Fowey Lifeboat Station
| Fowey Lifeboat Station | |
| RNLI lifeboat station | |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
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| County | Cornwall |
| Town | Fowey |
| Location | Passage Street, PL23 1DE |
| - coordinates | 50°20′21″N 4°37′57″W / 50.3391°N 4.6326°WCoordinates: 50°20′21″N 4°37′57″W / 50.3391°N 4.6326°W |
| Founded | 1859 at Polkerris 1922 at Fowey Current boathouse 1997 |
| Owner | Royal National Lifeboat Institution |
 Fowey
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Fowey Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations at Fowey on the south coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom. The first lifeboat was stationed in the area in 1859 and the present station was opened in 1997. It operates a Trent Class all weather boat (AWB) and a D class (IB1) inshore lifeboat (ILB).
Fowey stands at the mouth of the River Fowey where it forms a natural deep water harbour. The town has a long history of fishing and merchant shipping, although the present quays busy with ships loading china clay were only developed in the 1860s. To the west lies St Austell Bay which includes the port of Par which was built in the 1840s to handle the mineral traffic from Joseph Treffry's mines and quarries, and Charlestown which had been established about fifty years earlier by Charles Rashleigh. A fatal ship wreck on the Gribben Head between Fowey and St Austell Bay on 6 May 1856 prompted William Rashleigh, a local landowner, to offer the RNLI £50 towards a lifeboat for Fowey and land and building stone for a boathouse.
The position of the mouth of the River Fowey meant that it would be nearly impossible to launch a "pulling and sailing" lifeboat (that is, one powered by oars and sails) during the more dangerous storms when the wind blew from the south, and so it was decided to station the lifeboat at Polkerris, a small fishing village with a breakwater on the east side of St Austell Bay. A boathouse was built at the top of the beach for £138 4s (£138.20) on land donated by Rashleigh. The lifeboat was delivered free of charge to Lostwithiel railway station in November 1859 by the Cornwall Railway, and then rowed down the river through Fowey and around St Austell Bay to show it to the public. It was named Catherine Rashleigh after William's wife, who was another of the major donors towards its cost.
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Wikipedia