Penlee Lifeboat Station
Encyclopedia
Penlee Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....

 (RNLI) search and rescue operations for Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay is a large, sweeping bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom, stretching from the Lizard Point to Gwennap Head on the eastern side of the Land's End peninsula. Towards the middle of the bay is St Michael's Mount...

 in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, United Kingdom. The lifeboat
Lifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...

 station was opened at Penlee Point in Mousehole
Mousehole
Mousehole is a village and fishing port in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately 2½ miles south of Penzance on the shore of Mount's Bay.The village is in the civil parish of Penzance...

 in 1913 but was moved to Newlyn
Newlyn
Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...

 in 1983. The station is remembered for the loss of the entire crew of the Solomon Browne on 19 December 1981
Penlee lifeboat disaster
The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall, in England, UK. The Penlee Lifeboat went to the aid of the coaster Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas...

.

Since 2003 it has operated a all weather boat (ALB) and an inshore lifeboat (ILB).

History

The first lifeboat in Cornwall was purchased for Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...

 in 1803. Part of its cost was paid by Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's, also known as Lloyd's of London, is a British insurance and reinsurance market. It serves as a partially mutualised marketplace where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members, whether individuals or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk...

 but in 1812, it was sold without ever being used in service and was not replaced. The next lifeboat in Mount's Bay was again stationed at Penzance from 1826 to 1828 by the recently formed Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck. The boat was kept at several different places around the town until a boathouse was built in 1856, for £88, by the RNLI (as the Institution was now known). The boathouse cost £88 and was, at what is now the entrance to the railway station
Penzance railway station
Penzance railway station serves the town of Penzance, Cornwall, UK. The station is the western terminus of the Cornish Main Line from London Paddington station. The current journey time to or from London is about five hours....

. Once tidal there is now a road and car park between the site and the water's edge. There was local controversy when the boat did not launch on several occasions in 1862, and as a consequence, there was a proposal to move the lifeboat to Newlyn
Newlyn
Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...

 which would have been unpopular with the residents of Penzance. As a compromise the lifeboat station moved to Wherrytown
Wherrytown
Wherrytown is a small settlement in west Cornwall, United Kingdom, situated between Newlyn and Penzance on the east side of the Larigan River. The village bore the brunt of the Ash Wednesday storm on 7 March 1962 with most of the buildings destroyed along with nearly one mile of the seafront from...

 where a new timber lifeboat house was opened in 1867 at the bottom of Alexandra Road, near the Coastguard Station. A decision was made to move back to Penzance harbour and in 1884 a new boathouse built of Lamorna
Lamorna
Lamorna is a fishing village and cove in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated on the Penwith peninsula approximately four miles south of Penzance.-Newlyn School of Art and the Lamorna Colony:...

 granite at a cost of £575–6s–6d. This was paid for by a £1000 gift from Henry Martn Harvey of Hexworthy
Hexworthy
Hexworthy is a hamlet on Dartmoor, in Devon, England. It lies on the West Dart River a mile upstream from Dartmeet. Historically in the parish of Lydford, since 1987 it has been in the civil parish of Dartmoor Forest....

, which also paid for a new lifeboat (Dora) and carriage. This was in use until 1917 and still stands at the bottom of Jennings Street.

In 1908, the Penzance Lifeboat Elizabeth and Blanche was moved to Newlyn
Newlyn
Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...

 where it was kept under a tarpaulin
Tarpaulin
A tarpaulin, colloquially tarp, is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with urethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. In some places such as Australia, and in military slang, a tarp may be known as a...

 beside the harbour. This arrangement lasted for five years until a new boathouse was built at Penlee Point
Penlee Point, Mousehole
Penlee Point is a promontory near the Cornish coastal fishing village of Mousehole. It was the launching point of the Penlee lifeboat, which was lost in the disaster of 1981....

 south of Newlyn on the outskirts of Mousehole
Mousehole
Mousehole is a village and fishing port in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately 2½ miles south of Penzance on the shore of Mount's Bay.The village is in the civil parish of Penzance...

. This was elevated a little above the water and the lifeboat could be launched down a slipway into open water at all states of the tide. The old 'pulling and sailing' lifeboat was replaced by one with a motor in 1922. This station was in use until 1983 when a larger, faster lifeboat was moored at a berth in Newlyn harbour, although the station continues to be called 'Penlee'.

In 1991, a ILB was stationed on the opposite side of Mount's Bay at Marazion
Marazion
Marazion is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated on the shore of Mount's Bay, two miles east of Penzance and one mile east of Long Rock.St Michael's Mount is half-a-mile offshore from Marazion...

 (although it was actually kept on St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount is a tidal island located off the Mount's Bay coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a civil parish and is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water....

). It proved difficult to find sufficient volunteer crews in this small village so in 2001 the station was closed and a larger B Class
Atlantic 75 class lifeboat
B-Class lifeboats serve the shores of the UK as a part of the RNLI inshore fleet.The Atlantic 75 is the second generation Rigid Inflatable Boat in the B-Class series, developed from the Atlantic 21...

 boat was added to the complement at Penlee, with a new boathouse built to house it. The following year a new pontoon was built in Newlyn harbour so that crews could board the ALB more easily.

