The restoration team on James And Mariska Joicey is led by Callum Cameron Ives, who was mainly aware of two things growing up; the RNLI & motorbikes . . . The first, the RNLI as his dad was Ian Cameron Ives was actually RNLI Staff Coxswain Ian Cameron Ives, as he had been since 1966, following on from 20 years in the Merchant Navy which he joined as a Cadet in 1946. The motorcycles were dad’s hobby since he was 13 years old during WW2 and he and his brother Alex bought a 1920’s BSA 500cc SV motorcycle which they rebuilt and would ride up their back lane whenever they could save up for a bottle of lighter fuel to run it on! So there were always bikes in the garage to polish up and inevitably we joined in enthusiastically!
Ironically in 1966 just before he joined the RNLI, Mam and Dad were on their honeymoon up in Northumberland aboard their converted ex ship’s lifeboat, motor / sailer “Catriona”, the boat’s vintage Kelvin Petrol/Parrafin engine cut out. They sent up a distress flare and were quickly taken into tow by the Amble RNLI Lifeboat to harbour where repairs could be carried out!
Our dad was stationed in Devon and Cornwall we would join him as a family, so we have fantastic childhood memories of such magical places as Appledore, Padstow and Clovelly. All of these memories of course include fabulous RNLI Lifeboats too and we as kids were able to explore and gain first hand knowledge at Appledore of the 47′ Watson Class, ON965, “Louisa Anne Hawker”, at Padstow the Oakley 48’6″, ON989, 48-02, “James And Catherine Macfarlane” and of course at Clovelly, the mighty 70′ Clyde Class Lifeboat, ON987, 70-001, “Charles H. Barrett (Civil Service No.35)”. Quite an amazing childhood in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s golden period, during which as a family developed a lifelong passion for Lifeboats and of course being Cornwall Pasties & Laverbread! At times we kids thought our names was me’ans . . . (short for my handsome if you’ve not frequented Cornwall / Devon).
While stationed at Padstow, our little family lodged at Ernie Bennett’s farm which as well as having huge stone mushrooms all around the drive, had a farm shop that sold Spangles . . . a fully groovy form of confectionary in 1972! Every spare moment we accompanied Dad in the station’s Navy Blue Land Rover Mk2A and over to the Lifeboat House at Trevose Head, pure magic but only later on in retrospect did we realise how truly lucky we were! Dad and the Mechanics taught us all about the 48′ 6″ Oakley “James And Catherine Macfarlane”, how to polish all the brass, copper and aluminium and what the various engine room and wheelhouse components were. Callum aged 4 was the official guide to the inside of the boat when visitors such as American tourists wanted to look around the boat and his drill included shaking am enamel mug at the end for the “Crew’s Coffee Fund”, the visitors were always generous, enough to buy Airfix 1:72 scale series 1 aircraft kits in the polythene bags at 10p a pop many times over but everything in the mug went to Dad and the crew! The sights, sounds and smells of RNLI Lifeboats in that magical period were indelibly etched on our memory. We were always confused and disappointed as to why we weren’t allowed to ride down the slipway on 48-02 with Dad and the crew and head out to sea and always ended up stuck in the viewing gallery with Mam watching them head out to sea on a shout in “My Boat” . . . we worked it out later!
And so our family’s first phase of active RNLI involvement continued until 1974 when Dad was offered a job as Chief Officer on an oil rig supply vessel “Seaforth Chieftain”! After a year or so on the “Seaforth Chieftain” and being nearly drowned and temporarily crippled after an altercation with a crane hook on the deck Dad decided in 1975 to take commands as Captain on British Coastal Cargo Ships, initially for Gardners on their famous Saint boats, the beautiful Saint Modan being his favourite, he could even stow his 1966 Trirumph T120 “Torrey Canyon” (it leaked oil a lot) on the platform in front of the bridge for quick getaways on leave. In 1977 he signed on with the Water Street, Liverpool based Shipping Company, Coe – Metcalfe for the next 15 years, before taking early retirement in 1992 at the age of 62.
