[1] Even if there were no local lifeboats, the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS), later to become the RNLI in 1854, made awards for Gallantry.

In 1831, coastguard officer Lt. Thomas Dymock Jones Dabine, RN and his team of six tied ropes around themselves, entering the surf to get a line to the schooner Jane, wrecked off Wicklow harbour, eventually rescuing four people after two hours of effort.

In 1839, coastguard officer Owen Jones and a team of seven swam out to the wreck of the brig Le Nouveau Destin, ashore off Co. Wicklow, and saved six people.

A boathouse was constructed near the Packet Pier, and a 30-foot self-righting 'Pulling and Sailing' (P&S) lifeboat, one with oars and sails, named Dauntless, previously in service with the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners Royal Benevolent Society (SFMRBS) at Criccieth, was transported to Dublin free of charge by the British and Irish Steam Packet Company, arriving in Wicklow in September 1857.

The Wicklow lifeboat managed to save all eight men aboard the brig New Draper of Whitehaven, on passage to Dublin.

[5][6] Mr Robert Jones Garden, of Montague Square, London, wrote to the RNLI in 1861, wishing to fund a lifeboat on the east coast of Ireland, in memory of his father.

The alarm was raised when No.3 lifeboat was found by a fishing vessel, and 29 survivors were landed at Wicklow.

Difficulties had been encountered launching over the shingle from the Murrough, so a boathouse was constructed on the East Pier with a slipway, costing £654.

[4] On her last service on 1 Nov 1887, Robert Theophilus Garden (ON 116) was launched to the schooner Samuel Dixon, and saved four lives.

[1][4] On 10 September 1950, in calm conditions, Wicklow lifeboat Lady Klysant (ON 721) was launched to the Cameo of Glasgow, aground on Arklow Bank, but help was refused.