ANGLE RNLI is celebrating its 150th birthday today, so we are looking back through the station’s history and most daring rescues.

THE FOUNDING OF THE ANGLE RNLI

The station owes its launch to the generosity of a prominent north England philanthropist, Titus Salt junior, of Bradford.

RNLI spokesperson, Ted Goddard, who has written about the station’s history, said: “The need for a lifeboat at Milford Haven had been under discussion for some years when the Rev J B Morgan submitted a request to the RNLI.

“However, funds were insufficient at the time and the project was postponed.”

Hopes were revived when Titus Salt junior expressed interest in the plan, and in 1868 he made a donation.

Mr Salt donated £420, which was allocated towards the cost of a stone-built lifeboat house at Angle Point and the first lifeboat Katharine, which was built in London at Woolf’s Shadwell yard.

The new lifeboat was sent by train to Milford Haven, where she was formally named by the Countess of Cawdor.

Williams Watkins became coxswain of the new lifeboat and station, but he had to wait over four years for the lifeboat’s first call-out - to the Ercole of Naples, who was in distress off St Anne’s Head.

The Katherine launched seven times in 20 years, saving 22 lives, before being replaced in 1888 by the Henry Martin Harvey.

THE WHISKY SHIP RESCUE

In 1894, five years after its first launch, the Henry Martin Harvey took part in its most famous rescue, of the passengers and crew of the ‘whisky ship’ Loch Shiel.

The ship was on a voyage from her home port of Glasgow to Australia, when she ran into heavy weather in the Irish Sea and tried to take shelter in the Milford Haven Waterway.

The Angle RNLI lifeboat was alerted and set out at 10.45pm, but by this time the ship was sinking and six of the men had taken refuge in the mizzen top.

Other members of the crew and passengers had crawled out along the ship and taken shelter on the rocks of Thorn Island.

The lifeboat rescued the six men from the mizzen top before heading to the far side of the island.

Three members of the lifeboat crew set out in the severe weather to rescue those stranded on the Island - taking nothing with them but ropes, a lantern and a rope ladder.

The three men managed to haul all 27 survivors who had taken shelter at the bottom of the cliff to safety.

By daylight, the Loch Shiel had begun to break up and her cargo - which included 100per cent proof whisky - came ashore at West Angle Bay.

While customs officers quickly came to claim the whisky, much of it mysteriously disappeared, with local women said to have smuggled bottles from the beach in their long underwear.

Mr Goddard said: “It is said that bottles of whisky were hidden in clefts in rocks, in gardens and attics of the Angle cottages, and that freshly papered walls appeared where there had been cupboards before.”

ELIZABETH ELSON AND THE STEAMSHIP SURVIVORS

In late 1929 the Merchant ship Molesey left Manchester for Cardiff when it was struck by a 70mph gale.

The ship was swept into the treacherous water between Skomer Island and the mainland, before being ground on the rocks off of the Midland Island and began to sink.

The storm had downed telephone lines between Pembroke and Tenby, so the coastguard’s message had to be taken to Angle by car, taking nearly two hours.

The lifeboat Elizabeth Elson was launched, meeting the full force of the storm.

Despite a thorough search, it was unable to find the sinking vessel.

After new information was received the lifeboat set out again.

“Visibility was barely 70 yards and although coxswain James Watkins took the lifeboat so close to the island that the breakers could be seen, no ship could be distinguished,” Mr Goddard said.

At 6am the next morning the coxswain Watkins, set out again, this time locating the sinking ship low down in the water.

In an hour-long operation the 28 survivors of the Molesey where saved. However, six crew members and the wife of the chief officer were lost to the sea soon after the ship struck the island.

Mr Goddard said: “The task of taking the survivors off proved very difficult and extremely dangerous.

“The lifeboat was rising and falling up to 20 feet in the confused seas and there were rocks on both sides.”

Coxswain James Watkins was later awarded the RNLI’s Bronze medal in recognition of his judgement and perseverance.

ANGLE TODAY

The station has been involved in a number of incidents over recent years, helping rescue many people.

In 1973, Coxswain William John Rees Holmes was awarded the bronze medal, when the lifeboat gave help in a Force 10 Storm after the oil tanker, Dona Marika, ran aground.

There was a danger that the tanker would explode and a nearby village had to be evacuated.

A bronze Medal was also awarded to Coxswain Jeremy Richard Rees in 1997, in recognition of his courage and leadership when the lifeboat The Lady Rank, rescued the crew of the motor vessel Dale Princess, which was being driven onto a sheer cliff at Skomer Island by gale force winds and heavy seas.

A century-and-a-half after it was established, the station is now equipped with a £2.7 million state-of-the-art Tamar class all-weather lifeboat, the Mark Mason and a £41,000 D-class inshore lifeboat SuperG II.