AN ICONIC lifeboat which saved almost 100 lives over its 30-year-service is still afloat thanks to a £1,000 donation.

The Princess Royal lifeboat, which served the Hartlepool coastline between 1939 and 1968, and played a vital role through the war years, received the grant from the Tees Valley Community Foundation.

The money has been donated to the Princess Royal Restoration Association and will help maintain the 46-ft wooden lifeboat, which played a vital role through the war.

The donation was given on behalf of EDF Energy Renewables, which operates the wind far at Redcar.

Brenda Hutchinson, volunteer at the Princess Royal Restoration Association said: “Our aim is to continue to promote the Princess Royal wooden lifeboat as a working museum and to support the interest in our maritime heritage.”

In the early days of the war, the Princess Royal, which was built for the equivalent of £1m in 1938, was involved in the rescue of a Spitfire crew believed to have been the first ever to be shot down over the North Sea.