Overview
About Us
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity that saves lives at sea. It places lifeboats in strategic positions and where crews are available. It supplies and maintains the boats and the crew training. That in short is their commitment. The locality provides the crews. Over time the motto “Drown you may but go you must” has become an unofficial mission statement for Lifeboat Crews. That is their commitment. The most westerly station in the RNLI lifeboat network is on Valentia Island.
A lifeboat station was first established on the mainland at Renard in 1864, but closed in 1896. It was not re-opened until 1939, and only then on a temporary basis, on Valentia Island. Valentia Lifeboat Station was reopened on a permanent basis in 1946, and has been open for over 70 years. The common denominator over those years is ordinary folk, volunteers, walking into the lifeboat station when a crew is needed and saying “I’ll Go”.
Lifeboats that served at Valentia Island are:
| Official No | Name | Term | Launches | Lives Saved |
| (None) | Mary | 1864-80 | 6 | Nil |
| 174 | Crosby Leonard | 1880-90 | 4 | Nil |
| 690 | C&S | 1946-47 | 2 | Nil |
| 687 | BASP | 1947-51 | 14 | 2 |
| 717 | AED | 1951-57 | 57 | 80 |
| 938 | Rowland Watts | 1957-83 | 158 | 132 |
| 1082 | Margaret Frances Love | 1983-96 | 192 | 73 |
| 1218 | John & Margaret Doig | 1996 – present | In service | In service |
