The Lifeboat Princess Royal first came to Hartlepool in 1939. She was the first of the new RNLI Lifeboats to be delivered at the start of the Second World War and was to remain at this station until 1968. Princess Royal returned to Hartlepool in 2000 and now takes visitors on cruises around Hartlepool Bay and its marina with the Historic Naval Dockyard.

She is one of the Kingstown class with a crew of eight and able to carry 120 people. Princess Royal is 46 feet long with a beam of 12 feet 6 inches and 21.5 tons. She was built in the Cowes yard of JS White and cost £10,145. The vessel was refitted with two Ford six cylinder (950E) Barracuda diesel engines in 1964. The lifeboat was quickly into action and made the first rescue of a Spitfire pilot when Flight Lieutenant N Ryder was shot down early in the war. SS Hawkwood broke in half in extremely rough seas off Hartlepool on January 20, 1941. Princess Royal went out and returned with five crew members. She received the RNLI Gold Medal for courage and determination during three rescues. Her coxswain received his Gold Medal with the crew being awarded one Silver and six Bronze Medals. She saved 122 lives, 94 off Hartlepool during her career.

Princess Royal became a reserve lifeboat at Humber, Lerwick, Kirkwall Stromness, St Peter’s Port, Falmouth, Weymouth, Dunbar, Torbay, Exmouth and the Orkneys before being decommissioned at Plymouth in 1976. She passed into private ownership until the death of Mr Osborne in 1998. His wife and family donated her to the people of Hartlepool. She was sailed back from Barry Island at Easter 2000 and entered onto the National Register of Historic Vessels of the United Kingdom in February, 2001. Restoration work began.

A survey quickly discovered that she was in a worse condition than originally thought. The rudder, one engine and the coolers were missing and there were two holes in the bows. Many of the fittings and fixtures had to be accessed from Ireland to ensure authenticity. A local blacksmith forged her handrail stanchions and Heerema Yard apprentices made other parts. Her mast was hand-carved from an old BT telegraph post. The forward cabin was adapted with a sea toilet and panelled out. Lockers were installed to store life jackets. Princess was fully rewired and equipped with a state of the art GPS navigation system, echo sounder and fish finder. She was relaunched on September 23, 2004. Many people, who were not used to wooden vessels were alarmed at the amount of water that she shipped. However the pumps worked perfectly.

She had been dedicated by HRH Princess Mary, the Princess Royal in 1941. HRH Princess Anne, the present Princess Royal rededicated her on Monday, October 11, 2004. She became the first lifeboat to be dedicated by two separate Princess Royals. Princess Royal is now having a leisurely retirement, giving cruises to tourists after almost seven decades at sea.