We often took our family summer holidays on the ships with Dad, on one particularly memorable passage in 1979 on MV Gorsethorn (built in 1961 as the MV Dido with a fabulous 9 cylinder British Polar engine), we were approaching Lands End off of Cornwall when the engine snapped a cylinder tie rod. Gas and fuel was spewing into the engine room and we quickly took emergency refuge in the harbour of the beautiful Cornish fishing village of Mousehole. The Gorsethorn only just fitted alongside the western breakwater and was apparently the largest vessel ever to have berthed in Mousehole. Obviously this caused some excitement in Moushole and we were visited by local harbour officials, fishermen and memorably the local Penlee RNLI Lifeboat Coxswain Trevelyan Richards and some of his crew who dad knew from his time as RNLI Staff Coxswain, the onboard bond (alcohol supply) was opened liberally in celebration as we were very relived to have gotten safely into the harbour!
It was just over 2 years later on December 19th 1981 that most this fine Penlee crew were tragically lost going out in their 47′ Watson Class Lifeboat “Soloman Browne” to the assistance of the coaster MV Union Star which had suffered engine failure off of Mousehole but in very stormy conditions, both vessels and crews were lost, a great tragedy indeed and it was particularly sad to recall that most of those friendly guys who joined us for a social on MV Gorsethorn had perished. Brave souls, never to be forgotten.
Even after his retirement in 1992 the RNLI still took a central role with Dad taking up a committee role in the RNLI South Tyneside Branch with a focus on fund raising. Then in 1990 whilst at college (CCAD) in Middlesbrough Callum was lucky enough to be taken onto the crew at RNLI Staithes, the beautiful fishing village he was living in at the the time with his great mate Jan Fairey. The whole crew was like a big family in Staithes and Callum was made very welcome indeed and thoroughly enjoyed his time on the Atlantic 21 ILB on station there. Dad visited there and we took him out on the Atlantic 21, at 61 years old he enjoyed it but the ride took it’s toll on his knees and he was pleased to get ashore for a debrief in the cozy Royal George afterwards. The Harbour Master and former Staithes Coxswain “Tange” Verrill and Dad had been on the same ships in the 1940’s/50’s and got on very well. Around this time Callum spotted a 52′ Barnett Class Lifeboat that had recently come out of service and was up for sale, he couldn’t afford it as a mere student but his Print Tutor Julian Whatmaugh was keen to buy it, they went to see the HM and asked if they could keep the Barnett in Staithes Beck, he said, “You’re not bringing such a fucking big boat here!”, this was taken as a no and the purchase didn’t happen! Clearly, however a seed was sown . . . Co-incidentally Callum kept a spare copy the latest edition of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society magazine in the cottage and in that magazine advertised for sale, by tender direct from RNLI service was Solent Class, ON1008, 48-005, “James And Mariska Joicey” . . . he kept the magazine but thought no more about the advert for 24 years or so!
After leaving Art College Callum moved back to South Shields in 1992 doing various jobs (Mechanic, 24 hr Breakdown, Electro-Steam Engineer, Vehicle Dismantler), before deciding to move London and enjoying a successful Design career including being contracted as a Designer/Presenter on BBC TV’s Real Rooms show for several series between 1998 – 2003. It was in 2001 that he decided to move to Birmingham and continue his career up there, where after reading a job ad in the Guardian Newspaper he stumbled into Art & Design Lecturing initially at Hereford College of Art & Design and a few months later at Wolverhampton University whilst still continuing his own Design practice as time permitted. He then gained a PGCert in HE Teaching followed by an MA in Urban Design (specialising in Water in Cities) He was in the process of attempting two buy a Welsh chapel in Carno which fell through, followed by a flat in Wake Green Park, Birmingham, which also fell through and so during the Easter Holidays of 2008 the decision was made to buy a narrow boat to live on and in a week via the Apollo Duck (seriously that’s its name!) website, we bought a knackered 1973 40′ ex Anglo Welsh hire fleet narrow boat in Syston, near Leicester which we then sailed over a week or so, through the snow and rain back to Brum with the help of my Dad, Sister and friends. Dad was worried about our lack of navigation lights when entering the “main shipping lanes” on the canal, eventually he realised that the waterways were never more than twenty feet wide! This boat “Mythical Wizard” became my home / restoration project for the next 7 years in Birmingham’s fabulous Gas Street Basin. The dream of owning an actual ex RNLI Lifeboat continued like a lighthouse in the darkness but they were always too expensive . . . regardless it had be a 1950’s to early 1970’s lifeboat with Gardner engines . . .
