The lifeboat that came back to Penlee Point near Mousehole

The red doors of the old boathouse at Penlee Point stayed shut. But for a few minutes on Sunday morning, there was a lifeboat sitting off the slipway again.

She was the A.M.T., known as AMiTy, a former RNLI Watson class lifeboat. And she has history here.

📷Credit: Lewis Williams

Close inshore at Penlee Point

The visit took place on Sunday morning (4 October) at the former Penlee Lifeboat Station at Penlee Point, near Mousehole.

Coxswain Patch Harvey was at the helm, with a crew of Penlee’s RNLI volunteers on board. Patch took the lifeboat close inshore to the boathouse, where she sat just off the foot of the slipway.

📷Credit: Lewis Williams

Her last launch was from here

AMiTy was originally a Howth Lifeboat Station vessel. She later became a relief boat, filling in at stations as needed.

Penlee Point was her final posting. It was also the location of her last launch, in 1988, which was for the only rescue she carried out while stationed there.

The same class as the Solomon Browne

There is another reason the sight of her off the slipway carries weight. The Solomon Browne was also a Watson class lifeboat.

The account of the visit shared with CornishStuff said it “must have been emotionally significant for Patch and the crew”.

The photographs and video of the visit were taken by Penlee volunteer Lewis Williams. More about the station and its crew is on the Penlee Lifeboat Station page on the RNLI website.

📷Watson class visit to Penlee. Credit: Lewis Williams