St Helier Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Albert Quay, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, JE2 3NE |
| Telephone | 01534 724173 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From Albert Quay in the capital of Jersey, St Helier provides the all-weather lifeboat cover for the largest of the Channel Islands, running a Tamar-class boat moored afloat and a fast Atlantic 85. The States of Jersey kept a lifeboat here from 1830, and the RNLI took over in 1884; the station holds one of the strongest gallantry records in the islands, headed by a celebrated gold-medal service of 1949.
Jersey has had a lifeboat since 1830, when the States of Jersey kept a boat near Havre des Pas, south-east of St Helier. The forerunner of the RNLI had already recognised gallantry in the island’s waters: in January 1825 Gold Medals went to three members of the De St Croix family, and a Silver Medal to Philip Nicolle, for saving thirteen people from the cutter Fanny.
The RNLI took over the St Helier station in 1884, on the closure of the Alderney station, where a crew had become hard to find. During the German occupation of 1940–45 the station was outside RNLI control; it was reported that the lifeboat, manned by a German crew, rescued 35 people. In 1948 the first lifeboat with a deck cabin was sent to the station and moored in the harbour.
The station moved to its present site on Albert Quay in 1993. A Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat, the George Sullivan, was placed on service in 2009, and the Atlantic 85 The Spirit of St Helier followed in 2022, christened by a call-out to a broken-down vessel near the harbour entrance moments after her sea trial. Between them the two boats cover the whole coast of Jersey and its dangerous offshore reefs — the Minquiers, the Écréhous and the tide-swept rocks of the Demie de Pas.
