The Institution had been going through lean times, especially since the loss of its driving force and founder in 1847, Sir William Hillary, Bt, and requested that local funding make up half the cost of the boat.

Land and a boathouse were provided by local landowner John Talbot Clifton of Lytham Hall.

In a twist of fate, the two survivors, James Parkinson and Richard Gillett, would be drowned in a separate incident in 1863.

On 5 October 1854, the RNIPLS became the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and on 7 December, the SFMRBS handed over the management of all their stations, including Lytham, to the RNLI.

[7] 13 were rescued from the Brazil of Liverpool, on passage from Bangor, Maine, which went ashore on Salthouse Bank on 26 December 1862.

[8][9] Eleanor Cecily would be replaced in 1863 with the Wakefield, a 33-foot 10-oared self-righting lifeboat, costing £263-4s-4d, provided by Mr Thomas Clayton, and named after his home town.

[10][11][12] On the 9 December 1886, the German barque Mexico was driven ashore at Trunk Hill Brow, Ainsdale.

All 13 crewmen aboard the Laura Janet of St Annes, and 14 of 16 crew of the Southport lifeboat Eliza Fearnley were lost, the greatest ever disaster for the RNLI.

[13][14][15] On service to the vessel Douglas of Preston, Lancashire on 15 December 1911, an enormous wave lifted the Charles Biggs (ON 73), and deposited her down onto Salter's Bank.

The boathouse at Lytham would no longer house the lifeboat due to it weight, although it remained in use as storage for equipment and boarding boats until 1960.