Southend (Cantyre) Lifeboat Station was located in the shadow of Dunaverty Rock, overlooking Dunaverty Bay, near Southend, a village on the southern tip of the Mull of Kintyre, in the county of Argyll and Bute, on the south-west coast of Scotland.

[3] An amount of £1500 was gifted to the Institution, from Mr Robert Ker, a merchant of Auchinraith, and members of his family, for the provision of a lifeboat to be stationed at Southend, Argyll, along with a boathouse, carriage, all equipment, and a sum of money for the future support of the lifeboat.

[3] On 2 January 1875, the barque Perica of Glasgow with 15 crew aboard, was wrecked on Sanda Island, just 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) from Southend.

The situation was finally brought to a head in 1903, when on 27 February, the barque Argo of Fredrikstad was wrecked at Macharioch, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) from Southend.

For several hours, the crew at Southend tried in vain to get the lifeboat away, but the direction and strength of the wind and storm just pitched the boat back onto the shore every time.

A new boathouse was constructed on pilings, under the supervision of Mr. W. T. Douglass, engineer and architect of the institution, and included a 130-foot-long (40 m) slipway, allowing the boat to slide into the water without assistance.

At 15:00 on Wednesday 16 August 1905, in glorious calm weather, a double ceremony was held in front of a large crowd, who witnessed the official opening of the new boathouse, the naming ceremony of the new lifeboat, and then watched on as the lifeboat was launched down the slipway and demonstrated in the bay.

The lifeboat on station at the time of closure, John R. Ker (ON 529), was sold from service in 1930, and last reported on the River Ouse in York in 1975.