They had witnessed the loss of 140 lives from the wreck of the vessel Alert in 1823, and spent the following five years raising funds and gaining support.

[2] With the help of the Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, they managed to purchase a lifeboat for Cemlyn.

In dangerous conditions, the Cemlyn lifeboat managed to rescue the three men on board.

[4][5] On 18 December 1845, The barque Frankland, on passage from Bahia, Brazilto Liverpool, was driven ashore and wrecked at Cemaes Bay.

[1] By 1872, raising a crew at Cemlyn was getting so difficult, that the RNLI decided to close the station, and open a new one a few miles along the coast at Cemaes.

However, within just a few years, sufficient experienced men moved to Cemlyn that it was requested that the station be reopened.