Qualla: Appledore Lifeboat Station

Appledore Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RobThinks, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the morning of 28 December 1868, the Bideford Bar was a wall of breaking water. The Austrian barque Pace, bound out to sea, lost the fight and was blown aground. The Appledore lifeboat Hope was hauled along the shore by horses, then launched into seas so heavy that at one moment the boat stood vertical on the face of a wave. Coxswain Joseph Cox got nine people aboard, slammed against the wreck, lost the rudder, and rowed back to shore. He landed the survivors, took a fresh crew, and went out again. The lifeboat capsized. They lost most of the oars. They were ready to try a third time when the falling tide let the remaining sailors walk off the wreck. This is what an Appledore rescue could look like.

Image: RobThinks | CC BY-SA 4.0

Appledore Lifeboat Station: The first lifeboat in a barn

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. Appledore's lifeboat service began with a petition. In August 1824 the recently formed Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, the RNIPLS as the RNLI was then known, was asked to provide a boat for the Bideford area. The Volunteer arrived in Februa...

Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Appledore Lifeboat Station: What 1868 cost them

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sean_the_Spook (talk) (Uploads), CC BY-SA 3.0. December 28, 1868, the day of the Pace, is the date Appledore still tells stories about. Joseph Cox, the injured coxswain, received the RNLI silver medal. He, his son Joseph Cox Junior, and John Kelly received Silver Crosses of Merit from the Emperor of Austria for the Austrian c...

Image: Sean_the_Spook (talk) (Uploads) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Appledore Lifeboat Station: The boys with wristwatches

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two of Appledore's most quietly extraordinary moments belong to children. On 16 August 1955, Robert Cann was ten years old and had just rowed to the lifeboat station when he heard two young swimmers shouting for help. He took his boat out again, got the boys aboard, and because o...

Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Appledore Lifeboat Station: Boats that fit the bar

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Bideford Bar is shallow, the estuary current strong, and lifeboats stationed at Appledore have always had to be built for it. By 1846 the volunteers had raised £125 for a larger boat, the Petrel, which arrived in October 1847. It turned out too heavy for head-on heavy seas an...

Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Appledore Lifeboat Station: Still launching

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0. An inshore lifeboat has been stationed at Appledore since 1972, kept in the boathouse with the boarding boat. The old crew room was added at first-floor level in 1980, then demolished in 2000, and a new station opened in 2001. The station today operates a Tamar-class all-weather ...

Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 4.0