Torbay Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Berry Head Road, Brixham, Devon, TQ5 9AF |
| Telephone | 01803 853136 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Working from Brixham beneath Berry Head, Torbay is one of the RNLI’s busiest stations, running a Severn-class all-weather lifeboat moored afloat and a D-class inshore boat over a wide sweep of South Devon coast. Established at Brixham in 1866 after a storm that claimed almost a hundred lives in Tor Bay, the station has one of the strongest gallantry records in the fleet, with twenty-six medals.
The station’s origins lie in a fierce north-easterly gale on 10–11 January 1866, when a fleet of merchant ships sheltering in Tor Bay was devastated and close to a hundred lives were lost. In response the RNLI established Brixham Lifeboat Station later that year. A second station was opened across the bay at Torquay in 1876, closing in 1923 when a motor lifeboat was placed at Brixham.
In 1924 the Brixham station was renamed Torbay. Its boats have worked some of the busiest and most exposed water on the south coast, off Berry Head and Start Point and across Lyme Bay, and the station has been struck by danger of its own: on 28 January 1920 the lifeboat capsized on service in an easterly gale but righted herself, the whole crew scrambling back aboard without loss of life.
An inshore lifeboat was added in 1964, and the present Severn-class lifeboat lies afloat on a pontoon berth, working alongside the D-class housed at the station. Torbay answers everything from shipping and large yachts in trouble well offshore to divers, anglers and small craft close in — one of the reasons its crews have amassed so many awards over more than a century and a half of service.