Solomon Browne

The Solomon Browne was a wooden 47 feet (14.3 m) long lifeboat built in 1960 and stationed at Penlee for its entire 21 years of service. It had two engines and was capable of 9 knots (17.6 km/h).

On 19 December 1981 it was launched to go to the aid of the MV Union Star after its engines failed 8 miles (12.9 km) east of the Wolf Rock
Wolf Rock, Cornwall
Wolf Rock is a treacherous rock located east of St Mary's, Isles of Scilly and southwest of Land's End, in Cornwall, United Kingdom. A lighthouse, known as the Wolf Rock Lighthouse, was built on the rock by James Walker from 1861 to 1869; it entered service in January 1870.The lighthouse is in...

. Winds were gusting at up to 90 kn (109.6 mph; 176.4 km/h) – hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort scale
Beaufort scale
The Beaufort Scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.-History:...

 – and whipping up waves 60 feet (18.3 m) high. On board was a crew of five and three members of the captain's family. A helicopter had been unable to rescue them and so the lifeboat with its crew of eight men went alongside. After several attempts four people managed to jump across; the captain's family and one of the men were apparently safe. The lifeboat radioed that 'we’ve got four off'; that was the last ever heard from anyone on either vessel.

Lifeboats were summoned from , and to try to help their colleagues from Penlee. The Sennen Cove Lifeboat found it impossible to make headway round Land's End
Land's End
Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....

. The Lizard Lifeboat found a serious hole in its hull when it finally returned to its slipway after a fruitless search. Wreckage from the Solomon Browne was found along the shore, and the Union Star lay capsized onto the rocks west of Tater Du Lighthouse
Tater Du Lighthouse
Tater Du Lighthouse is Cornwall's most recently built lighthouse. The construction of the lighthouse came out of the tragedy of losing a small Spanish coaster called the Juan Ferrer on the 23rd of October 1963, on the nearby Boscawen Point, the vessel capsized with the loss of 11 lives...

. Some, but not all, of the 16 bodies were eventually recovered.

Within a day of the disaster enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew. Coxswain Trevelyan Richards was posthumously awarded the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's gold medal, while the remainder of the crew were all posthumously awarded bronze medals. The station itself was awarded a gold medal service plaque. The disaster prompted a massive public appeal for the benefit of the village of Mousehole which raised over £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

3 million (£ as of ), although there was an outcry when the government tried to tax the donations.

Charlie Greenhaugh, one of the lifeboatmen who was killed, had turned on the Christmas lights
Illuminations (festival)
Illuminations are secular Autumn festivals of electric light held in several English cities, towns and villages, in particular:*Blackpool *Matlock Bath*Mousehole*Walsall.-Blackpool Illuminations:...

 in Mousehole just two nights before the disaster. After the storm the lights were left off but three days later his widow, Mary, asked for them to be repaired and lit again. The village has been lit up each December since then, but on the anniversary of the disaster they are turned off at 8:00 pm for an hour as an act of remembrance.

Other service awards

RNLI medals are not always awarded posthumously, but they are only awarded for exceptional courage and skill. Indeed, Trevelyan Richards had been awarded a bronze medal for a service that he led in January 1975. The Solomon Browne had been launched into a Force 12 hurricane when it was reported that the 13 crew members of the MV Lovat had abandoned ship 24 miles (38.6 km) south west of Lizard Point
Lizard Point, Cornwall
Lizard Point in Cornwall is at the southern tip of the Lizard Peninsula. It is situated half-a-mile south of Lizard village in the civil parish of Landewednack and approximately 11 miles southeast of Helston....

. A helicopter saved two people but the rest were drowned. The lifeboat had to drop the safety rails around its deck so that the bodies could be hauled out of the sea, all while the boat was rolling side-to-side 60˚ and the seas were washing across the boat. They were at sea for nearly eight hours.

In 1936, Coxswain Frank Blewitt was awarded a bronze medal for rescuing the crew of nine from the SS Taycraig after it ran aground in Mount's Bay during a gale. Coxswain Edwin Madron received a silver medal and Mechanic Johny Drew a bronze medal for another exceptional service in April 1947. They took the W and S out into 30 feet (9.1 m) seas to rescue eight people from which ran aground on the way to the breakers yard after it had been retired at the end of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

On 16 December 1994, the Mabel Alice and the Sennen Cove Lifeboat were launched to the aid of the Julian Paul which was adrift in a storm the west of the Longships
Longships
Longships is the name given to a group of rocky islets situated approximately 1 miles west of Land's End, Cornwall, United Kingdom....

. The fishing boat's propeller had been fouled and she was towed back to Newlyn harbour. Neil Brockman, the Coxswain/Mechanic of the Penlee Lifeboat was awarded a bronze medal for his seamanship, leadership and meritorious conduct, as was Terry George, his counterpart from Sennen Cove.

Description

The old boathouse at Penlee Point is built into the cliffs below the Newlyn to Mousehole road. A single story building with a short slipway launched boats into Mount's Bay facing St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount is a tidal island located off the Mount's Bay coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a civil parish and is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water....

