 In 1896, crew member E Young drowned when he was trying to board the Steamship "Trapian" from the lifeboat.From 1912 to 1927 the station was closed, but when it re-opened the lifeboat was kept on a launching cradle at the head of the beach and soon afterwards, from 1930, the station had its first motor lifeboat.During World War I, Deal had two lifeboats, the RNLB "Charles Dibdin" and the RNLB "Frances Forbes Barton"; William Stanton was coxswain of the "Frances Forbes Barton" In 1944 a Bronze Medal was awarded to Coxswain Joseph Mercer for rescuing 13 men from an anti-submarine boat stranded on the Goodwin Sands.