Qualla: Ferryside RNLI Lifeboat Station

Ferryside RNLI Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. By 1960 the River Tywi was no longer a commercial waterway. Burry Port had shut. Llanelli's docks were idle. The big ports that had brought the cargo traffic through Carmarthen Bay had been replaced by lorries, motorways and Felixstowe. With the trade had gone the wrecks, or so it seemed. On 30 June 1960 the RNLI closed Ferryside Lifeboat Station after exactly a century of service. The last boat on station, Caroline Oates Aver and William Maine, was sold out of the fleet and ended her days as a fishing boat in Barmouth. The boathouse went to the River Towy Yacht Club. The crew went home. The decision turned out to be premature by exactly six years.

Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ferryside RNLI Lifeboat Station: Laugharne First

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The lifeboat service on this coast began in 1835, not at Ferryside but across the estuary at Laugharne. The Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck - RNIPLS, the unwieldy first name of what would become the RNLI - established Carmarthen Lifeboat Sta...

Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ferryside RNLI Lifeboat Station: The Manchester Boats

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 2 February 1860 the RNLI committee in London formally established Carmarthen Bay Lifeboat Station at Ferryside. A new 30-foot self-righting Pulling and Sailing lifeboat - six oars single-banked, plus a sail - cost 148 pounds, 9 shillings and 6 pence. The Great Western and Sout...

Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ferryside RNLI Lifeboat Station: The Signe and the Silver Medal

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 15 March 1905, the City of Manchester (ON 56) was launched in gale-force conditions to the aid of the Norwegian barque Signe of Kristiania - now Oslo - which had been driven ashore on Cefn Sidan sands. By the time the lifeboat reached the wreck, the Signe was so far up the bea...

Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ferryside RNLI Lifeboat Station: The British India

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Another typical story from the station's records: on 23 December 1863, two days before Christmas, the Carmarthen Bay lifeboat launched to the vessel British India, on passage from Bombay to Liverpool, driven ashore in heavy weather on Cefn Sidan sands. The lifeboat reached the sh...

Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ferryside RNLI Lifeboat Station: The Boat in the Yacht Club Roof

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Across the century the boats got bigger and slower to launch, then smaller and faster again. The first motor-powered lifeboat did not arrive at Ferryside until 1941 - a 35-foot 6-inch single-engine William Maynard, already ten years old, transferred from a Northern Ireland statio...

Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0