Launch of Joseph Braithwaite

Joseph Braithwaite was Maryport’s last RNLI lifeboat and was launched in 1934. The boat was paid for out of the legacy of Joseph Braithwaite who had been born in Wigton. 20,000 people turned up to welcome Maryport’s new lifeboat and the town was decorated for the occasion. The ceremony was presided over by Earl of Lonsdale, and there was a 3-day carnival to celebrate the new lifeboat. The Joseph Braithwaite was a Liverpool Class lifeboat and had a six-cylinder 35 horsepower petrol engine mounted in a watertight engine compartment which allowed the engine to continue to operate as long as the air intake was not submerged. She remained in Maryport until the station was closed in 1949 due to a build up of silt in the harbour preventing the launch of the lifeboat at all stages of tide.