Dunbar Lifeboat Station

Dunbar Lifeboat Station is a lifeboat station located in Dunbar Harbour at Dunbar, on the south-east coast of Scotland, operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The station operates a Trent-class all-weather lifeboat and a D-class inshore lifeboat. Dunbar is one of the earlier British ports to be served by a lifeboat, the first station being constructed in 1808.

Dunbar lifeboat station
Dunbar Lifeboat Station
Dunbar
General information
TypeRNLI Lifeboat Station
LocationDunbar Lifeboat Station, Victoria Harbour, Dunbar, East Lothian
CountryScotland
Coordinates56.00504°N 2.51499°W / 56.00504; -2.51499
Opened1808
OwnerRoyal National Lifeboat Institution
Technical details
MaterialBrick

History

Dunbar Harbour has been a fishing and trading port since at least 1574, and for a considerable period was classified as a port of refuge; it is located on the North Sea coast of south-west Scotland, venue for many thoudands of shipwreckings over the centuries. In Britain, the history of lifeboats dates (two outliers excepted) to Henry Greathead's 1790 boat at South Shields on the River Tyne in England;[1] in 1824 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded to take a nationwide interest in the provision of lifeboats, but it was relatively ineffective in its earliest years. Lifeboat provision prior to about 1850 was a matter for local communities, with little institutional support.

Dunbar ranks amongst the earlier harbours to be equipped with a lifeboat, equipping itself with a boat of Henry Greathead's design and manufacture, together with a boat-carriage, boathouse and a Manby apparatus, in 1808.[2] The initiative to establish a station at Dunbar came from George Miller, a native of the town, son of a merchant and established as a bookbinder and bookseller, but having had a long fascination with seafaring. By his own account, he had as a child conceived of mortar-launched lines as a means of reaching shoreline wrecks, many years in advance of George William Manby's successful implementation of the idea, and remained fascinated by shipwreck and rescue.[3] Miller became acquainted with South Shields' lifeboat initiative, when he spent some days from 6 April 1789 undertaking work experience with a bookl=seller in the town. 1789 was a year in which the town was the 'epicentre of lifeboard innovation', arising out of the highly visable and protracted wrecking of a vessal, the Adventure, on the Herd Sands to the north-east of the South Shields on 14 March. The Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trinity House to hold a competition for the design of a lifeboat, which led to the adoption of Greathead's design.[1]

Miller, with others, campaiged from as early as 1793 for the establishment at Dunbar of a lifesaving opeation, suggesting both a mortar and line, and a lifeboat, but their aspirations came to nothing.[4] It took until 1807, prompted by the death of a sailor on 6 September in a shoreline wreck at Thorntonlock, to the east of Dunbar,[lower-alpha 1] before Miller's ideas got traction. He floated a proposal for a lifeboat in the Edinburgh Evening Courant and quickly a committee of local worthies was formed, and as quickly, a subscription raised above £366, which by 1808 yielded lifeboat, station, carriage and minimal float for expenses.[5] David Anderson's 2002 paper on The Dunbar Lifeboat notes five occasions on which it responded to mariners in distress, but notes that there are no good records of its employment.

Lack of competent management of the affairs of the lifeboat station brought the Dunbar service to an end sometime after 1818, when damage occasioned to the Greathead boat went unrepaired, and it was found to be unavailable to assist with an 1821 wrecking.[6] From about 1830, Dunbar was served by a Rocket Brigade using Mandy apparatus. It was not until 1864 that the town petitioned to the reinvigorated RNLI for a replacement boat; by 1865 the Wallace had been supplied, and a new boathouse erected by the Victoria Harbour.[7] The current boathouse dates from 1901, and was extended and refurbished in 1996.[8]

Sir Ronald Pechell BT

Sir Ronald Pechell BT was a Trent class all weather lifeboat that operated at Dunbar from 1995 to 2008. During the Easter weekend of 2008 the lifeboat was damaged beyond economic repair after her moorings snapped during severe storms. The Sir Ronald Pechell Bt, valued at £208K in 2008, cost £1.05M to build in 1995 and in her 13 years of service at Dunbar had launched 206 times and rescued 171 people. The lifeboat, John Neville Taylor, from the charity’s relief fleet has been allocated to the town permanently.

Fleet

All-weather lifeboats

Dates in service Class ON Op. No. Name Comments
1808–1821 Henry Greathead lifeboat Dunbar Lifeboat Original lifeboat[9]
1865–1893 33ft Self-righter P & S ON 220 Wallace
1893–1901 34ft Self-righter P & S ON 345 Sarah Pickard
1901–1931 35ft Liverpool P & S ON 443 William Arthur Millward
1931–1959 45ft 6in Watson-class ON 749 George and Sarah Strachan First motor lifeboat at station
1959–1986 47ft Watson-class ON 947 Margaret
1986–1988 47ft Watson-class ON 971 Joseph Soar (Civil Service No.34)
1988–1993 Solent-class ON 1020 48-015 Hugh William, Viscount Gough
1993–1995 Waveney-class ON 1034 44-013 Thomas James King
1995–2008 Trent-class ON 1207 14-09 Sir Ronald Pechell, Bt Storm-damaged beyond economic repair
2008–present Trent-class ON 1266 14-35 John Neville Taylor

Inshore lifeboats

Dates in service Class Op. No. Name
1968–1983 D-class (RFD PB16) D-169 unnamed
1983–1989 D-class (Zodiac III) D-292 Castle House
1989–1999 D-class (EA16) D-397 Banks' Staff III
1999–2009 D-class (EA16) D-544 The Hastings
2009–present D-class (IB1) D-708 Jimmy Miff

Station honours

At Dunbar lifeboat station the following RNLI awards have been made:

  • Framed Letters of Thanks 5
  • Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum 2
  • Bronze Medal 1
  • Silver Medal 4

Flanking stations

Notes

  1. Thorntonlock: 55.96237°N 2.39728°W / 55.96237; -2.39728. The exact position of the wreck is not recorded

References

  1. Anderson 2002, p. 92.
  2. Anderson 2002, p. 96.
  3. Anderson 2002, p. 91.
  4. Anderson 2002, p. 94.
  5. Anderson 2002, pp. 95-96.
  6. Anderson 2002, p. 106.
  7. Anderson 2002, p. 109.
  8. "Dunbar, Victoria Harbour, Lifeboat House". Canmore. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  9. Leach, Nicholas (1999). For Those in Peril: The Lifeboat Service of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, Station by Station. Kettering: Silver Link. p. 204. ISBN 1-85794-129-2.

Sources

  • Anderson, David (2002). "The Dunbar Lifeboat" (PDF). Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists Society. 25.


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