Qualla: Point of Air Lifeboat Station

Point of Air Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Llywelyn2000, CC BY-SA 4.0. Just after 11:30 on 4 January 1857, the Point of Air lifeboat capsized in a winter gale on its way to a wreck off Abergele. Ten of the thirteen crew were washed away at once. Three more clung to the underside of the upturned hull for roughly forty minutes while onlookers watched from the shore, helpless. Then they too were washed away. The boat was non-self-righting; once over, it would not come back. All thirteen drowned. A public fund raised £3,000 for the widows and orphans. The names are carved into a memorial inside the parish church of St Asaph and St Cyndeyrn at Llanasa, three miles inland. The lifeboat, oddly, survived with little damage. Within seven weeks a new crew had been mustered and the boat was back at Gronant ready to launch.

Image: Llywelyn2000 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Point of Air Lifeboat Station: Gronant, not the Point

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mattcymru2, CC BY-SA 3.0. The station was actually placed at Gronant, two miles west of the Point of Ayr itself, despite carrying the Point of Air name. The reason was launch geography: Gronant gave direct beach access to the deep-water channel called Prestatyn Gulley, where a heavy lifeboat on a launchin...

Image: Mattcymru2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Point of Air Lifeboat Station: Robert Beck and the Silver Medal

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Haynes, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 27 November 1851, the coxswains of all three Liverpool Dock Trustees stations - Liverpool, Magazines, and Point of Air - were awarded the RNIPLS Silver Medal for years of gallantry. Robert Beck, the coxswain at Gronant, had launched the lifeboat more than sixty times by that d...

Image: John Haynes | CC BY-SA 2.0

Point of Air Lifeboat Station: The Tempest Disaster

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Haynes, CC BY-SA 2.0. The morning of 4 January 1857 began with the lifeboat answering a call at 08:30 to a vessel aground on the West Hoyle Bank. Beck and his crew got the men off. Returning, they were redirected to a second casualty on Chester Bank, which refloated without assistance. Around 11:30 th...

Image: John Haynes | CC BY-SA 2.0

Point of Air Lifeboat Station: Quick Recovery

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Haynes, CC BY-SA 2.0. What happened next is almost as remarkable as the disaster. The lifeboat, having been refloated and recovered, was found to be largely undamaged. A new master and mate were appointed by 29 January - twenty-five days after the loss. A new crew was assembled by 2 February. On 24 Fe...

Image: John Haynes | CC BY-SA 2.0

Point of Air Lifeboat Station: Closing and Renaming

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Haynes, CC BY-SA 2.0. The station kept working through the second half of the century. By 1870 it had a thirty-three-foot Liverpool-class lifeboat that would later be transferred to another station as ON 419. In the 1890s, with traffic at the Port of Liverpool growing and the Mersey Docks and Harbour ...

Image: John Haynes | CC BY-SA 2.0