Lynmouth Lifeboat Station
| Lynmouth Lifeboat Station | |
| RNLI lifeboat station | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| County | Devon |
| Town | Lynmouth |
| Coordinates | 51°13′51″N 3°49′52″W / 51.2309°N 3.8312°WCoordinates: 51°13′51″N 3°49′52″W / 51.2309°N 3.8312°W |
| Founded | 1867 |
 Lynmouth
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Lynmouth Lifeboat Station was the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations at Lynmouth, Devon in England from 1869 until 1944. Its best known action was in 1899 when the lifeboat was taken 15 miles (24 km) across Exmoor before being launched to assist a ship in trouble.
Lynmouth is on the north coast of Devon facing the Bristol Channel. In the nineteenth century this was a busy waterway carrying ships to ports such as Cardiff and Bristol. A lifeboat station was established in the town on 20 January 1869, five months after the nearby wreck of the sailing vessel Home. The lifeboat was kept in a shed on the beach until a purpose-built boat house was built at the harbour. This was rebuilt in 1898 and enlarged in 1906-7.
The RNLI introduced motor lifeboats to the area in the 1930s. Ilfracombe, the station to the west, received theirs in 1936 and Minehead, to the east, in 1939. These boats were able to serve the whole of the Exmoor coast and so Lynmouth Lifeboat Station was closed at the end of 1944. The boat house was then used as a club but was washed away in the Lynmouth flood of 15 August 1952. It has since been rebuilt and includes a public shelter.
The Forrest Hall, a 1,900 ton three-masted ship with thirteen crew and five apprentices sailing down the channel from Bristol, got into trouble several miles east of Lynmouth on the evening of 12 January 1899. A severe gale had been blowing all day. She was being towed but lost her rudder and the rope broke; it looked as though she might be blown onto the shore. At 19:52 a telegram reporting the problem was received at Lynmouth. The storm prevented a launch from the harbour so the Coxswain, Jack Crowcombe, proposed that the lifeboat be taken overland to Porlock Weir so that it could be launched there instead. This would entail a journey of 15 miles (24 km) and a climb of 1,423 feet (434 m).
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