The RNLI started to experiment with petrol motor lifeboats in the early 1900s and one of the first, the Maria came to Portpatrick in 1922 after serving at Broughty Ferry since 1910.

Coxswain James Smith was awarded an RNLI Silver Medal for his skill in getting the lifeboat alongside the stricken steam ship.

The captain decided to return to his home port, Belfast, but a gale got up the next day and the ship was blown towards the Scottish coast.

[7] The stern-loading car ferry Princess Victoria left nearby Stranraer on its regular crossing to Larne in Northern Ireland on the morning of 31 January 1953.

The car ferry sank at about 2 o'clock but there was confusion about its precise location and the lifeboat did not reach the wreck until more than an hour later by which time the storm had developed into a hurricane.

When the ferry had left Stranraer there had been 127 passengers and 49 crew on board; this is regarded as one of the worst disasters in British coastal waters in the twentieth century.