Port Erin Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Slipway |
| Address | Breakwater Road, Port Erin, Isle of Man, IM9 6JF |
| Telephone | 01624 832154 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
In a sheltered bay on the south-west of the Isle of Man, beneath Bradda Head, Port Erin runs a fast Atlantic 85 launched down one of the steepest slipways in the fleet. A lifeboat has served here since 1883.
Following requests from local residents, the RNLI established a station at Port Erin in 1883. The first lifeboat, the Ann and Mary of Manchester, was drawn the length of the island from Douglas by eight horses in grand procession, with a brass band in attendance, and funded from the legacy of Richard Roberts of Manchester. A boathouse followed in 1884.
For decades Port Erin ran successive pulling, then motor, all-weather lifeboats. Coxswain Alfred Dennis Maddrell won the Bronze Medal in 1970 for the service to the coaster Moonlight, which foundered off Bradda Head in a south-westerly gale.
The present station, built in 1925, has a slipway thought to be one of the steepest launch slopes anywhere. After a period running an Atlantic inshore lifeboat, in 2025 Port Erin received a new Atlantic 85, the Neil Crowe, funded by the Gough Ritchie Trust, to continue covering the island’s south-western coast and the approaches to the Calf of Man.
