A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crew and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine. Lifeboats may be rigid, inflatable or rigid-inflatable combination-hulled vessels.
RNLI lifeboat in Dunbar Harbour, 1981
1906 postcard captioned, The start of the life-boat, Cape Cod
CCGS Cape Sutil, a 14.6 metres (48 ft) motor life boat.
An all-weather lifeboat from the SNSM. This is the largest class of French lifeboat, at 18 metres long. The association owns 41 all-weather rescue boats, there are 30 of this type, the others being all-weather rescue boats of the 15.50 m class and the new generation all-weather rescue boats (CTT NG).
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways.
Memorial in Douglas, Isle of Man to the lifeboat rescue of the sailors from the St George in 1830
ON440 RNLB Licensed Victuallers III, a standard self-righter built in 1900
An Arun-class lifeboat
RNLI lifeguards on duty at Sennen in Cornwall