The RNLI Dover Lifeboat Station is situated
just off Union Road, Western Docks at the far end of Crosswall Quay. The current
Lifeboat Station is relatively new, being completed in 2000. The first Dover
Lifeboat Station was actually very close to this one, just across the way,
looking East,
beneath the Clock Tower. After WW2 Dover Lifeboat moved into the old Motor
Torpedo Boat pens, although known locally as the Sub Pens. I first stepped
onboard a Dover Lifeboat when they were stationed at the sub pens and remember
vividly climbing down a Jacobs ladder in poor lighting towards the pitching deck
of the lifeboat. In my more youthful days I even rowed the English Channel to
raise funds for the Dover Lifeboat crews first 'pagers'.
In 1984 the Lifeboat Station moved to the Tug
Haven across from Crosswall Quay before moving here to it's current location in
August 2001. The current Dover Lifeboat is " City Of London
II " a Severn Class boat designated 17-09, and is moored on the quay alongside
the boathouse. It became Dover's 16th lifeboat in 1997, succeeding the Thames
Class 50-001 "Rotary Service" which had been stationed at Dover since 1979. The
"City Of London II" is due to return to RNLI HQ Poole this summer for a refit,
when the current twin engines will be replaced with smaller, but more powerful
and fuel efficient engines.