Angle Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Slipway |
| Address | Point Angle, Angle, Pembrokeshire, SA71 5AT |
| Telephone | 01646 641204 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
At the southern side of the entrance to the Milford Haven Waterway, Angle runs a slipway-launched Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat, guarding one of the great natural harbours of Britain and the rocky Pembrokeshire coast around it. A lifeboat has served here since 1868, and the station’s crews hold twelve gallantry medals — including those for the famous ‘whisky ship’ rescue of 1894.
A lifeboat was first stationed at Angle in 1868, on the southern side of the entrance to the Milford Haven Waterway; until 1892 the station was called Milford. Three Silver Medals had already been awarded for local rescues before the station existed. The waters here — the approaches to a great commercial harbour, ringed by rocks and islands — have wrecked many ships.
The station’s most celebrated service came on 30 January 1894, when the barque Loch Shiel, bound from Glasgow with a cargo of whisky and beer, ran onto rocks at Thorn Island. Honorary Secretary R. W. Mirehouse and crew members E. Bull and T. Rees crawled along a narrow cliff ledge in pitch dark and hauled up by rope 27 people who had taken refuge on the rocks below, six others having already been saved; all three received the Silver Medal.
Later services brought further medals to Coxswain James Watkins — a Bronze for the SS Molesey in 1929 and a Silver for the MV Thor in 1944. Angle now runs the Tamar-class Mark Mason, launched down a slipway, covering the Haven’s shipping and the Pembrokeshire coast.
