Scarborough Lifeboat Station

Scarborough Lifeboat Station
Scarborough RNLI station showing slipway
Location within North Yorkshire
General information
Type	RNLI Lifeboat Station
Location	West Pier
Address	Foreshore Road
Town or city	Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 1PB
Country	England
Coordinates	54°17′00″N 0°23′35″W / 54.2833°N 0.3930°W / 54.2833; -0.3930
Opened	2016
Cost	£3 million
Owner	Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Website
Official webpage

Scarborough Lifeboat Station is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) operated lifeboat station in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. A lifeboat was established at Scarborough in 1801, which makes it the third oldest lifeboat station in the United Kingdom (after Montrose and Sunderland).^[1]

Since its opening in 1801 to the present day, a total of 16 crewmen have been lost whilst attempting rescues from the Scarborough lifeboat.^[2] In 2016, a new station was opened on the site of the previous one. This houses two lifeboats; 13-15 Frederick William Plaxton (ON1322), a Shannon-class lifeboat and the John Wesley Hillard IV (D-856), an Inshore D-class lifeboat.^[3]

The first lifeboat in Scarborough was instituted by public donation costing just over £212^[4] and saw its first launch in November 1801, when it went to the aid of a stricken vessel named Aurora in Scarborough Bay.^[5] The first boat was actually built in Scarborough to a design by Henry Greathead, who had designed and built a boat for Whitby and Redcar lifeboat stations.^[6] A replacement boat was built and supplied to the rescue crews in the town in 1823.^[7] The first lifeboat station was at the junction of Foreshore Road and Valley Road in the town. In 1821, the station was relocated near to its present site by the West Pier in the harbour, however it was on the landward side of Foreshore Road.^[5]

To aid with fundraising, two cast iron pillar collection boxes were erected in the early 1870s, one at the Old Cliff, just down from the Grand Hotel, next to the gates to the Spa Bridge, and a second one outside the Crown Hotel on the Esplanade.^[8]

In 1914, the Scarborough Lifeboat Queensbury was despatched to assist in the rescue of the SS Rohilla off the coast at Whitby. Like many other lifeboats used in the rescue, she couldn't get near to the Rohilla because of the swell.^[9]

In 1940, a new lifeboat station was built next to the West Pier; the old lifeboat house was later converted into an amusement arcade on the seafront.^[10] The 1940 lifeboathouse had to be adapted for the larger Fanny Victoria Wilkinson and Frank Stubbs in 1991, which involved widening and heightening the door.^[11]

A new lifeboat station was opened in 2016, which had been designed by the York architectural firm of Brierley Groom.^[12] Approval for the new £3 million building was granted by the Borough Council in 2014.^[13]

In 2018, the coxswain of the crew was dismissed; the RNLI released a statement that he had organised an operational training exercise without proper authority. The former coxswain stated that he had "the blessing and clearance of the lifeboat operations manager and several others".^[14] After a groundswell of support for the sacked individual, the RNLI later released a further statement detailing their decision to stand down the coxswain citing the lack of trained professionals on the boat when she was put to sea in rough weather.^[15]

• 17 February 1836 – The crew launched to help a sloop named John as it was trying to enter the harbour area at Scarborough to shelter from the storm. As the lifeboat came close to the sloop, it capsized and ten of her crew were washed out to sea on a strong ebb tide. One crew member managed to get back onto the boat and three others were underneath the boat, having secured themselves to the boat to prevent the same fate that had befallen ten of their comrades. The three used the conduiting pipes (used to drain seawater out of the boat)^[5] set into the boat to allow them to breathe. A human chain was formed of spectators who eventually managed to rescue the four men from the sea.^[17]
• 2 November 1861 – the crew launched their new life boat Amelia after a storm besieged the east coast. Many ships were trying to make port in Scarborough, and one, the Coupland, missed the harbour entrance and was being dashed against the rocks in the South Bay (where the Spa Theatre is). In the attempted rescue, two of the lifeboatmen died, with a further 22 people dying in the sea, including three who were spectators on the shore but waded into the water to help and were drowned.^[18][19]
• 9 December 1951 – the Dutch vessel Westkust ran into trouble some 26 nautical miles (48 km; 30 mi) off the coast of Scarborough. The ECJR was launched at 11:30 am, but due to the heavy seas, she took over seven hours to reach the Westkust. As the lifeboat came alongside the sinking ship, two of the lifeboatmen jumped onto the Westkust to assess the situation, whilst the crew of the Westkust got into the lifeboat. As the two craft were side by side, they were being buffeted together and apart by the strong swell of the sea. One of the lifeboatmen managed to jump back into the lifeboat, but as the second tried, a freak wave wrenched the two ships apart, leaving him clinging to the rails of the Westkust. The swell then pushed the two boats together and crushed the lifeboatman between them. He fell into the lifeboat with a crushed pelvis and by the time they reached the port of Bridlington, he had died.^[20]
• 8 December 1954 – whilst escorting ships into harbour during a storm, the lifeboat overturned in the South Bay at Scarborough. Three crew members died.^[21]

