Whitby Lifeboat

This website would not be complete without a look at today's lifeboat, the station, and its present crewmen and coxswains. It is quite true that today's generation of lifeboats are a world away from the lifeboats of the those when the Rohilla was lost. Only in the later part of that time were motor lifeboats being introduced. Many believe that it was the Rohilla tragedy which spelt the end for the rowing lifeboat at Whitby enforcing the need for a motor lifeboat. Indeed had a motor lifeboat been more readily available when the hospital ship aground more lives might well have been saved that tragic weekend.

The current "Trent" class lifeboat was integrated into the RNLI fleet in 1994, it shares the same hull shape as the Severn class but is a smaller topside version. The sheerline of the lifeboat sweeps down from the bow allowing the easier recovery of survivors. Like the Severn, the lifeboat propellers are protected so it can approach fairly shallow water without damage.

The Trent class of lifeboat is designed to be kept afloat and this is how the Whitby lifeboat "George and Mary Webb" has been kept since being dedicated in 1996. The Trent class of lifeboat has the following specification:

As well as the all weather lifeboat Whitby also has an inflatable inshore lifeboat. The current inshore lifeboat stationed at Whitby is called "OEM Stone III" and is pictured here during a lifeboat weekend display, although it was officially named in September 2007 by the Duchess of Kent. A number of different lifeboats have served as Whitby boats throughout its 200 year history, photographs of which can be found using this link.

The station at Whitby has a remarkable history bravery with 49 awards for gallantry being presented, sadly the station has also seen enough tragedy with five lifeboat crew losing their lives whilst saving others at sea.

The old station built in 1909 (seen here on the right), has served Whitby well but a new fully dedicated station was needed, the old station was not suitable for providing today's generation of lifeboat volunteers with all the facilities one would expect. A state of the art station destined to serve generations of lifeboat crew was designed and fund raising began in earnest. The photographs below were taken from models presented as part of the planning and fundraising stages and they are very accurate.