A lifeboat station serving the community of Broughty Ferry, then a separate town but now an eastern suburb of Dundee, was set up in 1830 at Buddon Ness, the first inshore lifeboat in Scotland. In 1859 a new station was set up in the town itself on the north bank of the Tay on Fisher Street. Two years later both facilities were taken over by the Lifeboat Committee. The history of the facility and its lifeboats are as follows:
1862 - Lifeboat, Mary Hartley purchased for £205. Boatshed built at a cost of £400.
1867 - Replacement lifeboat Mary Hartley II.
1876 - SR Lifeboat, English Mechanic purchased for £328.
1888 - Watson Class SR Lifeboat, Samuel Shawcross purchased for £575.
1889 - Slipway built at a cost of £130.
1894 - Buddon Ness station closed.
1909 - New lifeboat house and slipway built at a cost of £1,700.
1910 - Motorised Watson Class lifeboat, Maria (ON560) purchased for £3,400.
1921 - Lifeboat, John Ryburn (ON565) purchased from Peterhead for £3,183.
1935 - Watson Class lifeboat, Mona (ON775) purchased in May for £6,802.
1959 - Eight men drowned on a call after Mona capsized on December 8th. Relief lifeboat, City of Bradford (ON709) installed as a replacement.
1960 - Motorised lifeboat, The Robert (ON955) purchased for £35,500.
1962 - Memorial plaque for the eight lost men unveiled at the boathouse by Lord Provost McManus.
1964 - D Class lifeboat, Pinafore purchased.
1978 - Watson Class lifeboat, The Robert, and Arun Class lifeboat Spirit of Tayside (ON1056) purchased.
1998 - D Class Lifeboat, D-539 purchased in September.
1999 - Spirit of Tayside withdrawn and replaced on January 20th by Arun Class lifeboat from Stromness, Joseph Rothwell Sykes & Hilda M (ON1099).
2001 - New landing stage constructed, and Trent Class lifeboat, (ON1253) Elizabeth of Glamis purchased on April 14th.
2008 - D Class lifeboat, (D698) The Sheila Barrie purchased.