On board with Commander J. M. Upton, R.D., R.N.R., Inspector of Life-boats for the Irish District, was Ralph Scott (travelling mechanic), and four experienced fishermen who were to form a crew.

The boat stopped at Penzance, Padstow, and Angle; before crossing the Irish Sea to Rosslare Harbour, and then up the coast via Kingstown, Donaghadee and Larne.

An unscheduled stop was made at Larne, due to the wind and strong tidal current preventing the boat from making headway.

[1] Coxswain Duncan McNeill would receive a gift of £10 in 1950, an annual award provided by Mrs G. M. Porter of Felixstowe, for the bravest deed of the year by a member of lifeboat crew.

At 16:45 on the 12 April 1950, the lifeboat station received reports of a World War II Mine floating south through the Sound of Islay.

At Oban Sheriff Court on 6 March 1953, Mr. R. Johnston Macdonald returned a formal verdict of "death by poisoning by carbon monoxide fumes".

[5] In hurricane conditions on 27 October 1959, the Charlotte Elizabeth (ON 774) was launched to the aid of the motor fishing vessel May, aground on a reef near the Black Rocks Buoy.

The Thames class was an RNLI development of the Waveney-class lifeboats, and had a 50 feet (15 m) steel hull, powered by a pair of 390 horsepower (290 kW) General Motors diesel engines.

The lifeboat self-righted, and the crew were OK, with just the odd minor injury, but the boat had engine problems, a failed radar and windscreen wipers, and it was decided to return to port.

Coxswain Alastair Campbell of Islay lifeboat said they were the worst conditions he had encountered in 17 years as a lifeboatman, and in his previous career as a merchant seaman.

[2][1] At 00:45 on 16 February 2016, Islay lifeboat Helmut Schroder of Dunlossit II set out the aid of a sole Russian yachtsman, whose vessel had struck the rocks at Skerryvore in treacherous conditions, at times gale force 11.

With Coastguard helicopter R100 in support, many attempts were made to get the man to tie a line to his boat, but failed due to both conditions and communication difficulties.