The Emma Constance was laid down in 1926 in the yards of Saunders Roe of East Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

[7] On 6 September that year she launched to her second service, in aid of the trawler Ben Torc, which had run into rough seas and dense fog off of Gregness Point near Aberdeen harbour.

[11][12] At 10:27 pm the Emma Constance launched, and by the time of her arrival the Ben Torc was aground on a rocky outcrop called Gregness Point.

The bandsmen of the 4th Gordon Highlanders provided music, and Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk, performed the naming ceremony.

[14] In the evening of 25 December 1935, Emma Constance launched to assist Aberdeen trawler George Stroud, who had been struck by an up-swell that knocked her against the wall of the North Pier at Aberdeen harbour, then battered further until she ran aground 200 yards from the seaward side of the pier.

[15] Members of the Royal Life Saving Society on the shore used rockets to attach lifelines to the George Stroud, but her crew of five men, sheltering in the wheelhouse, refused to attempt the climb and called for a lifeboat rescue.

The Fairy, a 249-ton collier (coal-bearing cargo ship), arrived at Aberdeen harbour on 24 January, only to discover the port closed due to the extremely rough waves.

On a second approach, the lifeboat managed to rescue all seven of the Fairy's crewmen, but due to the rough seas were forced to make for Moray Firth rather than returning to Aberdeen.

[21] Following her retirement the Emma Constance was sold out of the RNLI fleet and was renamed several times becoming first the Southern Cross followed by Achilleus and then Griselda.