Barry Dock lifeboat station

link_to_french_translationBarry Dock lifeboat station, Barry Island

barry_dock_lifeboat_prince_david_1922The lifeboat house and slipway at Barry Dock were built at a cost of £2,300 in 1901. Six years later, the RNLI awarded a gold medal to Daniel Rees and silver medal to Ivor Rees for a rescue service to a yacht. D Morgan Rees received the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum, and a Special Letter of Thanks was sent to Harold M Lloyd for noticing the accident and acting promptly.

The old photos, courtesy of the RNLI, show the station’s second lifeboat, Prince David, in 1922 (its first year at Barry Dock) and the slipway with the third lifeboat, Rachel and Mary Evans (here from 1937 to 1968).

In 1914 pilot’s apprentice Daniel P Davies received a silver medal for rescuing two men from a ketch. He rowed in a tiny boat to the ketch, putting himself at considerable risk.

In 1920 the lifeboat house and slipway were adapted for a new lifeboat.

barry_lifeboat_station_with_rachel_and_mary_evansIn 1935 the lifeboat rescued the crew from the French schooner Goeland, which hit the rocks and began to break up less than a minute after the last sailor had been removed. For this hazardous rescue, the RNLI awarded a silver medal to the acting coxswain Archibald C Jones, and bronze medals to crew members Stanley Alexander, Thomas Alexander, William Cook, Henry Hobbs, Henry Housden, Frederick Searle, and Hewitt Swarts.

Coxswain David Lewis received a bronze medal in 1941 for the rescue of the 10 crew members of a small steamer during a gale. 

In 1965 coxswain Frederick Swarts, who was working on the lifeboat in the boathouse, fell to the concrete floor. He died later of his injuries. The RNLI paid his widow a pension.

In 2003 Ted Powell, the station’s honorary secretary, received the MBE honour.

The lifeboat service in the UK is provided not by government but by the RNLI, a charity which relies on donations from the public. Since it was established in 1824, the RNLI is estimated to have saved c.140,000 lives. It employs some crew members but most, 40,000 in total, are volunteers who leave their work, families or beds whenever their lifeboat is needed.

Postcode: CF62 5QS    View Location Map

RNLI website

RNLI on HistoryPoints.org

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