World's oldest surviving lifeboat returns to Redcar home

The world's oldest surviving lifeboat has returned to its Teesside home after months of restoration work.

The Zetland was in service for 62 years in Redcar after its introduction in 1802 and saved more than 500 lives.

Work to preserve the wooden vessel was carried out in Middlesbrough over five months before it was returned to the Zetland Lifeboat Museum.

A choir made up of local fishermen joined a crowd of about 100 to welcome the vessel back to Redcar.

Museum chair Jeanette Picknett, said the work would ensure the boat's survival for "hundreds of years to come".

The vessel was built by renowned South Shields lifeboat builder Henry Greathead, who produced more than 30 of the world's first lifeboats.

The museum, staffed by volunteers, is located near the current RNLI lifeboat station in a Victorian boathouse owned by Redcar and Cleveland Council.

Ms Picknett said: "I would hope she's going to be around for at least another 200 years.

"She's obviously not going to go back out to sea again, so she will be preserved and cherished in the museum for as long as people want her here."