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Newcastle RNLI Says Goodbye to Last Mersey Class Lifeboat
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Farewell to a Legend: Newcastle RNLIs Last Mersey Class Lifeboat Launches for Final Time
Volunteers at Newcastle RNLI bid a tearful farewell to their last Mersey class lifeboat, the Leonard Kent, as it launched for the final time at twelve twenty pm from the Co Down station. The boat, numbered 1220, marked the end of an era for the charitys fleet, as it was the very last operational Mersey anywhere. The send-off was joined by boats from Kilkeel, Clogherhead, Donaghadee, Larne, and Portrush, with volunteers from each station present. The Mersey class, which debuted in 1988 and topped out at seventeen knots, launched over eleven thousand eight hundred times, helped thirteen thousand seven hundred eighty-four people, and saved one thousand two hundred fifty-four lives. Newcastle now enters a new chapter with their upgraded Atlantic eighty-five and D class boats on service, promising faster rescues ahead.
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