Due to the waters around this part of the coast being so dangerous, and Spurn Point being so remote from the mainland, it is the only All-weather lifeboat station in the United Kingdom staffed by a professional full-time RNLI crew.

Humber lifeboat station would move permanently to their second base at Grimsby Docks, previously used temporarily in certain weather conditions.

[4] A decommissioned gun battery emplacement, last used in 1809, was requisitioned as the main lifeboat building and was also partly converted into the Life Boat House Hotel.

The crew of the lifeboat were billeted in Kilnsea, 3 miles (5 km) up the coast,[5] until 1819 when cottages were built adjacent to the life boat house.

[8] In the early days of the rescue boat, the mood of the crew at Spurn was sullen as they were not paid too well and were at the mercy of the master who ran the inn to provide what food and drink they needed.

Locals from up the coast would come to load ships with gravel and sand, which they did brandishing revolvers, threatening the crew members, who viewed the enterprise as taking away their self-sufficiency.

In 1811, the master wrote to Trinity House to complain about this "Law of the Dunes" as he labelled it, to which they had no legal recourse, with the nearest officials miles away.

[15] The lifeboatmen were known to have taken advantage of the military railway between Spurn Point and Kilnsea as a means of quick transport up the coast to the village.

[21] The retaining wall built to hold the sea back from the domestic area still survives fulfilling its intended purpose.

[28][note 1][29] In February 2023 following a routine inspection of the infrastructure of the station, issues were found and a decision was taken for cost and health & safety reasons to permanently relocate the boat and crew from Spurn Point to nearby Grimsby on the south side of the estuary.

Coxswain Brian William Bevan MBE, is the only crew member in the history of the RNLI to be presented with Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals for Gallantry at the same awards ceremony.