۩  Douglas Lifeboat  Station ۩

        There have been two Lifeboat Stations and three Lifeboat Station Houses in Douglas, the first at the bottom of Broadway, at the end of Harris Promenade, being built by Sir William Harris a great friend of Sir William Hillary (Founder of the RNLI).
      The building housed the newly arrived boat Salford and Manchester Sunday Schools in 1868, it being a gift from churches in that area, the boat was tested and found to be of excellent build but after sometime and coming through some very difficult problems it was found that a new Station was required, in 1886 a new building was in use housing the second lifeboat The John Turner-Turner.
     It was located in a small yard given to the Lifeboat Institution by the Harbour Commissioners, at the foot of the Battery Pier with boats having to be man handled across the road in to the water, this was the routine until in 1874 when a slipway was built. A third new station along side the old slipway was built in the 1920's and is the present building and used to house the newly arrived motor powered "Manchester and Salford" so that the boat could be housed ready for use at a moments notice, and remained in service until well after the end of WW2.
     In the 1950’s the first diesel powered Lifeboats arrived, with the present boat "Sir William Hillary" named after the Founder of the RNLI, which has just been refitted and has been in service since 1988...
    The Lifeboat house is still in use today, and earlier this year 2004 the Boathouse received a new roof to replace the asbestos one which was condemned, and during this time the crew were using two containers as temporary station premises.

  The "Sir William Hillary" is now back in the boathouse, but there is talk of a new slipway....

                                    So please check back for more info...

                        Now Find out about the other ۩ ISLAND STATIONS ۩