Criccieth lifeboat station, Lon Felin, Criccieth

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Criccieth lifeboat station was established in 1853 by the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society. It is unclear whether this was at Porthmadog or Criccieth, but after the RNLI took over all the SFMRBS stations in 1854 the lifeboat was based at Criccieth. Silver medals for bravery had been awarded in 1845 to four local men for aiding an American ship called Glendower.

criccieth_lifeboat_caroline,The photos, courtesy of the RNLI, show the lifeboat Caroline, based at Criccieth 1886-1910, and a view of the bay at around the same time, with the old lifeboat station and slipway near the centre of the picture.

In 1885, the crew rescued seven sailors who were clinging to the remains of the barque Spanker several hours after it was wrecked near Harlech. The lifeboat had waited several hours on the rough sea for daybreak.

The station continued to be known as the “Portmadoc” station until 1892, when it was renamed Criccieth station. In the same year the boathouse was substantially rebuilt at a cost of £600 and this is still used today. In 1894 sound signals were used for the first time to summon the crew, who had previously been called out by messenger.

In 1910, four members of the lifeboat crew were washed overboard during two launches to fishing smacks. All were safely recovered. See the Footnotes below for details of other rescues.

criccieth_old_lifeboat_stationThe station at Criccieth closed in 1931, when the new motor lifeboat at Pwllheli was judged to provide enough local cover for the northern part of Cardigan Bay. Following a tragedy in which five people - including four schoolboys - drowned off Criccieth in September 1951, the station was reopened in 1953 to provide more immediate cover for the area. You can read about the memorial to the drowned boys here.

An inshore lifeboat was sent to the station in 1967 and the all-weather boat was withdrawn at the end of March 1968. Progressively larger inshore lifeboats were placed at Criccieth in 1983, 1993, 1994 and 2007.

In 2009-10 the RNLI trialled a small inflatable Arancia inshore boat, used by beach lifeguards, at Criccieth to test whether they would overcome problems encountered by the station’s Atlantic 85 in the shallow waters of the Dwyryd and Glaslyn estuaries. This arrangement was made permanent in November 2010 with Criccieth being the first RNLI lifeboat station to operate an Arancia IRB.

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: LL52 0DN    View Location Map

RNLI website

RNLI on HistoryPoints.org

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FOOTNOTES:
More Criccieth rescues

1856 - Silver medal to John Roberts for rescuing four crew from a brig which had run aground near Harlech.
1881 - Two lifeboat crew were injured when the lifeboat was damaged while assisting a barque.
1977 - Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to helmsman James Owen and crew members Kenneth Roberts and Robert Williams for rescuing four people from a yacht.
1994 - Helmsman William Walker-Jones received a Framed Letter of Thanks for rescuing two people from a yacht, on his first service as an inshore lifeboat helmsman.
2000 - Letter of appreciation from the RNLI’s director to helmsman Kevin Owen for rescuing an injured child from the foot of a cliff, which involved crossing Porthmadog Bar twice in gales and against an ebb tide.