Henry Greathead

Henry Francis Greathead (27 January 1757 – 1818) was an English pioneering rescue lifeboat builder from South Shields. Although Lionel Lukin had patented a lifeboat in 1785, Greathead successfully petitioned parliament in 1802 with the claim that he had invented a lifeboat in 1790, and he was awarded £1,200 for his trouble. Although his claims have been contested,

He returned to South Shields where he set up his own boat-building business in 1785, and married in the following year. He had six children, though all but two of them died at a young age. They decided that something akin to a Norway Yawl should be built. It was rowed with ten short oars, these being more manageable in heavy seas than a full-length oar. The boat was long and ten feet broad . The sides were cased with cork, four inches thick, weighing nearly 7 hundredweight and secured with copper plates. It added considerably to the buoyancy of the boat, helping it recover quickly from any upset. The curvature of the keel made her very easy to steer about her centre. She was able to carry twenty people, and went out on her first trial on 30 January 1790.

It is rumoured that Henry's descendants may also have been the persons to build the lifeboats for the Titanic according to family history. This claim is in the process of being substantiated through records in possession of his descendants and relatives. Engineering appears to be a family trait for the Greathead family and after Henry's success, the next Greathead to rise to fame was a distant cousin, James Henry Greathead as can be sourced from the Greathead website: greathead.org.

Criticisms Greathead's claims to have invented the rescue lifeboat and his contributions to its design were contested. Several letters appeared in newspapers and periodicals denying his right to the honour and awards lavished upon him. It has been suggested that his only claim to the invention was the use of a curved keel. A Mr. Hailes, mathematician familiar with marine architecture, supported Wouldhave's claim to the invention, and believed that the curved keel was an error. However, Wouldhave's claims were hampered by his poverty and violent language. Another reason Wouldhave's claims were hampered was that Henry already had recognition from parliament on his design.