The following are awards made at Scarborough^[22][23]

• RNLI Silver Medal

James Fowler, Master Mariner – 1824

Smith Tindall, Master Mariner – 1824

Thomas Clayburn, Coxswain – 1828

Henry Wyrill, Boatman – 1857

Lord Charles Beauclerk – 1861 (post.)

William Tindall – 1861 (post.)

John Iles – 1861 (post.)

Michael Hick – 1861

Joseph Rutter – 1861

Oliver Sarony – 1861

John Owston, Coxswain – 1880

William Sheader, Coxswain – 1970

• RNLI Bronze Medal

John Nicholas Sheader, Coxswain – 1952

Thomas Jenkinson Mainprize, Assistant Motor Mechanic – 1952

Frank Dalton, Bowman – 1952 (post.)

Thomas Rowley, Acting Coxswain – 1973

Rudi Barman, Helmsman – 2015^[24]

• The Maud Smith Award 1969
  (for the bravest act of lifesaving during the year by a member of a lifeboat crew)
  awarded jointly to:

William Sheader, Coxswain of Scarborough Lifeboat – 1970

(and Eric Offer, Coxswain of Dun Laoghaire Lifeboat – 1970)

• The Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum

The Scarborough Lifeboat Crew – 1970

Richard Constantine, Coxswain/Mechanic – 1994

• A Framed Letter of Thanks signed by the Chairman of the Institution

Each member of the Scarborough Lifeboat crew – 1966

C. J. Bean, – 1968

R. Swalwell – 1968

Paul Stonehouse, Helmsman – 1995

Craig Burnett, crew member, 2015

Adam Beston, crew member – 2015

• Letters of thanks from the Operations Director

Dr Peter Billingsley – 2015

Jason Hedges – 2015

• Two silver mounted pipes presented by King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales

John Owston, Coxswain – 1902

• Member, Order of the British Empire (MBE)

Stuart Edwin Ogden, Coxswain – 1994^[25]

Richard Francis Constantine, Former Coxswain/Mechanic – 2003^[26]

• British Empire Medal

Donna Loveland – 2020^[27][28]

John Percy Porter, Visits Officer, Water Safety Advisor and Fundraiser – 2024KBH^[29]

