James Williams of Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy, founder of the Anglesey Association for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, arrived on scene to find that several attempts to launch a boat to the aid of the vessel had been unsuccessful.

At great personal risk, Williams rode his horse into the surf, managing to get a line to the vessel.

A boathouse was constructed at Porth Yr Ogof cove, at a cost of £182, with the Cemlyn lifeboat Sophia being transferred to Cemaes in June 1872.

[2] Sophia was only on station for four years, before being replaced by a new 30 ft (9.1 m) self-righting lifeboat named Ashtonian, provided from the legacy of Mr George Higginbottom of Ashton-under-Lyne.

On 14 October 1877, she was called to the Sarah, a full-rigged sailing ship on passage from Quebec to Liverpool, now aground on Middle Mouse Rocks.

[1][2] Today, little evidence of the station buildings remains, although the base of the pilings and the concrete foot of the slipway of the 1907 boathouse are clearly visible.