Of laurel gleaned. None but the sailor's heart,
Nor that ingrate, of palm unfading this,
Till shipwrecks cease, or Life-boats cease to save."
Within the next fifteen years, or so, Greathead built about thirty life-boats, eight of which were sent to foreign countries. At last the life-boat cause was wakened into life, but into no vigorous existence; it did not actually die, but lingered on with here and there a spasm of vitality, as some local cause or stirring advocate excited a momentary interest in the question.
Life-boat stations were scattered at long intervals round the coast, and boats of various designs, some very good, were placed at a few of the more dangerous positions on our shores.
The public was not altogether unprepared to move, but was waiting for the needed impulse.
The whole cause, in spite of all its intrinsic merits and great claims upon humanity, waited for the coming man, and he was found in the person of Sir William Hillary, Baronet, one of nature's real noblemen; his heart was great, as his arm was strong; his love for the sea was only equalled by his love for sailors; all that concerned their well-being excited his quick sympathy and active interest, and his feelings were, as a matter of course, very sincere, and very earnest for the life-boat cause.
Sir W. Hillary lived at Douglas, in the Isle of Man. His sympathy for the sailor proved its vitality by being active and practical: he established Sailors' Homes, and in many ways sought their improvement and benefit; and when the hour of danger came, when the storms raged and lives were in peril, Sir William was the first, not only to encourage, but also to lead the boatmen to the rescue of the shipwrecked; he shrank from no danger, he shared all labour, and endured all hardship, and this to such an extent, that he was personally engaged in efforts by which more than three hundred lives were saved.
The following are some of the occasions in which Sir William's heroic efforts were blessed in their results to the saving of life:—
In the year 1825 Sir William, and the crews under him, rescued eighty-seven persons, sixty-two of these from the steamer City of Glasgow; eleven from the Leopard brig; and nine from the Fancy sloop.