Lifeboats - Mumbles Lifeboat
The lifeboat crew 1866 - 1900
Last Updated (Wednesday, 16 December 2009 19:46) Wednesday, 24 September 2008 19:00
The Lifeboat Crew
Jenkin Jenkins coxswain of Mumbles Lifeboat from 1866 - 1892
For many years Mumbles had been a very succesful oyster fishery. To begin with the shellfish were dredged from beds in Swansea Bay using small open boats fitted with a lug sail. By the 1850s larger decked cutter-rigged craft (known as skiffs) were used and these also fished along the Gower coast and further east towards Porthcawl. When demand for oysters increased the skiffs went to the beds off Stackpole, Pembrokeshire, and on occasion as far as Luce Bay and the Isle of Whithorn in Scotland.
As a result the village had a large number of men experienced in the handling of small vessels. In their younger days many had also been to sea in the merchant service - often sailing in the Swansea copper ore trade to Cuba and Chile. It was some of these men who normally formed the lifeboat crew.
The Mumbles crew was formed in January 1866. Jenkin Jenkins was appointed coxswain and was paid a retainer of £8 per year.
The first crew were: William Jones, John Webborn, David Llewelyn, John Hoskin, brothers William and David Macnamara (William was married to coxswain Jenkins' daughter Sarah Jane), Tom Jones, John Jenkins (son of the cox'n), David Lewis, John Williams (nephew of the cox'n), David Davies and James McGhuin.
The second crew were: Richard Jenkins (son of cox'n), Richard Gee, Henry Lewis, Thomas Powell, Edwin Dell, John Parker, Tom Davies, William Morris, David Bennett, William Jenkins (son of cox'n), David Rees and Matthew Taylor. The second crew would normally have acted as launchers and manned the boat in the absence of members of the first crew and joined the first crew as the older men stepped down.
The majority of these men lived in the part of Mumbles village which is now known as Southend - though in those days it was normally referred to as Outalong - in the cottages of Hill Street, Dickslade (pronounced Dick Slad rather than Slayed), George Bank and Clifton Terrace. Others lived in Hall Bank or Village Lane. At this time they were paid 10 shillings for a daytime service and £1 for a night launch.
The Mumbles Crew and helpers 1898.
Some of these men would lose their lives in the capsize at Port Talbot in 1903.
One of them was Robert Smith, great uncle of R.C. Smith the creator of this website.
Of those in cork jackets Robert stands on the right.
" She's off ! The launch of the Mumbles Lifeboat by the light of the rocket "
by Charles Dixon.
Dixon was one of the foremost marine painters of his day. His brother James was a coastguard stationed at Mumbles who married into the Jenkins family.
The scene dates from about 1900 and shows the boat being launched down the stone slipway in front of the boathouse of 1884 which is now known as Lifeboat Cottage.