Qualla: Barry Dock Lifeboat Station

Barry Dock Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0. A businessman named Richard Colton died in 2015 and left the Royal National Lifeboat Institution two cars. The first was a silver 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4. The second was a red 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB. Both went to auction in London. The 275 fetched £1.93 million. The 250 fetched £6.6 million. It was the most valuable single bequest the RNLI had ever received in its 191-year history. Some of that money paid for a new lifeboat at Barry Dock and the £2.8 million needed for a new boathouse to keep her in. Today the station sits at the Pierhead Buildings of Barry Dock's outer harbour, watching the Bristol Channel - a stretch of water with the second-highest tidal range in the world and the kind of weather that makes lifeboats necessary.

Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Barry Dock Lifeboat Station: Why the Boats Are Here

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Bristol Channel is not friendly. Normal spring tides shift the water level by around 40 feet between low and high. Neap tides give 19.5 feet. In a northwest gale, ships dragging their anchors can find themselves in the shipping lanes off Barry Island in minutes. The station o...

Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

Barry Dock Lifeboat Station: December 1940, a Northwest Gale

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MichiganCharms, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the 6th of December 1940, in the second winter of the war, the steamship London was making for Cardiff from Penzance when her anchor began to drag near the Breaksea Lightship. The wind was northwest. The seas were heavy. Coxswain David Lewis launched the Rachel and Mary Evans,...

Image: MichiganCharms | CC BY-SA 3.0

Barry Dock Lifeboat Station: The Ferrari Bequest

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Merrett from Daventry, England, CC BY 2.0. Richard Colton was a businessman who collected cars. When he died in 2015, the cars went to the RNLI. The 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 - a silver V12 Berlinetta, one of about 330 ever made - sold first. £1.93 million. The 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB - a red short-wheelbase Berlinetta, the ...

Image: David Merrett from Daventry, England | CC BY 2.0

Barry Dock Lifeboat Station: The New Pierhead

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mick Lobb, CC BY-SA 2.0. The wooden ex-show bungalow that had served as a crew room since 1991 was, as one local put it, well past time for replacement. Associated British Ports owned the land at the pierhead and the lifeboat station shared the site with their harbour pilots. In 2022 construction began o...

Image: Mick Lobb | CC BY-SA 2.0

Barry Dock Lifeboat Station: The Pierhead at Night

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. Barry Dock at three in the morning is dark water and red and green channel lights and the slow swing of a buoy in the tide. Cardiff burns to the east. The Channel opens westward into the Atlantic. When the pager goes, the volunteers come down from their houses in the town, get in...

Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0