Qualla: Skateraw Lifeboat Station

Skateraw Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jennifer Petrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Skateraw lifeboat opened too late to save the Alfred Erlandsen. On 17 October 1907 the Danish steamer struck Ebbscar Rock off St Abbs, 600 yards from shore, with 12 crew, the captain and his wife aboard. By the time the Skateraw boat reached the wreck, the ship had broken its back and everyone was drowned. The only survivor was a dog, washed up on the beach the next day. The horror of that night was what built the station in the first place: the RNLI committee, watching ship after ship founder on this exposed stretch of East Lothian coast, decided in 1907 to put a second boat 4.2 nautical miles east of Dunbar, where the Sarah Kay was launched, named, and committed to its 36-year service.

Image: Jennifer Petrie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Skateraw Lifeboat Station: Why Skateraw

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jennifer Petrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Dunbar lifeboat was the official station, but getting its boat overland to where wrecks usually happened, further east along the cliffs and reefs of the open coast, took too long. By the time the Dunbar crew had hauled their carriage out to Skateraw or Cockburnspath, the ship...

Image: Jennifer Petrie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Skateraw Lifeboat Station: The Naval Barge

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jennifer Petrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 7 July 1915, in gale-force conditions, a naval barge ran aground four miles east of Cockburnspath. The Sarah Kay launched shortly after one in the afternoon and pulled out into seas that swept over her continuously. The nine men aboard the barge could not be reached alongside,...

Image: Jennifer Petrie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Skateraw Lifeboat Station: Closure and Cobbles

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jennifer Petrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. By the 1930s, motor lifeboats had been placed at all the flanking stations: Dunbar, Eyemouth, St Abbs. Skateraw remained pulling-and-sailing, increasingly outclassed. In 1943 the RNLI withdrew the Sarah Kay (Pulling and Sailing) and closed the station. The boat went south to Skeg...

Image: Jennifer Petrie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Skateraw Lifeboat Station: Where the Lifeboat Still Lives

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jennifer Petrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Dunbar lifeboat continued but with an irony attached. The modern fast-response lifeboat is too large to operate from Dunbar Harbour at low water. Since 1995, when the Dunbar crew need to launch, they drive the five miles down the coast to Skateraw Bay, where their boat is moo...

Image: Jennifer Petrie | CC BY-SA 2.0