The lifeboat was built in 1923 by J. Samuel White at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

She was 46 feet (14 m) and 6 inches (150 mm) long with a breadth of 12 feet 9 inches (3.89 m) The Cromer station had four motor-powered lifeboats all called H F Bailey, after the donor, a Mr Henry Francis Bailey of Brockenhurst,[1] a London merchant who was born in Norfolk and had died in 1916.

The placing of this house at the end of the towns pier allowed the new lifeboat to be launched at all states and conditions of the tide, and with the pier itself 500 feet (150 m) from the shore line plus the 60 feet (18 m) of the boathouse and a further 165 feet (50 m) of slipway meant that the lifeboat when launched would be well clear of the rocks and groynes along Cromer's beach front.

[2] This boathouse remained in constant use until 1995 finally being replaced with a new station in 1999.

1 boat on station for just one year but due to problems with her launch and recovery, on the slipway, she was transferred to Great Yarmouth & Gorleston on 5 May 1924, where she served until 1939