Launch of the Worthing Lifeboat Emerging from the Boathouse

Lifeboat paraded through the streets of Worthing on way to demonstrate a launch

On 6 April 1898 WKL Dickson arrived in Worthing to film the launch of the local lifeboat. A fine spring day gave perfect shooting conditions for the films of the launch. Here the boat has just emerged from the boathouse pulled by large draught horses and the lifeboat men are accompanied by a large crowd who have been alerted by a siren.

Two further films from the day also survive. Launch of the Worthing Lifeboat Coming Ashore shows a lifesaving demonstration in a stunning deep-focus shot, while Me and My Two Friends is a patriotic 'still-life' shot of a young and animal companions, which may have been an emblematic closing shot of the sequence. All three films were shot on Dickson's 68mm large-format film stock, which gives them their unusually sharp images.