Porthdinllaen lifeboat station

link_to_welsh_translationlink_to_french_translationPorthdinllaen lifeboat station

The original lifeboat house and slipway at Porthdinllaen, on the Llŷn Peinsula, were constructed when the RNLI established a station here in 1864. The facilities were porthdinllaen_lifeboat_station.upgraded in 1888 and 1925, when the slipway was lengthened.

The photos (courtesy of the RNLI) show the station and slipway with the boat Barbara Fleming (stationed here 1902-1926), and the station’s first motor lifeboat, ON695 M.O.Y.E. (1926-1949).

In February 1933 the lifeboat crew helped to beach two RAF seaplanes which had landed nearby for shelter during a blizzard. The storm later damaged both aircraft.

On 20 September 1975, coxswain Griffith J Jones was on leave when the lifeboat was called out to search for two people lost from a yacht’s tender in gale force winds. By sheer luck, a car turned by the shore and its headlights illuminated the water for just long enough for Griffith to notice a man clinging to a rock near the boathouse. He and his son Eric, aged 14, went out into the rough sea in the station’s boarding boat and rescued the man, a feat of courage which earned dad a Bronze Medal and his son an inscribed wristwatch.

porthdinllaen_lifeboatThe RNLI awarded crew member Glyn Roberts a Bronze Medal in 1977 and the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to second coxswain Scott for rescuing a boy trapped 24 metres (80ft) up a cliff at Porth-y-Nant. They launched the lifeboat shortly before midnight and used a boarding boat to cross from the lifeboat to the rocky shore, in a swell of over 2.4 metres (8ft). Glyn then scaled the cliff face to bring the boy to safety. A second boy was rescued from the beach.

A new £9.8m boathouse was completed in 2014, housing the Tamar-class lifeboat John D Spicer. Buildings materials had been transported to the site by sea, as road access was poor.

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: LL53 6DB    View Location Map

RNLI on HistoryPoints.org

RNLI website 

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FOOTNOTES: Other Porthdinllaen rescues

1951 - A Silver Medal for second coxswain William Dop for rescuing three people from a yacht near Porth Oer. In a rough sea, he took the lifeboat between the yacht and the rocks for three lifeboat crew to jump aboard. He returned to the station nearly six hours after launching.

1981 - A Bronze Medal for second coxswain Michael Massarelli for rescuing two men whose inflatable dinghy had capsized.