.South Shields

"South Shields is also celebrated as being the port in which originated that most useful invention - the life boat, the utility of which was first evidenced in January 1790, when it was successfully used for the preservation of the lives of some mariners who were wrecked in the offing. A life boat with the words 'always ready' are the arms of the town."

                                                           - The Post Office Directory of Durham and Northumberland, 1879, p. 191 

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