathers, deteriorating rapidly. The engine bed rusted and penetrated her timbers. Each gunnel burst and serious rot set in.

Salvation

Peggy - as Chapman - is unique as the last Hilbre Island Lifeboat. Hearing of her existence in 1998, enthusiasts John and Bill Parr tracked her down to Tarleton and found her in a desperate state, full of rubbish and home to a small sycamore tree.

John brought the boat back to the Wirral to the Laird Foundation in Birkenhead. After a delay of three years, Chapman, financed by John and his father Bill Parr, was finally restored by a team of apprentices under the leadership and guidance of Graham Steedman, shipwright, and training instructor.

Chapman under restoration in 2002: Courtesy John Parr/Steve Williams

In August 2003, in front of 20,000 people, they proudly re-named the lifeboat Chapman at Hoylake’s annual Lifeboat Day. For three years the boat was part of Wirral’s Historic Warship display at Wallasey until the museum closed in 2006. Chapman went into storage.

Five years later in 2011, and 72 years after ending her RNLI service on Hilbre Island, the lifeboat returned back to Hoylake. Volunteers at the Hoylake Lifeboat Museum spent countless hours over the winter of 2011 and spring of 2012 further restoring and reinstating original features of the lifeboat, bringing Chapman even closer to her original appearance. Then this museum closed. 

A new home in Lytham St Annes

The old boathouse at Lytham St Annes was originally built in 1852 and in continuous use by lifeboats until the introduction of larger motorised boats in 1931. It was a lifeboat museum between 1986 until 2004. After concerted efforts by the Lytham Heritage Group, some of the original lifeboat museum team, and Fylde Borough Council, the museum was refurbished and reopened in 2016.

 The Old Lifeboat House, Lytham: Courtesy Lytham Heritage Group

Old Lifeboat House in 1863 and 1903: Courtesy Lytham Heritage Group

So, in 2016, unrecognisable as Peggy, the beautiful and fully restored Chapman became the principle exhibit in the Lytham Lifeboat Museum. And magnificent she looks too.

Chapman inside the museum: Courtesy Lytham Heritage Group

The arrival of Chapman: Courtesy Lytham Heritage Group

The Chapman :Courtesy Lytham Heritage Group

She is the oldest surviving example of the Liverpool-class lifeboat, of which only around 100 were built. Chapman is of national importance and listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels. And unique as the last lifeboat stationed on Hilbre island. It’s a local and national treasure!

Another treasure who visited the museum: Harold Gardner.

Harold Gardner, aged 92, shortly after the opening of the Lytham Museum in 2016: From the collection of Rosemary Lawn

A final question: Did Peggy save one more life? Margaret tells this story. Harold was bringing a boat into Glasson Dock with Peggy following behind. As they were passing Second Terrace, Tom suffered a major stroke and collapsed in the wheelhouse. Peggy began circling around. Noticing something serious must have happened, the captain turned the boat around in mid-stream and went back to Peggy. Managing with difficulty to get alongside, they found Tom unconscious on the floor.

They called ahead to the Dock and an ambulance was there as they arrived. Critically ill, Tom was rushed to hospital. Instead of circling, Peggy could just as easily veered away and gone aground on either side of the river, but she didn’t. Tom just survived, but with a longer delay, he could have died. 

Perhaps Peggy was looking after him that day.

We are grateful for the assistance of Rosemary Lawn for photos and information, Stephen Loxam, Margaret Gardner, the Old Boathouse Museum, and the Lytham Heritage Group in the preparation of this article.

Much of the historical information about ‘Chapman’ comes from an article written by John Parr and Steve Williams on the ‘Visit Lytham’ Website.

Special thanks to Scottie Wilson for sub-editing the article.