Peterhead Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | West Pier, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, AB42 1DT |
| Telephone | 01779 473331 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From Peterhead, the most easterly point of mainland Scotland and one of Europe’s great fishing ports, the station runs a Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat. A lifeboat has served here since 1865, and the crews hold one of the finest gallantry records in Scotland — twenty-one medals, including a Gold.
Acts of gallantry off Peterhead were rewarded with Silver Medals even before the town had a lifeboat; on the recommendation of an RNLI inspector, the station was established in 1865, funded by an appeal in a Dundee newspaper. A second station operated from 1911, and over the years the crews built up a remarkable record.
The station has also known loss. On Boxing Day 1914 the No. 2 lifeboat Alexander Tulloch capsized going to the requisitioned trawler HMS Tom Tit, and three of her crew were lost. In 1916 the lifeboat rescued some sixty people one by one, by line, from the Russian steamer Kiev on Rattray Head.
The crowning honour came in the Second World War, when Coxswain John Buchan McLean received the Gold Medal — the first such award in Scotland for over a century. Peterhead now runs the Tamar-class The Misses Robertson of Kintail, the first Tamar placed on service in Scotland.