ON[a]	Op. No.[b]	Name	In service[30]	Class	Comments
–	–	Unknown	1801–1823		[31]
–	–	Unknown	1823–1852		[31]
–	–	Unnamed	1852–1861	25-foot Self-righting (P&S)	This was the first self-righting lifeboat to serve at Scarborough. [11][31][32]
–	–	Amelia	1861	32-foot Self-righting (P&S)	The Amelia was the first boat used when the RNLI assumed control of Scarborough Lifeboat Station. She was wrecked in the storm of 1861.[33][34][32]
–	–	The Mary	1861–1872	29-foot 5in Self-righting (P&S)	[35][32]
–	–	Lady Leigh	1872–1887	35-foot Self-righting (P&S)	A gift from the Freemasons of Warwickshire.[35][36][32]
111	–	Queensbury	1887–1895	37-foot Self-righting (P&S)	A gift from Herbert Foster of Queensbury in West Yorkshire.[35][31]
6	–	Queensbury (II)	1895–1901	34-foot 4in Self-righting (P&S)	[31]
344	–	Edward and Lucille	1901–1902	34-foot Self-righting (P&S)	[31]
484	–	Queensbury (III)	1902–1918	35-foot Self-righting (P&S)	[31][37]
574	–	Reserve No.6E	1918–1924	35-foot Self-righting (P&S)	Previously Brothers Brickwood at Brighstone Grange [31]
683	–	Herbert Joy	1924–1931	35-foot Self-righting (Single Motor)	This was the first motor boat to serve at Scarborough[31][11] Donated by Alex Joy and named after his brother who drowned in the bay at Scarborough.[38]
742	–	Herbert Joy II	1931–1951	35ft 6in Self-righting motor	[31][10]
879	–	ECJR	1951–1956	35ft 6in Self-righting motor	[31]
792	–	Annie, Ronald and Isabella Forrest	1956–1958	Liverpool	[31]
942	37-01	JG Graves of Sheffield	1958–1978	Oakley	The prototype Oakley Class lifeboat.[31]
979	37-12	Amelia II	1978–1991	Oakley	[31][39]
977	37-10	Charles Fred Grantham	1990–1991	Oakley	(Relief fleet)
1175	12-18	Fanny Victoria Wilkinson and Frank Stubbs	1991–2016	Mersey	Sold to the Chilean rescue service in 2018 and works out of Valparaíso, 75 miles (121 km) to the north west of the capital, Santiago.[40]
1322	13-15	Frederick William Plaxton	2016–	Shannon	Officially unveiled by the Duke of Kent in April 2017[41][42]

Op. No.[b]	Name	In service [30]	Class	Comments
D-68	Unnamed	1965	D-class (Dunlop)
D-85	Unnamed	1966–1967	D-class (RFD PB16)
D-20	Unnamed	1967	D-class (RFD PB16)
D-40	Unnamed	1968–1969	D-class (RFD PB16)
D-183	The Young People of Scarborough	1970–1984	D-class (RFD PB16)
D-304	Unnamed	1984–1992	D-class (RFD PB16)
D-434	John Wesley Hillard	1992–2001	D-class (EA16)
D-560	John Wesley Hillard II	2001–2009	D-class (EA16)
D-724	John Wesley Hillard III	2009–2021	D-class (IB1)	[43]
D-856	John Wesley Hillard IV	2021–	D-class (IB1)	[44][45]

Op. No.[b]	Reg. No.	Type	In service[30]	Comments
T5	IJ 3424	Clayton	1947–1950
T25	UW 3881	FWD Ltd	1949–1955
T42	JXR 933	Case LA	1955–1958
T64	PXF 575	Fowler Challenger III	1958–1967
T62	PLA 698	Fowler Challenger III	1967–1976
T61	PLA 561	Fowler Challenger III	1976–1984
T63	PXF 163	Fowler Challenger III	1984–1988
T106	F760 BUJ	Talus MB-H Crawler	1988–2001
T103	E589 WAW	Talus MB-H Crawler	2001–2015
SC-T10	HF65 HPJ	SLARS (Clayton)	2016–	The Cairns

• List of RNLI stations
• Royal National Lifeboat Institution
• Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats

• Berry, Dave (December 2016). "The Dawn of a New Era for Scarborough RNLI". Scarborough Review. No. 40. Derby: Hold the Front Page. OCLC 1065135198.
• Chrystal, Paul (2012). Lifeboat Stations of North East England; From Sunderland to The Humber, Through Time. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-4456-1376-5.
• Coggins, Denis (1991). Scarborough in Old Photographs. Stroud: Alan Sutton. ISBN 0-86299-932-4.
• Leach, Nicholas (2018). The Lifeboat Service in England; the North East Coast, Station by Station. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-4456-6832-1.
• Theakson, Solomon Wilkinson (1847). Theakston's guide to Scarborough (3 ed.). Scarborough: Theakson. OCLC 26770480.

• Scarborough Lifeboat Station