 One shipwreck, a ship carrying a cargo of live pigs, gave a small cove to the south of the point the name of Grunta Beach (most of the pigs survived; one is supposed to have lived wild on seaweed for a year).The Royal National Lifeboat Institution built a lifeboat station at Morte Bay in 1871, although the crews always came from the station at Ilfracombe on a carriage when the boat was needed.It proved difficult to launch into strong winds blowing onto its west-facing beach and so the station was closed in May 1900.