. Although no boat is stationed here, it is still maintained and a small memorial garden has been created on the north side of the boathouse where people can sit and remember the crew of the Solomon Browne.

The station at Newlyn harbour comprises two buildings. The main one, which houses the crew facilities, workshop, and fund-raising gift shop, is a single story masonry structure with a tile roof. The ALB berth is alongside a modern pontoon that is accessed by a metal truss walkway. A separate masonry and corrugated metal boathouse contains the ILB which is launched from a shallow slipway by its entrance.

Area of operation

The RNLI aims to reach any casualty up to 50 miles (80.5 km) from its stations, and within two hours in good weather. To do this Penlee's lifeboat has an operating range of 250 nautical miles (463 km) and a top speed of 25 knots (49 km/h). Adjacent lifeboats are at to the east, and to the west.

Current fleet

17-36 (ON 1265) Ivan Ellen (on station 2003) ILB B-787 Paul Alexander (on station 2002)

Former lifeboats

'ON' is the RNLI's sequential Official Number; 'Op. No.' is the operational number painted onto the boat.

Pulling and sailing lifeboats

ON Name Built At Penzance Class Comments
1803 1803–1812 North Country 27 feet (8.2 m) long, the site of lifeboat house is now the entrance to the railway station carpark
1825 1826–1828 24 feet (7.3 m) long
1853 1853–1856 new lifeboat house built adjacent to the railway station in 1856
1853 1856–1860
Alexandra 1860 1860–1862 moved to Wherrytown
Wherrytown
Wherrytown is a small settlement in west Cornwall, United Kingdom, situated between Newlyn and Penzance on the east side of the Larigan River. The village bore the brunt of the Ash Wednesday storm on 7 March 1962 with most of the buildings destroyed along with nearly one mile of the seafront from...

 c.1862 after failure to launch to the aid of the Saint Prospere
ON Name Built At Wherrytown Class Comments
Alexandra 1860 1862–1865 c.1862
Richard Lewis 1865 1865–1884 new timber lifeboat house opened in 1867
ON Name Built At Penzance Class Comments
49 Dora 1884 1884–1895 sold 1895 and broken up in Ireland 1980; new lifeboat house opened in 1885 at Penzance Harbour
378 Elizabeth and Blanche (1) 1895 1895–1899
424 Elizabeth and Blanche (2) 1899 1899–1908 to Newlyn in 1908
341 Cape of Good Hope 1892 1908–1912 Penzance became a reserve station
386 Janet Hoyle 1912 1912–1917 the lifeboat house at the bottom of Jennings Street is still extant.
ON Name Built At Newlyn Class Comments
424 Elizabeth and Blanche (2) 1899 1908–1913 to Penlee in 1913
ON Name Built At Penlee Class Comments
424 Elizabeth and Blanche (2) 1899 1913–1922 first launch on 25 October 1913, sold 1922 and last reported in use as a yacht at Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

 in 1969

Motor lifeboats

ON Op. No. Name Built At Penlee Class Comments
671 The Brothers 1922 1922–1931 single engine, transferred to and sold in 1952; reported working as a dive support boat at Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 in 2007
736 W and S 1930 1930–1960 Watson twin engines, reported being converted to a pleasure boat at Falmouth in 2008
954 Solomon Browne
Penlee lifeboat disaster
The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall, in England, UK. The Penlee Lifeboat went to the aid of the coaster Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas...

1960 1960–1981 Watson wrecked in service
Charles H. Battett 1981 Clyde relief lifeboat
866 Charles Henry Ashley 1949 1981–1982 Watson new to Porthdinllaen
Porthdinllaen
Porthdinllaen , is a small coastal village in the Dwyfor locality on the Llŷn Peninsula within Gwynedd, North Wales, previously in Caernarfonshire. It is near the larger village of Morfa Nefyn....

, transferred to , sold 1986 and last reported as pleasure boat Charles Ashley in 2008
926 Guy and Clare Hunter 1954 1982–1983 Watson previously at and , transferred on to ; sold in 1988 and reported working as a pleasure boat at Donaghadee
Donaghadee
Donaghadee is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about east of Belfast and about six miles south east of Bangor. It had a population of 6,470 people in the 2001 Census...

 in 2008
ON Op. No. Name Built At Newlyn Class Comments
1085 52-24 Mabel Alice 1982 1983–2003 sold in 2004 and reported working at Portishead
Portishead, Somerset
Portishead is a coastal town on the Severn Estuary within the unitary authority of North Somerset, which falls within the ceremonial county of Somerset England. It has a population of 22,000, an increase of over 3,000 since the 2001 census, with a growth rate of 40 per cent, considerably in excess...

 in 2008
1086 52-25 AJR & LG Uridge 1983 2003–2003 Arun sold for further use as lifeboat Hebe at Kemi
Kemi
Kemi is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio. It was founded in 1869 by royal decree, because of its proximity to a deep water harbour....

, Finland
1265 Ivan Ellen 2003–present

Inshore lifeboats

Op. No. Name Built At Penlee Class Type
B-753 City of Bradford V 1999 2001–2002 B

External links

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