Whitby's 103-year-old lifeboat Robert and Ellen Robson pulled through streets back to lifeboat museum

The boat has been at Coates Marine undergoing restoration work but will now get a final lick of paint at the lifeboat museum - the RNLI hopes to reopen the museum this summer.

Until 1957 RNLB Robert & Ellen Robson was still in service in Whitby with 10 members of crew providing the muscle power on the oars.

For the last few months she has been at Coates Marine, a boatyard in the Upper Harbour, where volunteers have spent hundreds of hours renovating her.

Work has now started on the museum itself, which is having its first major renovation in over a century, and the lifeboat has now been moved back in so it can be painted and varnished.

Built in 1918, the lifeboat originally served at Tranmore Lifeboat Station in Ireland then at Aberdeen, before coming to Whitby in May 1947 as the No 2 Lifeboat. Whitby has had a motor lifeboat since 1919, but the older model was still routinely used to escort fishing vessels into harbour in bad weather.

One of her most unusual launches was on October 5 1949 when she was used to rescue 17 geology students from Aberdeen University who were cut off on the infamous Black Nab.

Her last service took place on November 24 1955 when the boat was launched to escort the fishing vessel Pilot Me into Whitby in poor weather.

She was used because the No 1 boat was in Scarborough having escorted other boats there the previous day.

This proved to be a historic event for the RNLI as it was the last time a rowing lifeboat was used on an operational service.