IT’S a well established truism that you should never buy anything viewed through the bottom of a beer glass – especially not a boat, or in this case a rare and historic 100-year-old prototype lifeboat in need of seriously expensive restoration.

However, that’s just what Dan Wardle, below right, New Brighton Lifeboat helmsman, and two other crew member friends did while enjoying a pint or two and scrolling through Ebay.

They were saved from this impulse buy when the seller cancelled the final bid due to a legal issue, but a year later the National Historic Ship Society contacted Wardle and his friend Ian Diamond to ask if they could take on the lifeboat.

It should be stated that the lifeboat in question, William & Kate Johnston, is very special indeed as the prototype of the innovative Barnett class. Although highly successful, only four were built as the RNLI opted for a smaller design; two others survive in Germany and Spain.

Thrilled to hear their bid for ownership out of 30 rivals was accepted, the lifeboat was gifted to them free of charge, such was the desire of Gosport Marina in Hampshire to dispose of her due to unpaid mooring charges racked up by her previous absent owner.

But then the awful truth dawned: it will cost £10,000 to get the lifeboat to Merseyside, including £2,500 fee to lift her onto a lorry low-loader for transporting north. Then £300,000 needs to be fundraised for restoration into an operational state for running public excursions.

Designed by James Barnett, Royal National Lifeboat Institute’s consultant naval architect, his eponymous class were a big step forward in lifeboat design and William & Kate Johnston  proved this to be true in her outstanding Mersey service.

Based in New Brighton Lifeboat Station from new in 1923, as shown left, until withdrawal in 1950, William & Kate Johnston  saved 248 lives (one of the UK’s highest totals) in 94 launches. A heroic rescue of the crew from a sinking French ship in 1928 earned the vessel an award from the Government of France.

Dan Wardle, who is a Mersey Pilot, says: “If no purchaser came forward William & Kate was to be scrapped, which on that fabled night in the pub my friends Mike Stannard, Tristan Dickson and I couldn’t bear, knowing her wonderful history.

“William & Kate was the world’s biggest lifeboat for a while, with 11 watertight compartments and a split engine-room, making her virtually unsinkable and always able to return home. When sold out of RNLI service her owners tried to make her into a yacht. 

“Our plan is to rebuild her and put everything back, such as the missing bulwarks. She’s looking a bit unloved at present and not seaworthy to make the voyage back to the Mersey by sea, hence the road transport.”

The aim is to base William & Kate Johnston on the Rock Ferry Waterfront Trust’s land, near Royal Mersey Yacht Club, which was one of the Mersey’s oldest boatyards. Eventually the lifeboat will be the centrepiece in a Marina with a replica of Portmouth’s ‘Boathouse 4’ warehouse all under the Rock Ferry Historic Port. This will be the North West’s first hub for shipbuilding, restoration courses, and related social activities.

Wardle, along with his fellow director Ian Diamond, have set up a limited community interest company which has charitable trust status to own the lifeboat and other assets, called the William and Kate Johnston Preservation Society CIC. Already a Morecambe Bay shrimper sailing boat has been offered to the group.

“Quite a few of the New Brighton Lifeboat crew have offered to help. We’d like to keep William & Kate afloat and operational to run public trips on the Mersey, and create links with other ship preservation organisations. It’s a very exciting project, but will require a lot of hard work in fundraising,” says Wardle.