The first motor lifeboat at Exmouth arrived in 1933 and a tractor was provided to speed up the movement across the road and beach for launches.

[1] Exmouth received a brand new Liverpool-class lifeboat Maria Noble (ON 916) on 1 October 1953 but it was not named until 1 September 1954.

Her first service call was on the evening 19 September 1954 to investigate flashing lights and shouts for help near the Maer Rocks.

The lifeboat secretary and coxswain lit up the scene with a car's headlights and they saw the 20-foot (6.1 m) cabin cruiser Nicky which was at anchor but appeared to be sinking.

[3] In 2005 trials were made to consider whether it would be possible to return the all-weather boat to the beach boathouse where it would not be hampered by shallow water in the river when it was needed at low tide.

As a result of this it was decided to build a new boathouse further along the beach near the Maer Rocks from where both the ALB and ILB could operate at all states of the tide.

The Trent-class was exchanged for an interim Mersey-class which is small enough to be housed in a boathouse, and the new facility was declared operational on 21 November 2009.

On Christmas Day 1956 he was on board when the Maria Noble was called out to the MV Minerva which was burning distress flares 4 miles (6.4 km) south east of Orcombe Point.

While the main radio was inoperable, a message was broadcast on the wavelength used by trawlers and this was picked up in Exmouth and relayed to the lifeboat station.

Sea conditions made it difficult to return to their station so they sailed instead to Torquay where Brian Rowsell was taken to hospital to have his injuries seen to.

The crew stayed here to rest and then returned home at 2 pm on Boxing Day, the RNLI flag flying at half mast.

[5] The following are awards made at Exmouth[6][7] The lifeboat station is built at the eastern end of Queen's Drive at the top of the beach.