Qualla: Islay Lifeboat Station

Islay Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0. In March 1934, four Islay fishermen took a boat training trip they would never forget. None of them had been on a lifeboat before. The boat in question, the Frederick H. Pilley, was fourteen years old, 38 feet long, and had already saved a hundred and twenty lives at another station. Commander J. M. Upton of the RNLI's Irish District took the four men - Peter and Angus McPhee, Hugh Buie, and J. McDougall - down to Falmouth to collect her. The crossing back was 471 nautical miles, took ten days, and met full gale conditions in Angle and Rosslare. Upton later said it was the worst passage he had made on a lifeboat. When the new crew arrived at Port Askaig on 21 March 1934, they had a working knowledge of their boat earned the hard way.

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Image: M J Richardson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Islay Lifeboat Station: Why Here

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Port Askaig sits at the narrowest point of the Sound of Islay, the strait separating Islay from Jura, where tidal currents can reach four knots and the wind funnels between the islands. Sixty miles to the west, the open Atlantic produces ten-metre swells in winter. The shipping l...

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Image: M J Richardson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Islay Lifeboat Station: 31 January 1953

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0. Some days the sea takes everything it can. On 31 January 1953 a hurricane-force storm tore through the North Channel and the Irish Sea. The car ferry MV Princess Victoria, one of the earliest roll-on/roll-off ferries, was overwhelmed crossing from Stranraer to Larne; she sank wit...

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Image: Andrew Wood | CC BY-SA 2.0

Islay Lifeboat Station: The Lone Dania

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Colin Hoskins, CC BY-SA 2.0. Just after midnight on Sunday 18 November 1979, a call came in from the Danish coaster Lone Dania, listing badly six miles northwest of Skerryvore Lighthouse. Her cargo had shifted in the kind of conditions that move cargo: gusts to 65 knots recorded at nearby airports, sustained...

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Image: Colin Hoskins | CC BY-SA 2.0

Islay Lifeboat Station: The Schroder Family

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Laddie09, Public domain. The current Islay lifeboat is the 17-08 Helmut Schroder of Dunlossit II, a Severn-class all-weather lifeboat on station since 1997. She is one of the largest boats in the RNLI fleet, capable of self-righting in any sea, and her name carries a curious thread of continuity. The Sch...

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Image: Laddie09 | Public domain