Seven men from Cullercoats drowned crossing the harbour bar. The Duke of Northumberland funded a lifeboat station because of it, built in 1852, specifically so that working fishermen would not die the way those seven had. The boathouse is still there, Grade II listed, on the north side of the harbour. The lifeboat inside it is called Daddy’s Girl. Last year it launched 69 times, mostly for tourists.
Table of Contents
What Happened at St Mary’s Lighthouse in April 2026
On a Saturday in April, a visitor fell ill on Bates Island, the tidal landmass at the foot of St Mary’s Lighthouse near Whitley Bay. By the time the situation turned serious, the causeway connecting the island to the mainland was underwater. The only way in was by sea.
Cullercoats RNLI was paged at 14:37 BST. Reaching the casualty required a technique called veering: the lifeboat drops its anchor to hold the vessel steady while the crew works the boat backwards, stern first, toward shoreline too rocky and shallow for any other approach. Two crew members waded ashore carrying first aid equipment.
When the patient’s condition worsened on the island, the crew and two members of St Mary’s Island Wildlife Conservation Society stretchered the casualty back to the lifeboat. At Cullercoats harbour, the North East Ambulance Service took over. The patient was treated and discharged at the scene.
An RNLI crew member described the call-out: “It was a challenging service call that called upon many aspects of our training, including seamanship and casualty care in order to look after the casualty and ensure they received the best possible care.”
The RNLI warned visitors to check tide times before crossing to the island. The causeway floods every day.
The Day 32 People Got Into Difficulty Off Cullercoats Bay
On Tuesday 23 June 2025, HM Coastguard took a call at around 12:20 BST reporting 32 children and adults in the water off Cullercoats Bay. A group out kayaking and on bodyboards had been pushed offshore by force 5 winds, moving further from shore faster than they could paddle back.
Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade and RNLI inshore lifeboats launched. By the time crews arrived on the scene, 14 of the group had already made it back to shore themselves. The remaining 18, five adults and 13 children, were brought to safety. One child was taken to hospital as a precaution.
RNLI lifeguard George Legg was at the scene: “It was an intense situation with force five winds blowing outside the harbour creating lots of wind chop.”
Tynemouth RNLI Coxswain Sam Clow coordinated the water response. When crews debriefed with the group afterwards, one detail stood out. “We heard that they had done everything correctly when they became aware of the difficulties they were in,” he said.
The RNLI released bodycam footage of the rescue. BBC News reported it.
Cullercoats RNLI’s Record Year: The Numbers From 2025
| Year | Total Callouts |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 45 |
| 2025 | 69 (station record) |
Forty-five to sixty-nine in a single year is a 53% increase. The RNLI acknowledged the rise but was candid about its explanation: the reason “remains unknown,” though two factors are most likely. More beach users drawn by warm weather. And more of those users knowing to call for help when something goes wrong.
That second explanation carries weight. As more people learn the correct response to a coastal emergency, more calls come in. The North Sea off Cullercoats has not become more dangerous. The number of people on it who are unfamiliar with its tides, winds, and currents has grown steadily.
The 60th callout of 2025 arrived on 20 October, which also happened to be Operations Manager Kay Heslop’s 60th birthday. It turned out to be a hoax: a report of someone calling for help from the rocks on the south side of the bay brought out a multi-agency search that found nobody. Nine more genuine callouts followed before January.
Heslop said: “This year, the busiest on record, has challenged the crew both in terms of the commitment of their time and also through the varied taskings we have received. I could not be more proud of what they, as volunteers, have consistently delivered throughout the year.”
Who Responds to a Sea Emergency at Cullercoats Bay
RNLI Cullercoats is the primary sea rescue unit, operating the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat Daddy’s Girl (B-935) from the station on the north side of Cullercoats harbour. Operational since 1852.
Tynemouth RNLI covers the neighbouring stretch of coastline and joins Cullercoats crews on larger or complex callouts.
Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade (TVLB) handles shore-based response and coastal search.
HM Coastguard coordinates all multi-agency responses. Calling 999 and asking for the Coastguard is the correct first action in any coastal emergency on this stretch of coast.
North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) takes over patient care at the shoreline once the lifeboat crew hands over.
Every person at Cullercoats RNLI is a volunteer. Carl Taylor, who qualified as helm on 15 January 2025, runs a plastering business and has a two-year-old son at home. A helm is the lifeboat’s captain, and at Cullercoats there are two. Both have to be reachable every time the pager goes. Taylor stays within 15 minutes of the harbour when on call. In 2025, he captained the lifeboat on 23 callouts and was involved in 58 of the station’s 69. He shares helm duties with Anna Heslop-Latif, who has been on the crew for 12 years and a helm for four.
What Causes Sea Rescues at Cullercoats Bay
Common causes of callouts along the North Tyneside coast:
- Offshore winds: the single most frequent cause of kayak and paddleboard incidents; conditions can build quickly on a morning that starts calm and push people away from shore faster than they can paddle back
- Rip currents: form consistently at the southern end of the bay and at King Edward’s Bay near Tynemouth; not visible from the shore and capable of pulling swimmers out of their depth within seconds
- Tidal cut-offs: Bates Island and St Mary’s Island near Whitley Bay become inaccessible at high tide every single day; the April 2026 rescue is the most recent consequence of visitors not accounting for this
- Inflatables: flagged repeatedly by Cullercoats RNLI as dangerous in sea conditions; one couple rescued half a mile off the bay were in shorts with no safety equipment and broken oars, bailing water as their dinghy went under
- Cold water shock: a real risk for open water swimmers throughout the year, not only in winter
If you see someone in difficulty in the water anywhere along the North Tyneside coastline, call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. RNLI press officer Alex Bateman gave this guidance after a rip current rescue at King Edward’s Bay: “It’s an added risk for everyone if someone else enters the water. We advocate staying on the coastline, keeping eyes on the person and keeping a flow of information going to Coastguard.”
The station was built after seven men drowned. Their community funded it and staffed it with people from the village. A hundred and seventy-three years later that same model runs: volunteers who live nearby, stay within reach of the harbour, and drop everything when the pager sounds. In 2025 it sounded 69 times.
Karen Pearce, one of the crew who answered those calls, put it simply: “Being on RNLI crew feels like standing in the right place, with the right people, for the right reason.”
She is not paid for that. Neither is anyone else on the crew.
In any coastal emergency off the North Tyneside coast, call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. For sea safety information, visit rnli.org.
