Abersoch inshore lifeboat station

link_to_welsh_translationlink_to_french_translation Abersoch lifeboat station, Min-y-Don

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution established a lifeboat station at Abersoch in 1869, when the boat house cost £170 to build. Just a year later, the station received its first silver medal – awarded to the secretary, Rev Owen Lloyd Williams, for his part in rescuing 13 men abersoch_lifeboat_station.from the Quebec-built ship Kenilworth. The ship had sailed from New Orleans carrying cotton and tobacco when it struck rocks in January 1870. It took the lifeboat three hours to find the wreck in darkness, and the rough seas made the rescue dangerous.

The Rev Williams received another silver medal in 1879 for his “intrepid services” in both this lifeboat and the one at Porthdinllaen, on the opposite side of the Llŷn Peninsula.

The upper photo (courtesy of the RNLI) was taken between 1869 and 1892 and shows the boathouse and the self-righting lifeboat Mabel Louisa on the carriage which transported the boat to the sea and back.

The building which is known locally as the old lifeboat station was erected in 1894, with its slipway, for £1,350. The lower photo (courtesy of the RNLI) was taken c.1894 and shows crew members with the lifeboat ON335 Oldham. This station closed in 1931.

abersoch_lifeboat_c1894In 1965 an inshore lifeboat station was established at Abersoch, with a D-class lifeboat. A new boathouse was built in 1994, with space for the lifeboat as well as its trolley and the tractor which pulls it to the sea for launching. This continued the tradition, started in 1978, of residents of the West Midlands funding lifeboats at Abersoch. In 2015 a new Atlantic 85 boat, Peter and Ann Setten, arrived at the station, funded by the bequest of Ann Setten of Shropshire.

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 7AG    View Location Map

Other SHIPWRECK HiPoints in this region:
Dinas Dinlle – ex-army amphibious vehicle wrecked as Caernarfon man tried to sail it to Australia
Criccieth lifeboat station - men who had clung all night to remains of a wrecked barque were rescued in 1885

RNLI on HistoryPoints.org

RNLI website

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FOOTNOTES
: More Abersoch rescues

1972 - Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to helmsman Barrie McGill and crew member Michael Bosley after the Abersoch and Pwllheli lifeboats rescued two men by breeches buoy from rocks at Cilan Head. This method employs a pair of large trousers (breeches) suspended from a cable, along which the person in the breeches is pulled to safety.

1977 - Framed Letters of Thanks to Barrie McGill and crew members N Loughlin and M Davies for rescuing a climber who had fallen 10 metres into the sea.

2001 - Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to helmsman Richard Hughes and crew member Simon Harris for rescuing a girl and her dog from a rock, in darkness and rough seas, in 2000.