Plymouth Lifeboat Station

Even if no lifeboat was used, there was no shortage of gallantry shown around the local coast. Between 1825 and 1843, no fewer than 14 Silver medals were awarded by the RNIPLS. Established in 1824, one of its objectives was that "medallions or pecuniary awards be given to those who rescue lives in cases of shipwreck".^[8]

Three Silver medals were earned at Plymouth in 1825, all as the result of a single storm on 23 November. Coastguard James Craggs saved a woman from the John (although her husband and his crew all drowned), Coastguard John Miller saved seven of the 13 crew of the Harmonie, and Richard Eddy, a local ship's pilot, saved four from the Coromandel. Richard Eddy was subsequently awarded a second and third silver medal, after saving 10 people from the Koningsberg when it ran aground on 13 January 1834.^{[9] [10]}

Coastguard John Woolland Bake was awarded a silver medal, for saving 25 people from the Mary Ann, when it was wrecked in Bovisand Bay on 13 January 1828. Three Royal Navy sailors, Francis Strong, Thomas Huss and Augustus May, received silver medals for saving the 10 crew members of the Erin, which struck Plymouth breakwater during a storm on 20 February 1833, and Lieutenant Adrian Thomas Mann was similarly rewarded for saving six on 26 April 1833 – two from a barge, and four other 'rescuers', who had themselves capsized.^{[9] [10]}

The breakwater was the scene of another rescue on 14 February 1838. Lieutenant Thomas Holman saved the six people on the Thetis and was awarded a silver medal. Revenue Cutters were involved in two silver-medal rescues during the following winter. J. S. W. Grandy, mate of the Harpy, saved five people on 28 November 1838 and Andrew Gillespie, gunner on the Stork, saved four on 23 March 1839. The final silver medal awarded before the lifeboat station was established at Millbay, was to Lieutenant John Cornish, for rescuing two men from the schooner Norman, when it ran aground 22 October 1843.^{[9] [10]}

At a meeting of the RNLI committee of management on Thursday 5 December 1861, the report of the visit to Plymouth by the Inspector of Lifeboats was read and approved. On 21 February 1862, a 34-foot-long (10 m) Peake-class self-righting 'Pulling and Sailing' (P&S) lifeboat, one with sails and oars, built by Forrestt of Limehouse, London, and costing 180,ドル was transported by express goods train to Plymouth, free of charge, by the Great Western, Bristol and Exeter, and South Devon Railway Companies.^{[11] [12]}

The inauguration took place on 24–25 February, during which the boat was drawn through the street in grand procession. It was said that "Nearly the whole of the large population of the adjoining towns of Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse, and of their neighbourhood, being assembled in the streets to welcome and do honour to the first Plymouth life-boat." A boat-house was constructed on the West Wharf of the outer basin of Millbay Docks, at a cost of 159ドル. Monies raised by annual subscription provided future security of the establishment, with the initial cost of the lifeboat provided by the gift of 240ドル from heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, and in accordance with her wishes, the lifeboat was named Prince Consort.^{[13] [14]}

At a meeting of the committee of management on Thursday 5 February 1880, it was decided that a new boathouse and slipway be constructed at Plymouth. This was brought about due to the extension of the railway along the docks. The boathouse, costing 325,ドル was constructed at the seaward end of the wharf at The Camber, with a 130-foot (40 m) launching slip. A contribution of 250ドル was received from Great Western Railway.^{[9] [15] [16] [17]}

• Coord:50°21′45.3′′N 4°09′22.3′′W / 50.362583°N 4.156194°W / 50.362583; -4.156194

Further construction work on the boathouse, costing 427ドル-10s, was carried out in 1897/98, coinciding with the arrival of a new 37 ft 0 in (11.28 m) self-righting lifeboat, Eliza Avins (ON 412).^{[18] [19]}

The first motor-powered lifeboats started appearing in the late 1900s, but it was only in 1926 when Plymouth received one. Its arrival brought about a significant change, in that due to the size of the new boat, the lifeboat would need to be moored afloat, and this has been the case for every All-weather lifeboat at Plymouth ever since. The new boat was the Robert and Marcella Beck (ON 696), a 60-foot Barnett-class, built by J. Samuel White of Cowes, with twin 80-hp White DE6 petrol engines, and costing 14,536ドル.^{[5] [20]}

In March 1943, the Robert and Marcella was sent for maintenance, and the reserve boat placed on station was a modified and refurbished 46-foot Watson-class Belgian lifeboat, Ministre Anseele (ON 845), which had been found drifting derelict in the English Channel at the start of World War II. However, before she could return to service, Robert and Marcella was requisitioned by the Admiralty, then seeing service in Wick, the Faroe Islands, and providing life-saving operations from Iceland on the most hazardous of the Arctic convoy routes, the northern route to Arkhangelsk, Russia. She returned to Plymouth in 1947.^[5]

In 1964, in response to an increasing amount of water-based leisure activity, the RNLI placed 25 small fast Inshore lifeboats around the country. These were easily launched with just a few people, ideal to respond quickly to local emergencies. The D-class (RFD PB16) Inshore lifeboat (D-130) was additionally placed at Plymouth in 1967. At the time, the RNLI were investigating a larger class of Inshore boat, that would bridge the gap between the smaller D-class, and the standard All-weather lifeboats. These boats would have a rigid hull, capable of being moored afloat, and offering the option of being a boarding boat, but still be fast, and easy to launch. In 1968, the station received one of just two 18-foot (5.5 m) A-class (Hatch) Inshore lifeboats, (18-01).^{[21] [22]}

A succession of A-class (McLachlan) fast rigid-hull Inshore lifeboats followed, but in 1983, the Inshore lifeboat capability at Plymouth was withdrawn. Since 1967, the boats had been launched 177 times, saving 73 lives.^[5]

A new station was built on the Princess Royal Pier in 1979 and a new mooring was provided alongside. From 1988 until 1992 the lifeboat was moored in Sutton Harbour while the area around the Princess Royal Pier was redeveloped as a marina, but it then returned to Millbay.^{[23] [24]}

Since 1992 the All-weather lifeboat has been moored afloat on the eastern side of the Millbay basin. It was decided to re-establish the Inshore lifeboat capability with a B-class Inshore lifeboat in 2004. The current ILB is kept alongside the ALB on a floating 'aquadock'.^{[3] [1] [25]}

Crew facilities and storage are in the old Customs House on the quay close to the moorings. This is a Grade II Listed building, erected in 1850 to the design of George Wightwick. It is built from granite, octagonal in plan and three storeys high. This once gave H.M. Customs officers all-round views of the harbour, a view now afforded to the lifeboat crews. The building was refurbished partly from a grant from Plymouth council, and partly from a specific bequest from Mrs Eugenie Boucher, a native of Penza in south-east Russia, who left 3ドル.5 million for the provision of boathouses. The eight new or refurbished boathouses are known as "Penza" boathouses within the RNLI.^{[9] [5]}

Pre ON numbers are unofficial numbers used by the Lifeboat Enthusiasts' Society to reference early lifeboats not included on the official RNLI list.

More post-service details can be found on the respective lifeboat class pages.

Hatch and McLachlan lifeboats were initially numbered 18-XXX in the ALB series, but were redesignated as A-class lifeboats and renumbered in the ILB series from 1972.

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