St Mary's Lifeboat Station
lifeboat station on the Isles of Scilly
St Mary's Lifeboat Station sits overlooking Harbour Bay at Carn Thomas in Hugh Town, the primary settlement on St Mary's, the largest and most populous island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the south-west coast of the county of Cornwall, England.
A lifeboat station was established at St Mary's in 1837, operating until its closure in 1855. The station was re-established by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1874.
The station currently operates the Severn-class All-weather lifeboat 17-11 The Whiteheads (ON 1229), on station since 1997.
History
Ever since its founding in 1824, the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS), later to become the RNLI in 1854, would award medals for deeds of gallantry at sea, even if no lifeboats were involved.
In a hurricane on 13 February 1833, the Cherokee-class brig-sloop HMS Forrester was driven onto Crow Bar, north of St Mary's, drifting onto Crowther Point. At great personal risk, Midshipman Baldwin Arden Wake, RN, swam ashore with a line, allowing the rescue of one officer and 16 men. Wake was awarded the RNIPLS Silver Medal.
In view of this, and other wrecks, Capt. Charles Steel, RN, Inspecting Commander of Coastguard (Isles of Scilly), established a local branch of the RNIPLS, and began to raise funds for the provision of a lifeboat.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “St Mary's Lifeboat Station” is lifeboat station on the Isles of Scilly. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mary's, Lifeboat and Station, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “lifeboat station on the Isles of Scilly” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7594504. Authority coordinates are 49.919, -6.307. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1837, 1855, 1874 and 1229.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “St Mary's Lifeboat Station”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow St Mary's Lifeboat Station primary sources, St Mary's Lifeboat Station archive and Mary's research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “St Mary's Lifeboat Station”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “St Mary's Lifeboat Station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.