Qualla: Portpatrick Lifeboat Station

Portpatrick Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John M Wheatley, CC BY-SA 2.0. The morning of 31 January 1953 began like any other crossing for the Princess Victoria. She was a stern-loading car ferry, modern for her time, and she made the run between Stranraer and Larne every day - 35 miles across the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland. A storm was building as she cleared more open water that morning. Heavy waves stove in her stern doors. Water began to come aboard. By two o'clock that afternoon, with a hurricane now blowing, she sank. Of the 127 passengers and 49 crew who had boarded at Stranraer, only a small fraction survived. The Portpatrick lifeboat reached the wreck more than an hour after the ferry went down - there had been confusion about her precise position - and pulled two people from the sea. The lifeboat from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland saved another thirty-one. The disaster is still ranked among the worst in British coastal waters in the twentieth century. The Portpatrick lifeboat returned to her station on the afternoon of 1 February, more than a day after launching into the storm. Her coxswain, William McConnell, was awarded an RNLI Bronze Medal and a British Empire Medal.

Image: John M Wheatley | CC BY-SA 2.0

Portpatrick Lifeboat Station: A Boathouse Opened in 1877

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Billy McCrorie, CC BY-SA 2.0. Portpatrick is a working RNLI station that has been answering calls from the North Channel for nearly a century and a half. It opened on 15 December 1877 - placed deliberately between two existing stations to cover a stretch of coast where vessels passing the port, and the villag...

Image: Billy McCrorie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Portpatrick Lifeboat Station: The Camlough Service

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ann Cook, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the night of 12 January 1932, the SS Camlough developed engine trouble near the Isle of Man. Her captain decided to run for his home port of Belfast, but a gale rose overnight and blew the disabled ship east toward the Scottish coast instead. Another vessel got a line aboard h...

Image: Ann Cook | CC BY-SA 2.0

Portpatrick Lifeboat Station: Fishermen, Storms, and a Force 10

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ann Cook, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 23 November 1995, the Portpatrick crew launched into a Force 10 gale to reach a sinking fishing vessel with three crew aboard. They got all three off, and brought them in alive. The whole crew received a collective Framed Letter of Thanks signed by the Chairman of the RNLI - t...

Image: Ann Cook | CC BY-SA 2.0

Portpatrick Lifeboat Station: Why Here

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Erl Johnston, CC BY-SA 4.0. Portpatrick faces almost due west into the North Channel, the strip of sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland that funnels Atlantic weather and shipping in equal measure. Ferries cross to Larne; cargo runs in and out of Belfast, Liverpool, Glasgow, the Clyde. Fishing boats wor...

Image: Erl Johnston | CC BY-SA 4.0