Qualla: Campbeltown Lifeboat Station

Campbeltown Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James T M Towill, CC BY-SA 2.0. The shortest distance between mortal danger and rescue, on a wild night off the Kintyre coast, has often been the length of cable between a stranded ship and a boat from Campbeltown. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution has kept a boat here since 1861, paid for that first year by Lady Murray of Edinburgh — boat, carriage, and boathouse together for £431. Since then, in fog and in war and in Force 9 winter storms, Campbeltown crews have rowed, motored, and twice in three months in 1946 navigated by radio relay from fishing boats they could not see. The names on the medal citations — Thomson, Newlands, Black, Gilchrist, Stewart, McPhee — are the names of men who knew exactly what the Kilbrannan Sound could do.

Image: James T M Towill | CC BY-SA 2.0

Campbeltown Lifeboat Station: Wartime, January 1942

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Ferguson, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 19 January 1942, the Dutch ship Mobeka was in trouble off Kintyre. The Campbeltown lifeboat went out. They brought back 44 of her crew alive. Coxswain James Thomson was awarded both an RNLI silver medal and the British Empire Medal. Bronze medals went to the rest of the crew: ...

Image: John Ferguson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Campbeltown Lifeboat Station: Fog Off Sanda Island

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0. The ss Gracehill went aground on Sanda Island in fog on the night of 8 March 1957. Visibility was less than the lifeboat's own length. Two fishing boats nearby could see the lifeboat on their radar even when no one on board could see anything else, and so they guided it in by rad...

Image: David Hawgood | CC BY-SA 2.0

Campbeltown Lifeboat Station: The Erlo Hills, October 1981

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Barmanitan, CC BY-SA 4.0. A trawler called the Erlo Hills, with 14 people on board, broke down and was blown towards shore in a Force 9 storm on 2 October 1981. When the Campbeltown lifeboat was already at sea, it became clear the casualty had drifted close to Rathlin Island, off Northern Ireland — techni...

Image: Barmanitan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Campbeltown Lifeboat Station: The Sincerity, November 2001

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit thejackrustles, CC BY-SA 2.0. The fishing boat Sincerity's engine failed on the night of 29 November 2001, and the wind drove her onto rocks off Ardlamont Point, 30 miles from Campbeltown. The two men aboard tried to launch their life raft. The wind tore it away from them. Closer lifeboat stations could not r...

Image: thejackrustles | CC BY-SA 2.0

Campbeltown Lifeboat Station: The Boats Themselves

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steve Partridge, CC BY-SA 2.0. The roll of Campbeltown lifeboats reads like a quiet history of the service itself. The pulling-and-sailing James Stevens No. 2 (ON 413, 1898 to 1912). The William MacPherson (ON 620), Campbeltown's first motor lifeboat in 1912. The City of Glasgow (ON 720, 1929 to 1953). City of...

Image: Steve Partridge | CC BY-SA 2.0