Weymouth Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Nothe Parade, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8TX |
| Telephone | 01305 785817 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
One of the busiest stations on the south coast, Weymouth guards the approaches to Portland Harbour and the long shingle of Chesil Beach, covering more than a thousand square miles of the Channel. It runs a Severn-class all-weather lifeboat moored afloat in the harbour and a fast Atlantic 85 inshore boat. A lifeboat has served the town since 1869, and its crews hold a long record of gallantry awards.
An earlier lifeboat had been stationed at nearby Portland between 1826 and 1851. When the Earl of Strafford offered to fund a new boat, the offer was accepted, and on 26 January 1869 the station opened, the town’s first lifeboat, the Agnes Harriet, being named on the sands before a large crowd.
The stone boathouse of 1869 still stands, converted in 1924 as the lifeboat became a ‘kept afloat’ boat moored in the harbour. The waters here are exacting: the tide-race off Portland Bill, the exposed sweep of Chesil Beach and a heavy traffic of shipping and leisure craft have generated many hard services. On 13 October 1944 the lifeboat launched to an American tank landing craft in difficulty off Chesil Beach; two Coastguard men ashore were washed into the sea and drowned during the same emergency.
From 1976 to 1999 Weymouth ran fast Arun-class all-weather lifeboats, and in 2002 the Severn-class Ernest & Mabel arrived, named by her donor in memory of her parents. The station today operates that Severn alongside an Atlantic 85, the two boats answering around a hundred services a year — yachts and motor cruisers disabled offshore, divers and anglers in trouble around the Bill, and swimmers and walkers cut off along the Jurassic Coast.
