Palmer-class lifeboat

The Palmer-class lifeboat was an early design of small lifeboat used by the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS) in the middle years of the nineteenth century.

Design
George Palmer was a London businessman. He joined the committee of the RNIPLS in 1826, just two years after its founding, and later became its deputy chairman. One of the organisation's activities was to provide lifeboats and it bought them from several sources. Palmer offered a design based on a whaleboat, narrow and pointed at both ends. It was given extra buoyancy by the use of cork (material) fittings and air chambers.

Palmer lifeboats

 * The numbers in this list are unofficial "pre-ON" numbers created by the Lifeboat Enthusiast Society to reference early lifeboats not included on the RNLI Official Number list which was used from 1884.

Later whale boats
Most lifeboats built from the 1850s were of the Peake self-righting type but some whale boat lifeboats continued to be provided to stations where there was a need for a small boat, the last being built in 1910 and withdrawn in 1938.