Qualla: Ballywalter Lifeboat Station

Ballywalter Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. On Boxing Day, December 26, 1868, Coxswain Robert Boyd took the Ballywalter lifeboat out for an exercise drill. The boat was new, only two years on station, a 32-foot self-righting design with twin masts and ten oars. In the swirl of a strong wind that afternoon, the boat was over-pressed with sail and capsized, throwing every crew member into the December sea. The lifeboat did exactly what it was built to do, righting itself within seconds. Every crew member regained the boat - except Boyd. He had failed to properly adjust his lifebelt, and he drowned. The RNLI sent his dependants 50 pounds. That moment - one coxswain lost on an exercise, not even in service - shaped what Ballywalter remembered about its lifeboat station for the next 138 years.

Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ballywalter Lifeboat Station: The Sheffield and the Coastguard Boat

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The station's founding was rooted in an earlier rescue. On December 30, 1828 - 38 years before any lifeboat existed at Ballywalter - the steamship Sheffield ran aground on Skullmartin Rock just offshore. Through more than six hours of effort, the master, 20 crew members and 24 pa...

Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ballywalter Lifeboat Station: Opening Day, 1866

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Almost four decades later, on September 27, 1866, the Ballywalter Lifeboat Station officially opened. Reverend Hugh Wilson took the post of Honorary Secretary. Robert Boyd became coxswain. Robert Adair was named second coxswain. A boathouse at the pier head was built by local con...

Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ballywalter Lifeboat Station: The Euphemia Fullerton

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the afternoon of February 6, 1883, the brig Euphemia Fullerton, sailing from Derry toward Maryport, was driven by an east-south-east gale onto Long Rock off Ballywalter. The lifeboat was hauled overland by a crowd of villagers, who manhandled it across two ditches to reach a l...

Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ballywalter Lifeboat Station: Replacement, Quiet, Closure

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. A larger 34-foot lifeboat, William Wallace (ON 93), arrived at Ballywalter on January 31, 1885 - again brought free of charge, this time from Liverpool to Belfast, by the Belfast and Londonderry Steam Packet Company. The boat was funded by the legacy of William Wallace of Curtain...

Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0