RNLB Keith Anderson was an lifeboat which served at Newhaven Lifeboat Station for six years, in the relief fleet for one year and finished her RNLI career in Hartlepool in 2003 after serving for three years.
Procurement
The Keith Anderson was ordered to replace the at Newhaven which had served at the station for eight years. This important East Sussex station needed an improved class of lifeboat to enhance the stations capabilities. The Arun-class was considered to be suitable for this stations mooring facilities on the River Ouse which runs through the Port of Newhaven. She was laid down by VT Halmatic, she was sent to William Osborne in Littlehampton to be fitted out. During spring 1985 she underwent her self-righting trials following which all her electronic equipment was installed and commissioned. She was then sent to the RNLI depot at Poole.
Funding
The lifeboat cost £394,928 and funding for the boat came from a gift given to the institute by a Mrs Esma Anderson of Grosvenor Square in London and was in memory of her husband Mr Keith M. G. Anderson after whom the boat was named. In August 1985 the Newhaven lifeboat crew arrived at Poole and after some training on the Arun lifeboat took the Keith Anderson and sailed her to Newhaven arriving there on 9 August 1985. The official naming service took place in Newhaven on 27 May 1986 when Mrs Anderson officially handed over the lifeboat, following this she named the lifeboat. By the time of this ceremony the lifeboat had already been launched to service on thirty three occasions and had been accredited with saving the lives of four people.
Yacht Aubric
Another notable service involving the Keith Anderson occurred on 4 April 1988 when she went to the aide of the Yacht Aubric which had reported problems with her sails and her engine. The lifeboat was out at sea for over six hours in a violent north-easterly gale towing the yacht to safety.
On 7 September 1995 the Keith Anderson was involved in a joint rescue with the Brighton Inshore Lifeboat. This service was to stand-by the Brighton lifeboat which had itself got into difficulties. The Brighton boat had been called out to help two girls who had been swept out to sea underneath the Palace Pier. As huge waves crashed around them, the Graham Hillier and Tony Cater had managed to manoeuvre under the pier but had been damaged on an underwater spike which had been left untrimmed after badly finished maintenance work from the previous day. The lifeboat had partially deflated but the girls had been taken aboard. At first, an attempt to rescue the girls was made by the Air-sea rescue Helicopter but the downdraught from its rotor blades might have swamped the damaged lifeboat. With the helicopter above and training its searchlights on the scene, the Newhaven lifeboat was required to take the girls off and take the disabled lifeboat into tow, which it did successfully.
Relief fleet service
In October 1999 the Keith Anderson was taken away from Newhaven and was placed on service in the RNLI’s relief fleet. She was sent to the RNLI depot at Poole. This was a short livid arrangement as in October 2000 she was reassigned to be the Hartlepool lifeboat. She remained at that station for three years until 2003.
Disposal
Between 2003 and 2006 the Keith Anderson was placed in storage at the Poole Depot until a deal was negotiated by the RNLI to send three Arun-class lifeboat to China to join the China Ministry of Transport Rescue and Salvage organisation. She, along with her sisters were loaded aboard a container ship at Felixstowe and shipped to China. Once there the China Rescue & Salvage Bureau placed her on station at the city ofDalian, seaport in the south of Liaoning province. She was renamed Huaying 395.
