History - 1914

The First World War did little to affect trade; apart from the fact the sons were in the armed forces, with older members of the community being brought in to take their place until hostilities were over. The eldest son, George, was killed at Gallipoli and his brother William was wounded whilst fighting with the Royal Naval Division, but the others came through unscathed and had soon settled back into the business. A decision was then made to have more boats built and Tom Sisk, a local boat builder with premises in Beach Road (where Blount Aerials now are), was engaged to build two motor boats, 'Eastbourne Belle' and 'Skylark'. A third boat, 'Enchantress', too big for the premises of Tom Sisk, was built by W. Prangnell and Sons in their premises on the foreshore just west of the Life boat House.

The lifeboat has figured prominently in the family with a fair percentage of them in the crew in years gone by, with Edward Allchorn being awarded a silver medal back in the old pulling and sailing days. His grandson Tom, being awarded a bronze medal and clasp in more recent times.

The boats, at one time, were hauled out of the water onto the shore at the boatstand on Grand Parade each night. At first this was done by hand winches and later on by motor winches, and this continued right up into the 1960's until increasing vandalism forced us to either anchor the boats off at night, or put them ashore at our winter quarters at the Fishing Station if the weather was inclement- no harbour in those days!

The working day was a lot longer during the '20's and '30's, starting at 8am and often continuing until dusk on fine summer evenings. Then there were the early morning 'shouts', when low water in the morning prevented the boats being launched. The first 'shout' was at 4.30am, then progressively later by half an hour each day until normal launch times at 8.00am were reached. The boats were anchored off the boatstand and the crews brought ashore by rowing boat. Then, if you were lucky, it was back home for another hour or so in bed on the earlier 'shouts'.

The passengers were ferried out to the boats in large rowing boats during periods of low water, each boat carrying a dozen passengers or more, who were as often as not 'piggy-backed' to and from these boats. In our younger days we would quite often, on hot days, wade out, pushing the ferryboat before us, to the anchored motorboat. There were very few days in any case, when we came home dry footed.

History - 1939