[3] In the early hours of 14 January 1843, in a strong gale, the brig George was wrecked at Atherfield whilst on passage from South Shields to Grenada.

At daybreak, Lieutenants John Bulley and William Vicary of H.M. Coastguard, and their men, fired rocket lines to the vessel.

Bulley and Vicary then took command of two small fishing boats, with a crew of coastguard and local fishermen, and in poor conditions, rescued the 10 men, moments before the vessel broke up.

[5] A corrugated-iron boathouse was constructed on the top of the cliffs at Atherfield - about 76 feet (23 m) in height - and the boat would be launched down a 240 foot (73 m) long , steep 1-in-3 path, down to the shore, over skids or railway sleepers.

[5] At 10:00pm on Sunday, 31 January 1892, the Atlantic steamship Eider of the Norddeutscher Lloyd company, on passage from New York to Bremen, ran aground on the Atherfield Ledge in thick fog, having missed sighting the Needles Lighthouse.

On Wednesday, the lifeboat crews recovered the remainder of the mail, and with the permission from the RNLI, the gold and silver, which was then handed to the charge of the armed coastguard.

All three coxswains were awarded the RNLI Silver Medal, along with an inscribed gold watch, presented by His Imperial Majesty Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany.

A fractionally larger boat was constructed by regular lifeboat builders Woolfe and Sons of Shadwell, arriving on the 29 December 1892.

[2][7] In 1915, the Atherfield launchway was suffering from coastal erosion, and the decline in the number of sailing vessels, at the mercy of the weather, meant that fewer lifeboats were needed.