The lifeboat was provided out of a gift from Bradford manufacturer and philanthropist Titus Salt, and was duly named Saltaire after his model village near Shipley in Yorkshire.

[3] An RNLI inspection in 1890 proved that The Ness was a difficult location to launch the boat.

[3] Work began in 1900 on the construction of a new boathouse with roller slipway at Stromness harbour.

[3] On 15 June 1916, during the First World War, the HMS Hampshire struck a mine off Marwick Head, just 12 north of Stromness, and sank with the loss of 737 lives, including that of Field Marshal Earl Kitchener.

Honorary Secretary at Stromness, Mr George Thompson, travelled to London to meet RNLI 'Naval Architect' James Rennie Barnett, and the result was the 51-foot Barnett (Stromness-class) lifeboat, suitable for slipway launches from a boathouse.

On 28 March 1930, in gale conditions, the Aberdeen trawler Ben Doran was wrecked on Ve Skerries, near Papa Stour, on the west side of Shetland.

In very poor conditions, the lifeboat first sailed to Scalloway as a staging point for food and a refuel, arriving at 7:30 am on the 31 March, before heading around Shetland with a local Pilot, to Ve Skerries.

A Severn-class lifeboat, the largest type of the RNLI fleet, fitted with twin Caterpillar 3412 1200 bhp marine diesel engines, providing a top speed of 25 knots, and cost £1,580,000.