lifeboat

noun

1. A boat especially designed for saving the lives of shipwrecked people or people in distress at sea (either launched from the shore with a crew, or else carried on board a larger ship).

   “I've got a watch that turns into a lifeboat”

   “In a corner of the churchyard, where old headstones mark the graves of many mariners, is a striking white statue of a lifeboatman, erected as a memorial to three members of the local lifeboat crew who lost their lives in 1916 while trying to reach a ship in distress.”

2. An emergency vehicle carried aboard a spaceship.

verb

1. To rescue; to carry to safety