Filey Lifeboat Station

Filey Lifeboat Station is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat station located in the town of Filey, North Yorkshire, England. It is one of eight operational RNLI lifeboat stations situated on the Yorkshire Coast.

Filey's first lifeboat was stationed in the town in 1804 and it became an RNLI asset in 1852. Filey is home to two lifeboats; a B-class, Marjorie Shepherd (B-928), and a D-class, The Rotarian (D-859).

History
A lifeboat station was first established at Filey in 1804. The station was taken over by the RNLI in 1852 and they erected a new lifeboathouse. In 1890, the third lifeboathouse to be built in Filey was opened.

In the late spring of 1860, a hurricane hit Filey and destroyed all the boats and nets of the local fishermen. As the damaged items belonged mostly to the men who manned the lifeboat, an appeal was made in The Times to aid in the support of the fishermen's loss of livelihood. One of the letters written to the paper was by a local resident doctor who noted that the Filey Lifeboat [up until that point] had saved more lives at sea than any other station belonging to the RNLI in England.

In 1966, when the first D-Class Inshore Lifeboats (ILB) were being introduced, D-86 was sent to Filey and operated from a separate lifeboathouse to the All-Weather Lifeboat (ALB). In 1991, the main lifeboathouse was rebuilt again (on the same site as the 1890 lifeboathouse) so that it could accommodate both a large All-Weather Lifeboat (ALB) and an Inshore Lifeboat (ILB) together.

The station's Mersey-class All-weather lifeboat was replaced with a fast response Atlantic 85-class Inshore lifeboat in 2021.

Notable incidents

 * 24 September 1935 – a trawler named Skegness ran aground just by the cliffs at Speeton. Initially the captain of the vessel said that all was fine and he would await the high tide to re-float the ship. But unfortunately, before high tide arrived, the weather deteriorated. Within an hour, the wind had strengthened to gale force from the east and was driving the sea to the shore. At 11:10 pm, the skipper of the Skegness was calling for help and the Filey Lifeboat was launched. Due to the swell, they couldn't get near, so the Scarborough Lifeboat was launched, but they were given the wrong location and headed for Filey Brigg. The Flamborough Lifeboat was also launched, but just like the Filey Lifeboat, she couldn't get near enough. The Rocket Brigade (a volunteer unit that would fire rockets with lines to drag people off stricken ships) tried firing their rockets to the ship, which was only 420 ft below them, but the fierce wind forced the rockets back onto the cliff; in fact the wind was so strong, that the Rocket Brigade crew had to crawl to the clifftop on their hands and knees. The lights on the ship were observed going out at 1:30 am the following morning. In all, eleven sailors died, some of their bodies washed up onto the shore in the days after the tragedy, but most were never found.
 * 23 June 1974 – the motor mechanic on the station collapsed and died during a launch.
 * 15 June 1998 – a Tornado aircraft of No. 29 Squadron RAF crashed into the sea, 30 mi away from Flamborough Head. The Filey all-weather boat, alongside the same type of vessel from Bridlington, searched for 13 hours for the two aircrew.

Station honours
The following are awards made at Filey


 * RNLI Silver Medal
 * John Ruddock, Boatman - 1859


 * RNLI Bronze Medal
 * William Robinson, Second Coxswain - 1919
 * George Boynton, Fisherman - 1919


 * Michael Farline, Helmsman - 2004


 * The Emile Robin Award for 2003 awarded by The Shipwrecked Fishermen & Mariners Royal Benevolent Society
 * Michael Farline, Helmsman - 2004


 * The Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum
 * Frank Jenkinson, Coxswain - 1983


 * Malcolm Johnson, crew member - 1984


 * A Framed Letter of Thanks signed by the Chairman of the Institution
 * Malcolm Johnson, Coxswain - 2001


 * Michael Farline, Helmsman - 2004


 * The Royal Humane Society Resuscitation Certificate
 * Richard Johnson, Third Mechanic - 2001