Lifeboat at Machrihanish
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:06 pm
Anyone got any info on the lifeboat station at Machrihanish? I remember it from way back, could never work out why they had a lifeboat station with no lifeboat there.
bill wrote:Taken from Argyll news:Tommy Ralston and Kintyre's lifeboats.
Machrihanish, a virgin lifeboat..............................
The Machrihanish Lifeboat station was established in 1912. It was opened following the loss of a trawler, which had been driven ashore at Westport, four miles north of Machrihanish, during a blizzard in 1908. On that occasion, rescue attempts from Campbeltown were foiled, the roads being blocked by snowdrifts.
The first, and indeed the only Lifeboat to be stationed there during the short (eighteen year) history of the station, was the Henry Finlay, a thirty-five foot, self-righting, sailing/rowing craft. Like Southend, Machrihanish was manned by men from Campbeltown, until the station closed in 1931 – it being felt that the motor Lifeboat now stationed at Campbeltown could cover the area adequately.
The Lifeboat at Machrihanish was never launched to a casualty.
The ex-Machrihanish Lifeboat was eventually towed to Ardrossan by the Campbeltown motor Lifeboat, the City of Glasgow, from whence she was taken, by rail, to Tynemouth.
http://forargyll.com/2010/01/tommy-rals ... -a-camera/