Qualla: Holy Island Lifeboat Station

Holy Island Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0. A century and a half before the RNLI existed, a Bishop of Durham left money in trust for the poor of Northumberland, and that money eventually became a lifeboat. In September 1802 a 31-foot rescue boat built by Henry Greathead was delivered to Bamburgh Castle, and the following year it was hauled across the causeway to Holy Island, becoming one of the earliest lifeboat stations in the world. For the next 166 years, crews of fishermen and farmers ran toward storms that everyone else was running from, and brought sailors home alive when they could.

Image: Ian Capper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Holy Island Lifeboat Station: The Crewe Trustees

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0. Nathaniel Crewe, Bishop of Durham, died in 1721 leaving a charity that would still be giving away money three hundred years later. By 1802 the Trustees had decided that one of the things Northumberland needed was a lifeboat, and they ordered one from Henry Greathead, the South Sh...

Image: Ian Capper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Holy Island Lifeboat Station: The Gallant Master Joy

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 30 October 1825 the sloop John and Jessie wrecked on Parton Stell in a violent gale. Six people were swept away at once, including the master and four young women. George Joy, master of the Revenue cutter Mermaid, arrived to find a hundred spectators standing on the shore, ref...

Image: Ian Capper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Holy Island Lifeboat Station: Grace Darling

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0. By 1884 the Holy Island boathouse needed a new lifeboat, and the late Miss Ann Egdell of Alnwick had left money in her will to pay for one. The 34-foot self-righting boat was named Grace Darling - after the lighthouse-keeper's daughter from the Farne Islands, who in 1838 had rowe...

Image: Ian Capper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Holy Island Lifeboat Station: Storm of 1890

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 6 November 1890 a hurricane raked the Northumbrian coast and the No. 2 station at Ross Links launched its lifeboat - for the only time in its history - to help the schooner Flower of Ross. The boat was hammered. By the time they reached the schooner the lifeboat was badly dama...

Image: Ian Capper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Holy Island Lifeboat Station: What Remains

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0. The boathouses are still there. The tidal causeway still floods twice a day, cutting Lindisfarne off from the Northumbrian coast on a schedule the moon writes. Modern lifeboat coverage in this stretch of water now comes from Seahouses, a few miles to the south, where an Atlantic ...

Image: Ian Capper | CC BY-SA 2.0