[1] A ship named Emporium was wrecked off the coast between Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby, with a newspaper report stating their regret that the lifeboat hadn't been launched.

So the other Whitby lifeboat (the Robert Whitworth) was put on its carriage and taken the 8 miles (13 km) overland through 6 feet (1.8 m) snowdrifts to be launched form the slipway at Robin Hood's Bay, in a process that took over three hours.

[9][10] In late 1881, the RNLI took over running the lifeboat, and they presented the station with a 32 feet (9.8 m) boat named the Ephraim and Hannah Fox, which initially only had one local volunteer (the rest of the men preferred to stay with the rocket brigade).

[5][11][12] The lifeboat house was built to a standard design by the official RNLI architect, and was placed just inland from the main slipway into the sea at Robin Hood's Bay, on land donated by Sir Charles Strickland.

The heavy swell later washed the ship ashore, and she spent a year on the beach at Robin Hood's Bay before being refloated and towed to Whitby.

[23] One of the boards commemorating rescues undertaken by the lifeboat crews between 1893 and 1929, is hung on the wall of the old parish church on the hill overlooking Fylingthorpe, Raw and Robin Hood's Bay.

[25][8] At the top of the cobbled slip, just a few yards from the old boathouse, still stands a unique RNLI Coin Collection Box, in the shape of a (Cod) Fish, dating from 1887.