Qualla: Ramsey Lifeboat Station

Ramsey Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Martin Whittaker, CC BY-SA 2.0. Sir William Hillary wrote the letter on 28 May 1828. He was President of the Isle of Man District Association of the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck - the RNIPLS, awkward parent of the modern RNLI - and he had watched too many ships break up off this coast not to do something about it. The letter went to London. It asked for lifeboats to be placed at two Manx towns, including Ramsey. The Institution agreed. A ten-oared, non-self-righting boat was built in London by a man called Harton for fifty-five pounds, completed in November 1828, and shipped to Ramsey aboard HM Cutter Industry. She arrived on 20 February 1829. As far as anyone can tell, that first lifeboat was never launched on a service call.

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Image: Martin Whittaker | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ramsey Lifeboat Station: The First Boat, and a Quiet Collapse

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Martin Whittaker, CC BY-SA 2.0. Hillary had given the Isle of Man, and the wider lifeboat movement, much of his fortune and most of his life. When he died in 1847 the RNIPLS lost its prime mover. Funds dried up. By the 1840s the original Ramsey lifeboat was already in disrepair, and after Hillary's death the st...

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Image: Martin Whittaker | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ramsey Lifeboat Station: Two Sisters, Many Lives

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Martin Whittaker, CC BY-SA 2.0. She was launched 42 times. She saved 117 lives. On 7 November 1890, in rough seas, the Two Sisters reached the steam dredger Walter Bibby and rescued all fifteen men aboard. Four days later, in similarly poor weather, she was launched again - this time to the vessel Margaret, on ...

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Image: Martin Whittaker | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ramsey Lifeboat Station: The Ritchies

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Hoare, CC BY-SA 2.0. Some lifeboat stations carry the name of one family the way an old church carries a memorial window. Ramsey is one of them. Ann Ritchie, born Gough, was President of the Ramsey Ladies Lifeboat Guild and the widow of James Ritchie. Together and individually they funded boat after ...

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Image: Richard Hoare | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ramsey Lifeboat Station: The People Who Go

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Martin Whittaker, CC BY-SA 2.0. Behind the medals and the boats are the people. The RNLI is, and always has been, volunteer. The crews of Ramsey have been awarded Members of the Order of the British Empire and British Empire Medals across the decades - William Reginald Edwards in 1966, William Frank Cottier in ...

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Image: Martin Whittaker | CC BY-SA 2.0