3-021-200 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lady Houghton naming the Pontefract and Goole Life-Boat, Ferrybridge, Knottingley, Yorkshire, 1865. 'The new life-boat...was named by Lady Houghton, and launched in the waters of the Aire and Calder Navigation...The Mayor and Corporation...with some of the principal inhabitants of the town...[formed a procession. They were] followed by the united bands of the West York Rifle Militia and the Pontefract Volunteer Corps; the crew who were to man the boat consisting of a dozen smart fellows from Knottingley in cork jackets, and picturesquely adorned with ribbons; the rifle corps, the borough police, the Mayor, and the Rev. Dr. Bisset, the Vicar designate; the Rev. Sir T. Blomefield, the Rev. S. W. Newbald, the Town Clerk, many of the Town Council, borough magistrates, and others; the procession being closed by the children of the town schools...the launch took place near the bridge...the Rev. Dr. Bisset read a psalm and a prayer, and pronounced a benediction on the boat; and Lady Houghton then, in a gracefully-worded address, named the boat "The Pomfret and Goole." The blocks being knocked aside, the vessel glided easily, rapidly, and gracefully into the water, amid the cheers of the thousands of assembled spectators and the firing of cannon'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.