Exmouth Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | SLARS |
| Address | Queen's Drive, Exmouth, Devon, EX8 2AY |
| Telephone | 01395 263579 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
At the mouth of the Exe Estuary on the east Devon coast, Exmouth runs a Shannon-class all-weather lifeboat and a D-class inshore boat from a modern station near Maer Rocks. A lifeboat first served the town in 1803, with one of the original Greathead boats; after a lapse the RNLI re-established the station in 1858, and its crews have earned seven gallantry medals over two centuries of service.
Exmouth received its first lifeboat in 1803 — one of the original boats built by Henry Greathead, builder of the first purpose-built lifeboat. The station appears to have lapsed for some years before the RNLI re-established it in 1858; in 1859 a Peake-type lifeboat, the Victoria, was provided and housed in a new boathouse, the cost of both met by Lady Rolle of Bicton.
A first motor lifeboat arrived in 1933, and a tractor was introduced to speed the boat across the beach. From the 1950s the lifeboat was kept afloat near the docks, the crew ferried out by a boarding boat — a workable arrangement, but limited at low water. The station has known tragedy too: crew member William Carder lost his life during a service on Christmas Day 1956.
In 2009 a new station was completed at Maer Rocks, allowing both the all-weather and inshore boats to launch at any state of tide, and in 2014 the station received a 25-knot Shannon-class lifeboat with its launch-and-recovery system. Today the Shannon and the D-class cover the Exe Estuary and the wider Lyme Bay coast, answering yachts and motor cruisers offshore as well as swimmers, paddleboarders and small craft caught by the fast tides over the estuary’s shifting sandbanks.
