A boat specially constructed for saving lives in cases of loss of a vessel at sea.
In 1785 a patent was granted to Mr. Lukin for an ‘insubmergible boat,’ but the word life-boat is not used in the specification.
1801. Ann. Reg., Chron., 14. Two life boats have been finished by Mr. Greathead of Shields.
1802. Trans. Soc. Arts, XX. 283. The Gold Medal and Fifty Guineas were … voted … to Mr. Henry Greathead … for a Boat of peculiar construction, named a Life-Boat, in consequence of the lives of many persons shipwrecked having been preserved by it.
1811. Moore, ’Tis sweet to behold, ii. Yet who would not turn with a fonder emotion, To gaze on the life-boat, though rugged and worn.
1860. All Year Round, No. 65. 344. The life-boat can brave storms in which a coast-guard boat or fisher boat could not venture to put out.
b. attrib.: life-boat day, a day on which collections are made for the maintenance of life-boats; lifeboat-man, a member of a life-boat’s crew.
1858. Homans, Dict. Comm., 1215/2. The National Life-Boat Institution. Ibid., 1216/1. A member of the Life-boat Committee.
1860. All Year Round, No. 65. 345. The life-boatmen’s pay.
1864. Atkinson, Stanton Grange, 40. Shoes on the lifeboat principle, selfacting dischargers of all extra water.
1898. Daily News, 20 April, 4/5. A meeting … for the purpose of establishing a lifeboat day in the town.
