Exhibition celebrates island's lifeboat stations

Examples of the kit used by modern lifeboat crews features in the exhibition

A new exhibition celebrating two lifeboat stations in the south of the Isle of Man has gone on display.

The first of the 2024 season for Rushen Heritage Trust, the display coincides with the 200th anniversary of the lifesaving organisation.

The six-week exhibition at the trust’s centre in Port Erin features stories of crewmen and rescues by the Port Erin and Port St Mary lifeboats.

It also features models of the station’s vessels and examples of the kit used by the crews.

Jason Fleming said the display was "a walk through time" with the two lifeboat stations

Jason Fleming, who is the station mechanic for Port Erin lifeboat, said the project was a “bit of a walk through time”.

“It just gives us that timeline of what the RNLI’s done throughout Port Erin and Port St Mary in the 200 years the service been going,” he said.

“We’ve got some good history here on the lifeboats with the villages being two big fishing communities in the day."

As there was “not as much no on the fishing side” now, the boats were mainly called out to “pleasure craft and water sports” related incidents, he said.

“We are an island, a lot of water around us, and we need to be there to help the people that need us in their right times,” he added.

Models of previous lifeboats also feature

Much of the information featured has been taken from the trust’s first ever exhibition a decade ago in 2014, which had been drawn from the archives of the two stations.

The exhibition is open between 10:00 and 16:00 GMT between every Tuesday and Saturday until 20 April.