This film is part of Free

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x

Dedication and Launch of Flint Rescue Boat

Sunday afternoon, 19th May 1957: the motorised Flint Rescue Boat is pulled through the town on a trailer, blessed and dedicated in the Market Square and launched on the River Dee.

Non-Fiction 1957 3 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

It is a big day for Flint: the first Rescue Boat is blessed and dedicated and launched on the River Dee. It is named ‘Ceme’ by the husband of the out-going Mayor who was Mrs C E M Edwards, her initials giving the boat its name. Mrs Edwards was Chair of the Flint and District Rescue Committee, established to raise money for the provision of a rescue boat following the death of a wildfowler in the River Dee on Boxing Day 1956. Mrs Eirene White, MP for East Flintshire, is present.

The Flint Rescue Boat was a privately-run service, operating from 1957 until 1966 when the RNLI set up a lifeboat station at Flint. This boat was built of fibre-glass in Weymouth, by W & J Tod of Ferrybridge. It had a motor but also carried oars and was fitted with buoyancy tanks so that even when full of water it would still support those on board. This record of its dedication and launching was rescued from the projection booth of the Queen's Theatre, Rhyl, by the projectionist when the cinema was being refurbished in the 1970s.