Rescue Motor Launch 497 will join the collection of historic craft large and small maintained by the National Museum of the Royal Navy – thanks largely to a £90,000 lottery hand-out.
The 112ft wooden boat is one of the dwindling band of survivors of a class of around 650 launches built by, or under licence from, the Fairmile company between 1940 and 1945 to meet the tremendous demands placed on the Fleet by its second global conflict in a generation.