It was only now that The Norwegian Sea Rescue Society began to rely on engines, though not entirely. The ‘Andreas Aarø’ also had sails. It was Knut Christensen who redesigned Collin Archer’s lifeboats, which had no engines.

The boat was exhibited at the Trøndelag Exhibition in 1930, where it won a gold medal. Another little curiosity is that, after almost 100 years, we have recovered the plaque bearing the construction number that was affixed to the boat when it was built.

Since Knut had no formal training in boat design, he commissioned Bjarne Aas to design the next rescue boats. The boats built at that time are known as the Aas boats.

The next boat we built was the ‘Erik Farup’. When Bjarne brought in the plans for that boat, Knut said that Bjarne had drawn the waterline incorrectly. Bjarne protested, and as Knut didn’t have any formal training, he said no more.

When the boat was launched, the waterline was incorrect, and Bjarne said it had to be brought ashore again to get it right. Knut replied, “We painted it where you said, but I marked where it should be.” So there was no need to bring it ashore again.

Although Knut had no formal training, he could design and build boats.

Throughout the 1930s, almost one lifeboat was built every year. Just before the war, a brochure was published by The Norwegian Sea Rescue Society in which Hammeråker is well represented, and which states that K. Christensen & Co., Moen’s boatyard, is where the lifeboats are built. A very fine endorsement.

For those of us who attended primary school in the 1950s, we read about the Rokta shipwreck in Nordal Rolfsen’s reading book. It was a great rescue operation, and a memorial has been erected in Hustadvika to mark the occasion. The rescue boat that carried out the rescue was the ‘Christian Bugge’, which was also built here at our shipyard.

I videoen under forteller Erik Bye om Roktaforliset: