Salcombe Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Union Street, Salcombe, Devon, TQ8 8BZ |
| Telephone | 01548 842158 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
At the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary in South Devon, Salcombe runs a Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat moored afloat and a fast Atlantic 85, working a coast guarded by the notorious Salcombe Bar. Established in 1869, the station is forever marked by the lifeboat disaster of 1916, when thirteen of fifteen crew were lost crossing the Bar returning from a service.
A little to the east of Salcombe is Prawle Point, where on 10 December 1868 thirteen people died in the wreck of the Gossamer. The following year a lifeboat station and slipway were opened at South Sands, on land given by the Earl of Devon. In 1878 a second station was established nearby at Hope Cove, funded by the Freemasons of England.
On 27 October 1916, in the middle of the First World War, the lifeboat William and Emma was returning from an abortive call to the Western Lass when she capsized on Salcombe Bar. Thirteen of her crew of fifteen were drowned — one of the worst disasters in RNLI history, devastating for the close-knit town. One of the two survivors, Edwin Distin, went on to become coxswain of the replacement lifeboat.
In 1922 the lifeboat was moved from South Sands to a permanent mooring nearer the town. Coxswain Distin would earn a Silver Medal in 1939 and a Bronze in 1943, a remarkable record for a man who had survived the 1916 capsize. The present Tamar-class lifeboat arrived in 2008, moored near the station off Union Street, and an Atlantic 85 followed in 2018, launched down its own slipway. Together they cover the estuary, the Bar and the cliffs of the South Devon coast.