Jump forward to December 2013 and after following his website for a few years, (even at one point in 2009 viewing, with our good pal Captain Pete Williams, the heavily modified 1945 built, 46′ Watson Class Lifeboat ON840, “Henry Blogg” that was for sale in Upton on Severn), we spotted a very interesting post on Quinton Nelson’s Historic Lifeboat Brokeridge website Nelson’s Boats of Donagadee for a Solent Class Lifeboat restoration project for sale in Co.Donegal, Ireland. Funding was secured, flights booked and after being picked up from Belfast International Airport by Colum and Amish Tom, Callum quite ill with influenza, found himself in the middle of wild and beautiful Co. Donegal countryside, in the company of his good mate Dr Rob Galvin, Colum & Amish Tom, standing on broken glass in the wheelhouse of ON1008 in a blizzard and biting Atlantic wind! A thorough examination of ON1008 followed and immediately on entering the engine room with the twin Gardner 6LX engines, he was transported back through a time vortex to being that 4 year old self showing tourists around “James And Catherine Macfarlane” at Padstow in 1971 . . . It was decided there and then to save this amazing vessel at her time of need, as she had selflessly saved 41 lives between 1969 and 1989!
En-route back to the airport in the mini-bus, finding that the cold air had finally rendered his influenza ravaged vocal chords incapable of speech, Callum wrote down on a pad that we would like to go ahead and buy ON1008, which Dr Rob kindly relayed to Colum and Tom, who sensibly asked us if we’d like time to think about it? That wasn’t necessary, so hands were shaken and the deal done in principal! Once back home we negotiated a final price with the major shareholder of ON1008 on Guernsey, the late George Timmer and a deposit was paid with the balance being due once all the shares were transferred to our name. There was a slight delay in the process as George Timmer had 44 shares and a lady living in Spain, listed on the registration book as a “Dog Groomer” had the other 20 shares, so documents had to be posted internationally for signing, we got there in the end with Josh Payne at Guernsey Shipping Registry being (and who continues to be) very efficient and helpful.
And so the next chapter in our and James And Mariska Joicey’s life began. Ex RNLI Staff Coxswain Ian Cameron Ives was not at all well by the end of 2013 but nether the less he was very excited about bringing James And Mariska back to working order, sadly he passed away aged 85 in May 2014 but on our last visit to him in hospital we were discussing the project and enjoying some single malt Whisky I’d smuggled in for him!
Since 2014 we have balanced our leave between family activities and working on J&MJ, full details of which are in the Restoration Section of this website. In late 2016 Callum decided with the support of his wife to step down from my permanent University Senior Lecturing role of some 15 years in order to focus on the completion of “James And Mariska Joicey’s” restoration. After the suspended animation of 2020 – early 2021 and the Covid lockdowns we are going for a big push to finish the restoration of J&MJ and sail to a new life in her old county of Cornwall on a mooring generously being lent to us by a fellow historic lifeboat owner and friend near Falmouth.
In January of 2017 Callum joined the RNLI Lifeboat Enthusiasts committee in the role of Hon Secretary as the original Hon Secretary John Francis, who had been in the role since he founded the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society in 1964 decided to retire.
People often ask us why we decided to save and restore an ex RNLI Lifeboat . . . please see above, that’s only part of it of course!
