The Suffolk Humane Society was formed in 1806 after the pattern of the Royal Humane Society of London, its purpose being to reward those who saved their fellows from drowning and those who resuscitated people who had apparently died. It took on additional duties the following year when it undertook the financing and administration of the Lowestoft lifeboat Frances Ann, the world's first sailing lifeboat and one of the most successful early lifesaving craft in Britain. The story of the Frances Ann, which was credited with saving more than 300 lives by the time she was replaced in 1850, is of...