The story of the lifeboat station at St Abbs started with tragedy.
In October 1907 the cargo vessel Alfred Erlandsen struck nearby rocks and the villagers who gathered at the clifftop could only listen to their cries for help.
Accounts vary on how many perished; some say 17 including the captain’s wife. The only survivor was his great Dane dog Karo which managed to swim ashore.
One of those who witnessed the shipwreck was women’s rights campaigner and philanthropist Jane Hay who wrote to the Edinburgh Evening News:” I write to say that personally I shall never rest content till we have a lifeboat and rocket apparatus of our own in St Abbs.”
Four years later, in August 1911, the RNLI established one there – the Helen Smitton – with the dog Karo, which had been involved in fundraising, said to have been among the guests who watched the boat arrive.
Over the course of the next century, the St Abbs lifeboat rescued hundreds of people but in 2015 it found itself in need of saving when the charity announced that, following an “extensive review”, the service was to be withdrawn.
