Self-righting lifeboat (Beeching and Peake)
Bote salvavidas autoadrizable (Beeching y Peake)
- Date
- 1851 · confidence medium
- Place
- Woolwich, London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Beeching; James Peake
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A lifeboat with buoyancy chambers at bow and stern and ballast in the keel that rights itself after capsizing. After the Duke of Northumberland's competition (1851) the RNLI adopted Peake's design, derived from Beeching's.
Credit is split between Beeching, the competition winner, and Peake, who modified it for the RNLI; self-righting ideas existed earlier.
What it led to
- safer volunteer crews in storms
- oar-and-sail lifeboats until 1900
- design of motor lifeboats